Sherdog.com’s 2016 All-Violence Team

2016 All-Violence Third Team

Heavyweight: Francis Ngannou
Light Heavyweight: Misha Cirkunov
Middleweight: Alexander Shlemenko
Welterweight: Robbie Lawler
Lightweight: Lando Vannata
Featherweight: Doo Ho Choi
Bantamweight: Eddie Wineland
Flyweight: Ariane Lipski
Strawweight: Angela Hill

HEAVYWEIGHT: As much as some part of me might want Mirko Filipovic here for his shocking Rizin Fighting Federation exploits, this is the right call. In 2016, Ngannou emerged as one best prospects and scariest men in the heavyweight division, largely on account of his size, strength and ability to cause damage. In April, he bloodied and basically blinded Curtis Blaydes, smashing his right eye badly enough that the cageside doctor halted it after the second round. In July, his fight with Bojan Mihajlovic got a main card spot on Fox for a reason: Ngannou rushed him with punches and clubbed him to a 94-second stoppage. Maybe he thought he had to diversify his efforts: In December, he casually ripped a standing kimura on 6-foot-5, 260-pound wrestler Anthony Hamilton, a la Kazushi Sakuraba on Renzo Gracie, and just big-brothered this massive man to his back with full shoulder torque for the tap. Quite simply, Ngannou is a brute.

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT: Cirkunov demonstrated in February that his grappling game has that extra nasty, Frank Mir-like dimension. In his pursuit of a rear-naked choke, he cross-faced Alex Nicholson’s jaw so hard that it audibly broke, not just for cageside observers’ ears alone but loud enough to distinctly make the television broadcast. He dominated Ion Cutelaba and then finished him with a pretty arm-triangle choke in June before getting a real step up in competition against Nikita Krylov at UFC 206 in December. The Latvian-Canadian saved his best for last, crushing Krylov with left hands until he crumbled and then locking up a guillotine for the win in less than five minutes. Because of his athleticism and grappling technique, Cirkunov’s ground game can be downright pretty, but at the end of the day, it is a prettiness that can literally break your face; and now he is doing it on the feet, too.

MIDDLEWEIGHT: An old hero returns. Shlemenko was a member of the first two All-Violence Teams and has worked his way back for the first time since 2011. Shlemenko’s two bouts against Vyacheslav Vasilevsky in the M-1 Global grand prix were nasty slugfests, but the 32-year-old former Bellator MMA middleweight champ prevailed in both. In February, he earned a close split decision, dropping Vasilevsky in the third round and dominating the late proceedings. In June, Vasilevsky busted Shlemenko’s nose and face early. However, when he tried to capitalize in the third round and take Shlemenko’s back, “Storm” shook him and then locked up a guillotine, crushing Vasilevsky’s neck into his chest and forcing the tap; and just to reassert himself in the striking game, Shlemenko returned to Bellator in October, as he dropped “The Ultimate Fighter 3” winner Kendall Grove with a devastating left hook to the body and a right hand behind it to put the Hawaiian down and out.

WELTERWEIGHT: Lawler fought twice in 2016, and the last time we saw him, Tyron Woodley blew off his doors, took his belt and left him staring up at the lights in Atlanta. However, on just the second day of the year, Lawler authored his third straight “Fight of the Year,” prevailing in another savage 25-minute bloodletting, this time against Carlos Condit. The fifth and final round of Lawler-Condit was as good as any in 2016. I asked last year if I could rationalize Lawler on the All-Violence squad while having fought just once, albeit in a “Fight of the Year” against Rory MacDonald; I decided yes. Even if he got stretched out by Woodley and lost his title, Lawler’s battle with Condit was another truly incredible classic from the “Ruthless” one. It earns him a record-tying fourth All-Violence berth, equalling Anthony Johnson and Jon Jones. However, Lawler has also done it as a middleweight, taking second-team honors at 185 pounds on the inaugural All-Violence Team in 2010.

LIGHTWEIGHT: Style points count, and Vannata’s third-team appearance is proof. In April, he fought poor Ramico Blackmon on a small show in Pueblo, Colorado, where he landed an insane series of uppercuts, hooks and head kicks that basically knocked out Blackmon two or three times before he finally fell on his face. The combination looked like it was out of the Tekken franchise. Then, in a righteous display of fortitude, Vannata stepped in for an injured Michael Chiesa on short notice to make his UFC debut against elite lightweight Tony Ferguson. Incredibly, Vannata nearly toppled Ferguson’s quest for a UFC title shot, wobbling him with a spinning back fist, dropping him with a head kick and nearly finishing him in the first round before ultimately getting tapped by “El Cucuy” in the second. After producing one of the most thrilling UFC debuts to end in defeat, Vannata turned in a knockout over John Makdessi at UFC 206 that in many other years would have been a no-brainer for “Knockout of the Year.” He wasted his opponent with an incredible wheel kick that made Makdessi do the Nestea plunge. Vannata’s unorthodox-but-swarming style is a joy to watch, and his dizzying strings of exotic combinations put him on the map and on this list in 2016.

FEATHERWEIGHT: What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, and if I reward Cub Swanson with second-team honors, it is only righteous to reward the other half of the fight that helped seal it for him. Unlike Swanson, Choi knocked out someone in 2016, and it was beautiful: In July, “The Korean Superboy” smashed veteran Thiago Tavares with one clean right hand to drop him and then dropped one massive coffin nail on the Brazilian to seal the deal. However, Choi’s first All-Violence Team bid is due to what he co-authored with Swanson at UFC 206 in Toronto. The featherweight prospect was winning early and nearly knocked out Swanson during the second round -- the Sherdog.com “Round of the Year.” Plus, the sheer amount of damage Choi absorbed, only to be completely lucid and not have a mark on him after the fight, is worthy of some mention, too.

BANTAMWEIGHT: Wineland was an original All-Violence first-team selection in 2010, and now he is back. In his Chicago backyard in July, he clobbered Frankie Saenz, patiently boxing until he detonated a right cross that dropped Saenz on his face. Somehow he recovered, only for Wineland to rake him with punch after punch standing until Saenz crumpled into the cage. In December, he dropped Takeya Mizugaki twice with lancing right hands and finished with hammerfists. Plain and simple, Wineland can box, and when he can find clean opportunities to counter his opponents, bodies get dropped and All-Violence berths become possible.

FLYWEIGHT: Lipski is assuredly the least known member of this squad, but the Brazilian prospect earned her spot. She is yet another free-swinging, muay Thai fighter from Curitiba, and in 2016, she turned in a pair of delightful knockouts. In a fun fight with lots of back-and-forth face punching, Lipski turned her May bout with Juliana Werner into a brawl and then knocked her flat on her back with a massive right hook in a wild exchange. She made her return to KSW in Poland in October and faced UFC veteran Sheila Gaff, pelting the German with clinch knees and then a volley of right hands to drop her before applying ground-and-pound for the finish. When Lipski bites down on her mouthguard and starts swinging, she gets results.

STRAWWEIGHT: After consecutive losses saw her cut from the UFC in late 2015, the still-developing Hill found some more appropriate competition and flourished. Hill went 4-0 in the Invicta Fighting Championships strawweight division, eventually taking the 115-pound title from Brazilian Livia Renata Souza in an entertaining split decision in May. She then defended the strap in a one-sided affair against Kaline Medeiros in November. However, in her first two Invicta bouts, Hill showed how her MMA progress has allowed her to better utilize her formidable striking, as she dropped Alida Gray with a beautiful knee to the body in 99 seconds and blew away Stephanie Eggink with an overhand right in the second frame. Hill’s combination of precision and power gives her an uncommon finishing ability at 115 pounds and her first All-Violence berth.