By TXMMA Staff
Texas MMA Community chooses People’s Choice Award Winners for 2013 TXMMA Awards
The 2013 TXMMA Awards People’s Choice Voting (popular votes) wrapped up last week with over 7,500 fans of Texas MMA and BJJ voting in this year’s annual polls.
On the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) side there were 32 awards up for grabs with the goal of highlighting the top fighters, performances, and contributors for 2013. The people’s choice award winners were 100% decided by popular vote (yes, popularity contest) but it’s important to note as well that all finalists were included due to merit so they all deserve to be recognized. People’s Choice is one way we want to highlight some of these individuals. An Official (Panel Chosen) Award will also be decided with winners being announced for those stats-based awards a little later on this month.
As for the People’s Choice Awards Winners, the full list is below but let’s highlight and summarize some of the top wins of 2013:
Team Takedown’s Johny Hendricks won the fan award for Top Texas-based UFC Fighter hailing from Texas. No doubt this win came in large part due to his split decision loss to Georges St. Pierre that many fans not just in Texas but the world over saw as a victory that was robbed from him. That loss notwithstanding, “Big Rigg” had yet another big performance earlier in the year when he beat Carlos Condit in a #1 contender match at UFC 158 that ended up being the fight of the night.
Mohler Mixed Martial Arts came through in droves to dominate a large part of the people’s choice voting in many of the regional categories with the group winning Team of the Year and Coach Allen Mohler winning Coach of the Year in the fan polls. A pair of Mohler fighters also won pro fighter of the year honors with Will Campuzano taking the win right of out Carlos Diego Ferreira’s grasp in the last 2 days of voting while Amber Stautzenberger won out on the women’s side for Fighter of the Year while also taking home Fight of the Year with her XKO clash versus Lacey Schuckman. Not to be outdone, Jinh H Yu Frey also made her presence known in these awards with her win in the Rookie of the Year and Knockout of the Year categories. Last but not least for Team Mohler was another dual fan award win on the men’s amateur side with “Big Comfy” Camron Couch taking home both amateur rookie and fighter of the year awards after going 4-0 in his first year in MMA.
Other big winners included Geo Pacurariu for his LFC 19 knockout of Steven Peterson and Damon Jackson for his submission of Javier Obregon to sweep the pro knockout and submission of the year categories for Octagon MMA.
San Antonio’s undefeated Chris Lopez took home men’s pro rookie of the year honors while Carlos Diego Ferreira took home the Ironman award for his year that included 4 fights, 2 title victories, and a back-to-back accomplishment of the ages when he took the redeye to compete in the IBJJF Worlds the day after fighting UFC vet Carlo Prater in the main event of Legacy FC the night before.
Check out the full complement of 2013 TXMMA Awards MMA Edition People’s Choice Winners below:
2013 TXMMA Awards – MMA Edition People’s Choice Winners
- Texas-Based UFC Fighter of the Year – Johny Hendricks
- (M) Texas Pro Fighter of the Year – William Campuzano (2-1 overall, 1 TITLE in 2013)
- (F) Texas Pro Fighter of the Year – Amber Stautzenberger (4-0 in 2013)
- Professional Fight of the Year – Will Campuzano vs. Allan Nascimento (LFC 19)
- (M) Pro Knockout of the Year – Geo Pacurariu vs. Steven Peterson (LFC 19)
- (F) Pro Knockout of the Year – Jinh H Yu Frey vs. Darla Harris (SCS 18)
- Pro Submission of the Year – Damon Jackson vs. Javier Obregon (LFC 24)
- (M) Pro Rookie of the Year – Chris Lopez (3-0 in 2013)
- (F) Pro Rookie of the Year – Jinh Yu Frey (2-0 in 2013)
- (M) Amateur Fighter of the Year – Camron Couch (4-0, 3 finishes, 2 TITLE in 2013)
- (F) Amateur Fighter of the Year – Karen Kovach (3-0, 3 finishes in 2013)
- Amateur Fight of the Year – Kevin Lieb vs. Eric Cody (SCC 4)
- Amateur Knockout of the Year – Kevin Holland vs. Terrance Moore (BOH 2)
- Amateur Submission of the Year – Dezmond Moore vs. Waylon Bronstrup (BOH 3)
- (M) Amateur Rookie of the Year – Camron Couch (4-0, 3 TKO, 2 TITLE in 2013)
- (F) Amateur Rookie of the Year – Karen Kovach (3-0, 3 finishes in 2013)
- Female Pro Fight of the Year – Amber Stautzenberger vs Lacey Schuckman (XKO 20)
- Female Amateur Fight of the Year – Halleigh Haak vs Jamie Buckley (Rage at the Osage)
- Breakthrough Fighter of the Year – Ryan Benoit
- Ironman Fighter of the Year – Carlos Diego Ferreira (4 fights, 2 TITLE)
- Team of the Year – Mohler Mixed Martial Arts
- MMA Coach of the Year – Allen Mohler
- Comeback Fighter of the Year – William Campuzano (Back in UFC for 1st time since 2011)
- Pro Event of the Year – Legacy Fighting Championship 25 (9 fights, 5 finishes, 1 title)
- Amateur Event of the Year – Legacy Amateur Series 13 (15 fights, 10 finishes, 2 title)
- Moment of the Year – Ryan Benoit wins $100,000 bonus in UFC debut
- Promoter of the Year – Mick Maynard (Legacy FC / Legacy Amateur Series)
- State Official (Inspector/Official) of the Year – Gus Calderon
- State Official (Referee/Judge) of the Year – Jake Montalvo
- MMA Sponsor of the Year – War Tribe Gear
- Lifetime Achievement / TXMMA Hall of Fame – Guy Mezger
- 2013 Community Service Award – Enlightened Warriors
