Which MMA fighter stood above the rest in 2017?
As the year in cage fighting reaches its end, theScore's Themistoklis Alexis looks back at a time of chaos, carnage, and lots of people getting clobbered in the face.
2017's best of MMA:
In the last of our four-part series, we highlight MMA's fighter of the year and a quartet of nominees that enjoyed a banner 2017.
Runners-up:
Dustin Poirier
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Following his slobberknocker with Justin Gaethje at UFC 218, Eddie Alvarez proudly calls himself the outfit's most violent man.
Poirier might have something to say about that.
Much to the delight of our insatiable appetite for carnage, the American Top Team man submitted a vintage performance to take a majority decision over Jim Miller at an otherwise forgettable UFC 208 in February. After his May barn burner with Alvarez - one he was winning - came to an unceremonious end due to some illegal knees from his foe, Poirier bloodied, out-brawled, and out-grappled Anthony Pettis for over two rounds before a freak injury to Pettis sealed the TKO victory.
Poirier's arrived as a very real lightweight threat, and he's accompanied his gloriously wild showings with some solid mic work, as he's repeatedly called to close the book on his simmering grudge with Alvarez. Color him a contender and give the man his due, MMA gods.
Martin Nguyen
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With Ben Askren trading his 4-ounce gloves for an executive role and atomweight phenom Angela Lee recovering from a horrific car accident, the ONE Championship brass found itself short on building blocks in the year's final quarter.
They didn't have to fret for long, as Martin Nguyen soon made history.
After avenging his sole career loss with a starching of Marat Gafurov in August, earning the fledgling promotion's featherweight crown, the 28-year-old treated lightweight titleholder Eduard Folayang to an identical fate three months later and became ONE's first two-division champion.
With a trifecta of knockout victories to his name this year, the company appears to be going all-in on the surging Nguyen. He's now expected to chase a third strap in a March date with longtime bantamweight ruler Bibiano Fernandes.
Robert Whittaker
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While Michael Bisping nursed a knee injury and incessantly campaigned for a date with Georges St-Pierre, Whittaker did all the heavy lifting.
The middleweight formerly dubbed "The Reaper" and now affectionately known as Bobby Knuckles accomplished in a three-month span what Bisping should have done in 17 nerve-racking months as divisional champ. Whittaker dispatched perennial contender Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza in under two rounds at UFC on FOX 24, then edged Yoel Romero - the Brit's longtime challenger-in-waiting - by unanimous decision to claim an interim strap at UFC 213 in July.
Interim titleholders are rarely deemed more than glorified top contenders, but not a single MMA purist scoffed when Whittaker was recently promoted to undisputed champ after GSP vacated the strap he took from Bisping in November.
It feels good to see order restored.
Cynthia Calvillo
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Just one year ago, Calvillo was headed to Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena for a UFC event - not as a fighter, but as a teammate of Cody Garbrandt, who successfully dethroned Dominick Cruz in 2016's last hurrah.
She returns to the same venue in just a few hours' time as a strawweight contender for a dance with former world champion Carla Esparza at UFC 219.
The Team Alpha Male product debuted with a quick schooling of Amanda Cooper at UFC 209, and hasn't taken a breather since. She scored yet another tapout of Pearl Gonzalez just one month after her maiden voyage to the Octagon, then spoiled Joanne Calderwood's homecoming with a win on points in Glasgow at UFC Fight Night 113 in July.
Should she go five for five on the year, Calvillo will enter 2018 with a cushy seat at the contenders' table of a wide-open division.
Not bad for someone who's only called herself a pro fighter for 16 months.
Winner:
Rafael dos Anjos
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Second winds are hard to come by in the hurt business, but Dos Anjos made it look easy after ditching the excruciating cuts to 155 pounds that plagued his 2016.
Between his measurables and the shark-infested welterweight waters, the former lightweight king's move up to 170 pounds was met with no shortage of skeptics. Sure, he took a one-sided decision over former world champ Tarec Saffiedine at June's UFC Fight Night 111 in his divisional debut, but the ex-Strikeforce king was no world-beater. Yes, he steamrolled the towering Neil Magny in under four minutes at UFC 215, but wasn't Magny so highly coveted because he was, in fact, a stepping stone that never put it all together?
Then came Robbie Lawler. Beast mode Robbie Lawler. Rock 'em, sock 'em Robbie Lawler.
What ensued earlier in December at UFC on FOX 26 was five rounds of utter dominance - not from the former welterweight champ, but the converted lightweight. Whether in space, the clinch, or on the mat, Dos Anjos outclassed Lawler with a 200-plus-strike effort that earned him a lopsided decision and his third win at 170 pounds in just six months.
Now expected to make a bid for Tyron Woodley's crown, the 33-year-old aims to sweeten his resurgence with another world title, one that would anoint him the UFC's first Brazilian two-division champion.