Upset Of The Year – LowKickMMA 2020 Awards

In 2020 we had plenty of huge upsets. Last-minute calls for people outside of the UFC gave a huge opportunity to unknown fighters to make a name for themselves. Established fighters also pulled off some impressive upsets this year. With so many to choose from our writers had a tough time picking a winner but eventually opted for Shana Dobson’s second-round TKO win over Mariya Agapova at UFC Vegas 7.

Jordan Ellis: Shana Dobson vs. Mariya Agapova (UFC Vegas 7)

For me, Shana Dobson’s win over Mariya Agapova is perhaps one of the biggest upsets ever. Agapova was just one fight into her UFC career before suffering this loss but I was fully on the hype train. She looked sensational beating Hannah Cifers in her UFC debut. The fight against Dobson looked to be an easy one in my eyes but boy was I wrong. Congrats to Dobson for proving a lot of people including myself to be fools for overlooking her.

Ross Markey: Shana Dobson vs. Mariya Agapova (UFC Vegas 7)

Shana Dodson def. Mariya Agapova via second round strikes — The biggest upset in promotional history in terms of the betting lines (800+ – 900+) underdog on some bookies. 3-4 before the fight. On a three-fight losing streak. Only one win in the UFC prior to her fight with Agapova.

Karim Nathan: Roxanne Modafferi vs Maycee Barber (UFC 246)

This fight was in the first UFC event of the year and all the hype was around Barber and how she will easily get passed Roxanne and then challenge Valentina and maybe be the youngest UFC champion ever. However, that was not the case and experience prevailed, Barber was very unlucky that she suffered a tore ACL early but still I consider it a very dominant display from Roxanne that not a lot saw coming.

Alex Lough: Jan Blachowicz vs Dominick Reyes (UFC 253) 

Coming into this fight, there were two different mindsets: 1) Dominick Reyes deserved to be the light heavyweight champion because he beat Jon Jones and was robbed, or 2) Dominick Reyes deserved to be the light heavyweight champion because he was clearly the top fighter in the division now thaw Jon Jones had left. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone that was picking Blachowicz to win. He was viewed as the fighter on the best run to challenge for the title, but clearly not on the same level as The Devastator. Every so often you would hear about the possibility of Blachowicz’s vaunted Polish Power presenting Reyes problems, but those people were usually shut down. What no one predicted was what actually took place: Blachowicz controlled the fight in its entirety before landing the fight-ending blow late in the second round. It was as impressive of a performance as we saw all year, and one that surely had many gamblers ripping up their tickets.