It’s been a crazy busy and exciting year for MMA. Just take a look back of the happenings of the past year, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Chuck Liddel retired, good for him, he’s done a ton for the sport. Was never really a huge fan of him but really respect all his hard work and dedication. It also doesn’t hurt he seems like a totally cool guy, I really don’t know why I never became a superfan. Glad to see he’s moving onto bigger and better things for the sport (I hope).

GSP retains his belt. GSP still didn’t finish, much to his disappointment and ended up putting on a jab clinic over Josh Koscheck showing he truly is a dominant fighter in all aspects. I don’t think that’s really a huge surprise but, after all the hype on The Ultimate Fighter it was nice to finally see it go down.

WEC getting absorbed into the UFC. In a word…AWESOME. I’ve always felt that WEC was a little underrated so UFC buying it up and getting some truly great talent in the lower weight classes is great for fighters and fans alike. Can’t wait to see some of the match ups with Aldo, Faber, Pettis, Henderson, Cruz, the list goes on and on.

Anthony Pettis’ kick heard round the world. The insane, gravity defying kick that would make most wire-fu choreographers flip their shit was performed in a championship match and closed the final WEC event in an almost unbelievable fashion.

What else was huge news? Brock lost the belt to Velasquez after all the adversity he had been through with illness and an insane face pummeling from Carwin in a previous fight. Even the Undertaker had words after the fight. Silva got dominated by Sonnen for an entire fight only to turn it around in the final seconds…later Sonnen gets a ban for PEDs. That was a let-down. Fedor finally lost legitimately…that seemed really big for a few days and then kinda fizzled out. James Toney showed us that boxers can still box but not wrestle, big surprise there, it didn’t help he fought a legend in the sport.

Outside the cage, Roger Huerta white knighted up and beat down out of some asshat that hit a woman. Sadly, I think he lost his last fight though.

I’m sure there are a lot more, but this are some moments that really stuck out in my mind off the top of my head. Hopefully we’ll get off to a great start in 2011 with UFC 125 and it will be another huge year for the sport.

Happy New Year.