See The 2023 FloGrappling Awards Match Of The Year Nominees
See The 2023 FloGrappling Awards Match Of The Year Nominees
Vote now on which was the best match of 2023 in the FloGrappling Awards presented by Kingz Kimonos
It's time again for the FloGrappling Awards presented by Kingz Kimonos and this year, the athletes made it harder than ever to narrow it down to just six nominees for each of the five categories. Voting is now open for each of these awards:
- Male Grappler of the Year
- Female Grappler of the Year
- Breakthrough Grappler of the Year
- Submission of the Year
- Match of the Year
The 2023 Match of the Year nominees feature athletes from gi and no-gi alike. Check out each of the incredible back-and-forth contests and cast your ballot below!
Ffion Davies turned in an incredible 2023, but in her last match of the year it was Gabi McComb nearly playing spoiler in the IBJJF World No-Gi Championship absolute finals. McComb had defeated Davies in the Worlds absolute in 202; and early on had a deep triangle attempt that had the Welsh star in tons of trouble, nearly ending her successful year on a sour note. Still, Davies found her way out and kept turning up the pressure until she was able to find her opening - turning a takedown attempt into a back take, then finishing with the rear naked choke to double gold in the most dramatic way possible.
The welterweight championship was on the line at WNO 20 and it was all action to decide things early between Mica and JayRod, with tons of scrambles, throws, submission attempts, and wild escapes. As advertised, both men kept pushing until the final minute, including an incredible chest wrap from Mica that is quickly becoming a signature technique for him. Jay showed his trademark toughness, pace, cardio, and scrambling ability in the loss and it was Galvao earning the win after 15 incredible hard-fought minutes.
PJ Barch vs Andrew Tackett, WNO 20
The other half of the welterweight bracket at WNO 20 turned in fireworks as well when PJ Barch and Andrew Tackett met in a scramble-filled 15 minute contest that brought fans to their feet. Both men had their moments in this match where they were on offense, attacking and pushing the pace, and moments where they were scrambling out of their opponent's attempts with some brilliant counters and escapes. After the end of regulation, it was Tackett walking away with the victory - but having left so much out there in the semifinal he was unable to continue into the final, a testament to how much both men pushed themselves in this bout.
ADCC rules tend to bring out exciting, action-packed matches and the crowd was on their feet during Jozef Chen and Oliver Taza's -77kg final in the 1st European Trials earlier this year. The young grappling star Chen mixed it up with the much more experienced Taza in some of the most technical exchanges of the year, and they went back and forth on back take attempts and dominant positions until it was Jozef emerging victorious - stamping himself as an athlete to watch at the 2024 ADCC World Championships.
Coming into WNO 21, people were circling Mica and Kody as one of the best matches of the night and it overdelivered on all of that when these two gladiators met on the mat. It was Galvao eventually retaining his championship with a rear naked choke but not before throwing everything he could at Steele, who just would not relent. There were some electric sequences which brought the Austin, TX crowd to their feet but what ended up impressing everyone wasn't just the skill level but the grit and toughness that Steele displayed in fighting through bad positions to keep trying to win.
At the Pan Championships, it looked like Fellipe Andrew was well on his way to another gold medal at a major tournament - until he wasn't. Adam Wardzinski, the Polish star from CheckMat, authored one of 2023's greatest comebacks when he stormed back from an 9-0 deficit with only 90 seconds left to even the score and then pull ahead on advantages to snatch the gold medal late from his rival Andrew. Wardzinski's comeback was one of the wildest we have seen in the gi in years and earns a place among the top-6.