In 2009 we witnessed in my eyes the best light-heavyweight match ever, a grueling 5 round chess match between two grandmasters in Mauricio and Lyoto. Machida was the overwhelming favorite coming in. Up to this fight no one could crack the Machida puzzle, Lyoto had never lost a round in his UFC career and was undefeated but Shogun and his team did their homework and were able to crack this puzzle with a brilliant strategy by taking advantage of the Karate stance which exposes your lead leg by way of low kicks, which took a toll on the champion Lyoto who was forced to switch stances in order to protect himself.
2009 was the coming out year for Gegard, first with a win over the intimidating granite chin Mark Hunt at the DREAMSuper Hulk quarter final, then obtaining the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Championship by defeating the seasoned veteran in Renato "Babalu" Sobral with a dominating performance that lasted about a minute. While his next fight was not a title defense, he beat another intimidating opponent in Sokoudjou. Just before the end of the year Gegard participated in the Dynamite! 2009 event and fought at heavyweight against the veteran Gary Goodridge, Total amount of time spent fighting in 2009: 12 minutes and 37 seconds with 4 wins over seasoned veterans, 2 of which were former heavyweights.
Lyoto was a top 5 contender at the start of the year, quickly rose to the top 3 by defeating a top contender in fellow Brazilian Thiago Silva which led up to the fight between Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans in an undefeated vs undefeated match. Lyoto shocked the world by knocking out Rashad Evans in the first round and obtaining the championship belt. Up until the Shogun fight Lyoto was the #1 LHW in the world, even though Lyoto did officially win the match anyone with a working pair of eyes could see who really won the fight. Lyoto still has a chance to regain his #1 status if he convincingly wins against Shogun Rua in the rematch, but the reason why I placed him third is because he has not faced the level of competition Gegard and Shogun have, his two biggest wins are over Thiago and Rashad but Shogun and Gegard have more impressive resumes to date.