Michael Chandler submits Bellator champion Eddie Alvarez in 'Fight of the Year' candidate

If you missed it, you'll be kicking yourself -- hard.

Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and season four tournament winner Michael Chandler traded bombs for four straight rounds, rocking each other repeatedly, recovering, scoring takedowns and scrambling on the ground.

It was wild, it was dramatic, it might have been the best fight of 2011.

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney called it, "The best fight I've ever seen," and he might have been correct.

Alvarez got leveled in the first round when Chandler landed one of his first power punches, rocking him and swarming him along the fence. He recovered, but only long enough to get saved by the bell after getting blasted once more at the end of the round.

Training out of Xtreme Couture, thoughts of Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard may have crept into Chandler's mind after his pace slowed dramatically in rounds two and three, especially when Alvarez laid into him with huge flurries of strikes in a blowout third round.

With the cage and both men's shorts stained with blood and sweat, Chandler came out furiously again in round four, the first time he'd ever entered a championship round in his young eight fight career.

After hurting Alvarez again, Chandler advanced to mount, took his back and sunk in a rear naked choke to force that tap as the crowd went wild.

Now, at just 9-0, the former Missouri All-American wrestler, Chandler, stands atop the Bellator lightweight division. After a fight like that, he could be reigning for a long, long time.

So what did you think, Maniacs?

Did you get a chance to see this incredible fight live? Was it one of 2011's finest fights?

Speak up!

For full results and live play-by-play of Bellator 58, click here.