2011 ESPY Awards: MMA comes up short ... again

In a year that mixed martial arts showed tremendous growth, showcased some insane upsets and some of the best "moments" in the sports young history, surely it wouldn't be snubbed, once again, at the annual ESPY Awards on ESPN.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened, as MMA put up yet another goose egg. 

The awards are an homage from top sports media network ESPN to the stars across all divisions, but MMA continues to come up short. Both UFC champions and 2011 nominees, Jon "Bones" Jones and Georges St. Pierre, bowed out in the category for "Best Fighter" to Filipino boxing powerhouse Manny Pacquiao. 

Pacquiao and fellow boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. have won the award every year since the "Best Boxer" category was combined with MMA to create "Best Fighter" in 2007.

More results from MMA-nominated categories below.

Fabricio Werdum pulled off one of the most shocking upsets in MMA history when he dethroned Fedor Emelianenko over a year ago under the Strikeforce banner. 

As impressive as that was relative to MMA, it stood no chance when put up against VCU's upset bid of Kansas in the NCAA college basketball tournament this past March.

It was actually the second consecutive year that the team who defeated Kansas in the NCAA tournament won the "Upset of the Year" ESPY. Which was more surprising than MMA losing out.

Lastly, Anthony Pettis, while nominated for "Play of the Year," didn't even make it to the awards show, falling short in the round of 16 to a tag team interception.

The award eventually went to a combination of US women's soccer players Abby Wambach and Megan Rapinoe for their game-tying goal with a minute left against Brazil this past week, which was quite obviously still fresh on voter's minds.

Don't worry fight fans, there's always next year, right?