WWE performer Roman Reigns (Joe Anoa’i) and UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier were recipients of a pair of ESPY Awards on Wednesday night.
During the red carpet special at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, Reigns was announced as the winner of the ‘Best WWE Moment’ which was decided in a fan vote. The other options listed were Kofi Kingston’s WWE title win at WrestleMania, Becky Lynch winning the Raw & SmackDown women’s titles at WrestleMania, and Ronda Rousey defeating Alexa Bliss for the Raw women’s title at last year’s SummerSlam event.
Reigns, Lynch, Seth Rollins, Paul Levesque, and Stephanie McMahon were on hand at the event representing WWE.
Reigns was also a presenter at the awards where he delivered the ESPY for ‘Best Coach’ to Jim Calhoun, who is also a cancer survivor.
Hear what @WWERomanReigns had to say after learning that he won the first-ever Best WWE Moment award at the #ESPYS! @WWERollins @BeckyLynchWWE @StephMcMahon @TripleH https://t.co/UeTdXjrKsE
— WWE (@WWE) July 11, 2019
UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was presented with the ‘Best MMA Fighter’ award, which was its own category this year as opposed to previous years where the ESPY category was ‘Best Fighter’. Past winners of the award include Ronda Rousey, Demetrious Johnson, and Conor McGregor.
Cormier became heavyweight champion in July 2018 when he stopped Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 and defended his title last November with a stoppage victory over Derrick Lewis at UFC 230. He will defend his title in a rematch with Miocic on August 17th at UFC 241.
Amanda Nunes, Henry Cejudo, and Israel Adesanya were the other nominees for the award.
Congratulations to Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) for winning the inaugural “MMA Fighter of the Year” award as the ESPYs. pic.twitter.com/f0QAwuyhi1
— Mike Bohn (@MikeBohnMMA) July 11, 2019
