While the first four months of 2008 haven’t produced tons of fight of the year candidates, there have been some incredible performances from individual fighters thus far.

B.J. Penn(vs. Joe Stevenson, UFC 80)

Hardcore MMA followers know what B.J. Penn is capable of. When he is mentally focused, and in-shape he is arguably the best pound for pound combatant the sport has ever seen.

At UFC 80 in January, fans around the world were given the pleasure of seeing the real “Prodigy” in action. B.J. ripped through the very tough Joe Stevenson like a buzzsaw, dropping him in the opening seconds with an uppercut, and then dominating him on the ground and standing for the entire fight. Penn’s top-game looked phenomenal as he remained in an advantageous position throughout the bout.

This B.J. Penn looks to be on a completely different level then pretty much anyone in the weight class in the world. It’ll be interesting to see how the Sherk fight goes down, and where B.J. goes from there.

Miguel Torres(vs. Chase Beebe WEC 32)

Before his coming-out party against Beebe, the name Miguel Torres wasn’t all that well-known in mainstream MMA circles. That all changed in about four minutes. In the opening moments Torres peppered Beebe with punches and kicks, before being taken down. That’s when the real fun started. Torres trapped him in his guard before going from shoulder lock, to kimura, to armbar, to d’arce to anaconda before eventually closing the deal with a nasty modified guillotine.

Like Penn, Torres has excellent stand-up, but his bread and butter is his jiu-jitsu(He is a Carlson Gracie pupil), so if you aren’t liking what’s happening on the feet and choose to take him down, you’re gonna get yourself in even more trouble. Torres is a dangerous, well-rounded fighter and his showdown with Yoshiro Maeda on June 1st should not be missed.

Shinya Aoki(vs. J.Z. Calvan, DREAM 2)

Many people, including myself, didn’t think Shinya Aoki had much of a chance against Gesias Calvancante after their first bout ended in a no-contest at DREAM 1. The fight ended prematurely after some mysterious elbows landed, and Aoki couldn’t continue. Aoki looked out-muscled, and his grappling-centric approach seemed ill-equipped to deal with JZ’s well-rounded attack.

In the second fight Aoki put on a grappling clinic for the ages, stifling JZ at every turn. Aoki was in danger at one point absorbing some heavy punches, but persevered, and showed heart that some questioned if he had in the first place. Aoki’s flexibility and relentlessness looked like something out of a David Attenborough documentary on the spider monkey. He nearly submitted Calvancante late in the fight, but had to settle for a controlling decision victory. He now moves on to fight Katsuhiko Nagata at DREAM 4.