THE PUNCHSPORT REPORT FOR JUNE 2025
Four title fights, one vacant crown, a bunch of PFLs and the rare arrest I am actively rooting for.
Welcome to June and congratulations on almost reaching your Summer vacation. Everything's rolling, PFL's going, we've got four UFC title fights this month, the GFL's fully dead and we are still sad about it.
THIS MONTH'S PUNCHSPORTS EVENTS
IS THERE ANY NEWS
After all of the bullshit, after all the years of will-they won't-they, after the start of the campaign to kill the Ali Act and begin their multi-phasic reign of terror over all of combat sports, Dana White has gotten his way. TKO Boxing doesn't just have its first official event as a promoter, it has one of the biggest fights in all of boxing in Canelo vs Terence Crawford to kick things off. With that kind of star power, and the promotional engines of TKO, and the coffers of Turki Al-Sheikh, nothing can stop the meteoric rise of TKO Boxing.
The meteoric rise of TKO Boxing has been stopped. Riyadh Season is back in charge, the fight is no longer happening in Las Vegas, and TKO Boxing is no longer promoting it. No further comment has been given about what happened, why, or if TKO Boxing has a new debut event lined up, but personally-speaking, if TKO Boxing died before it could even start, that would be really, really fucking funny.
(graphic comes from Hawaii News Now)
You may remember a news bit from April about BJ Penn accusing his family of having been murdered and replaced by impostors, harassing them and posting videos of them on the internet to expose their false nature, and the deep-seated fear of basically every observer that the dude desperately needed help before he hurt one of them.
Predictably, he did not accept help and instead got arrested after allegedly repeatedly trying to lock his mother out of the house and physically shoving her around. Unfortunately, equally predictably, he was released pending his court date and he immediately skipped said court date.
He's claiming he had COVID and was too sick to be present, but there's a bench warrant out for his arrest now. It's profoundly unfortunate that at this point getting thrown in jail might actually be the safest path forward for his life. I continue to hope someone gets through to him about getting some goddamn help.
We have another antitrust suit. Former top contender, Bellator champion and current PFL standout Phil Davis is teaming up with Berger Montague, the same lawyers who brought you the UFC's antitrust settlement last year, to sue the company again. Where the first suit was about the impact of monopoly on the UFC's insufficient pay scale, this one alleges the UFC's monopoly has an industry-wide impact that keeps other promotions from signing top talent and being able to pay them what they're worth.
Philosophically? One hundred percent, it's almost too obviously true. Legally? I wish them the best of luck, that's a steep hill to climb. Either way, look forward to hearing about it for the next three years.
People have speculated on how the WWE/UFC merger could be ruthlessly exploitedbrand synergized to make wrestling and combat sports mutually supportive acts again. UFC wrestlers being part of WWE broadcasts? WWE wrestlers showing up cageside for fights?
As it turns out, predictably, the answer is Fuck You, Watch Power Slap. This stupid thing, which continues to shuffle through existence despite not just being inherently odious but having already been rejected by audiences across multiple platforms, is going to do wrestling crossover bullshit. But they don't want any of their wrestlers to get hurt--that would cost too much money--so instead they're contracting a bunch of indie wrestlers with no leverage.
I hate reporting anything about Power Slap. Fuck this shit.
WHAT HAPPENED IN MAY
The first phase of the PFL season ended with PFL 4 on the 1st. The big boys of Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight were saved for last, because that's where everyone always thinks the money is. At 265 pounds, Rodrigo Nascimento decisioned Abraham Bably, Oleg Popov edged out late replacement Karl Williams, Alexander Romanov choked out Timothy Johnson in short order, and Valentin Moldavsky outwrestled Sergey Bilostenniy; at 205, Sullivan Cauley elbowed Alex Polizzi to death, Simeon Powel dropped Karl Albrektsson, Antônio Carlos Júnior got a split decision over Karl Moore, and Phil Davis earned his first stoppage in six years by punching out Rob Wilkinson. Your big boy semi-finals are Moldavsky/Romanov and Nascimento/Popov; your 205ers will be Shoeface/Powell and Davis/Cauley.
The UFC's month stared two days later with UFC on ESPN: Sandhagen vs Figueiredo on the 3rd in what wound up being a real violent card. Down on your prelims, Juliana Miller picked up a decision against Ivana Petrović and Thomas Petersen beat Don'Tale Mayes in one of those fights that makes you sad Heavyweight exists, but then Quang Le choked Gastón Bolaños unconscious, Gillian Robertson pounded out and retired Marina Rodriguez, Azamat Bekoev put another nail in The Ultimate Fighter by knocking out Ryan Loder in half a round, and Yana Santos beat Miesha Tate in her latest attempt at a comeback. Up top, Mason Jones shut out Jeremy Stephens in his own ill-advised comeback attempt, Serhiy Sidey outworked Cameron Smotherman, and Montel Jackson pitched a 30-27 against Daniel Marcos. From there, it got fun. Daniel Rodriguez knocked out Santiago Ponzinibbio with some unusually quick lunging punches, Reinier de Ridder upset Bo Nickal and stopped him by kneeing him until his guts felt bad, and in the main event, Cory Sandhagen rolled Deiveson Figueiredo for two rounds and ultimately busted Figgy's knee trading ground positions.
The late night also brought us Rizin: Otoko Matsuri, the biggest non-New Year's show on the calendar, being as it was supposed to be THE MATCH 2 before injuries derailed their superfight plans. There were 19 matches so we're not gonna go over each one, but there was good stuff all over it. Takaki Soya upsetting John Dodson, Hiroya Kondo stopping Tatsuki Shinotsuka, Danny Sabatello making his Japanese debut by punching out Shinobu Ota, Daisuke Nakamura avenging decades-old conflicts by armbarring Taisei Sakuraba, the son of Kazushi--it was all real fuckin' good and an awful lot of it was silly, especially with the Heavyweight Grand Prix that saw one competitor miss the Heavyweight limit altogether. But your top card delivered wholly, with the aforementioned tournament seeing Marek Samociuk, José Augusto Azevedo and Mikio Ueda all advancing, Kyohei Hagiwara flooring Taisei Nishitani, Kyoma Akimoto outworking Ryo Takagi and Mikuru Asakura getting a doctor's stoppage after tearing Chihiro Suzuki's eyebrow open. The main event was actually the quickest fight on the entire card: After a year of torment, losing his title on the scale and painstakingly regaining it, Kleber Koike Erbst made his first attempt at a defense and got flattened in 62 seconds by new Featherweight Champion Razhabali Shaydullaev.
PFL Europe 1 happened on the 10th, and nothing is more indicative of the PFL's woes as an organization as the fact that they put one of their biggest rising stars on the show and left no way for their entire American audience to officially watch it. Wikipedia is by no means the end-all of MMA information on the internet, but it can provide a decent shorthand, and in this case not only was this a card where only one out of twenty competitors rated a Wikipedia page, its co-main event was a match between a heavily-hyped, 11-1 PFL Europe champion in Lewis McGrillen and Alan Philpott, who is 21-17 and on a one-fight winning streak after going 2 for his last 8. But Paul Hughes knocked out Bruno Miranda in forty-two seconds and that's all the PFL cared about.
UFC 315: Muhammad vs Della Maddalena was up on May 10, and for a twelve-fight card, it was a long haul. On your early prelims Bekzat Almakhan knocked out Brad Katona, Daniel Santos shut out Lee Jeong-yeong, and Marc-André Barriault punched out Bruno Silva. On your regular prelims, Navajo Stirling got the nod over Ivan Erslan and Modestas Bukauskas got a contentious split against Ion Cuțelaba in a pair of fights that made you regret the Light Heavyweight division's existence, Jasmine Jasudavicius needed less than a round to choke out Jéssica Andrade, and Mike Malott disposed of his food by punching out Charlie Radtke. On your main card: Benoît Saint Denis choked out an overmatched late replacement in Kyle Prepolec, Natália Silva painted herself in as a top contender by dominating Alexa Grasso and Aiemann Zahabi managed a wonky but hard-earned decision against José Aldo. Your co-main event was the long-awaited matchup between Valentina Shevchenko and Manon Fiorot, which wound up being both very close and very uneventful and ultimately just another successful Flyweight defense under Valentina's belt. The main was a different story, as Jack Della Maddalena showed just how much he'd leveled up his wrestling defense and successfully wrenched the Welterweight title away from Belal Muhammad after busting his face up for five rounds.
The 16th gave us Invicta FC 62: Lehner vs Rubin. After some scheduling problems it wound up being just five fights: Your two rookie bouts, with Charley Minor successfully debuting against fellow newcomer Alexandra Lawal and Ashley Barrett pounding out Quinn Williams, and your two main card bouts saw Milana Dudieva outwork Amanda Torres and Rayla Nascimento notch a decision against DeAnna Bennett. The main event penciled in a new Bantamweight contender, as Olga Rubin managed to ch9oke out Katharina Lehner in the second round. Admittedly, given that Rubin just lost a shot at Invicta's Bantamweight belt a year ago, it could be a tough sell--but it's also not like they have that many options.
One day later we got UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Morales, our return to the dread Apex after a nice month off. The co-main event of Paul Craig vs Rodolfo Bellato got cancelled midway through the broadcast, but in exchange, there were a lot of goddamn finishes. Down on the prelims Tecia Pennington notched a decision against Luana Pinheor, Park Hyun-sung strangled Carlos Hernandez in two and a half minutes, Denise Gomes walked through Elise Reed and punched her out pretty easily, Luana Santos almost ripped Tainara Lisboa's arm in half, Yadier del Valle got a rear naked choke against Connor Matthews, Jared Gordon completely flattened Thiago Moisés in three and a half minutes, and Gabe Green turned away a promising newcomer in Matheus Camilo after basically just torquing his jaw off. Your four-fight main card flipped the momentum around: Melquizael Costa won a back-and-forth decision against Julian Erosa, Nursulton Ruziboev had a workmanlike victory against Dustin Stoltzfus, and Mairon Santos shook off his bad debut with a solid decision against Sodiq Yusuff. But the main event only needed three and a half minutes, as Michael Morales more or less destroyed Gilbert Burns and announced himself as a new top ten prospect.
May 23rd was supposed to get PFL Europe 2, but, uh, it didn't. The show was scheduled for Paris, it got cancelled two weeks ahead of time and moved not just to July, but to an entirely different country, as it's now a Belgium card. Who knows what's going on over there.
Two events snuck in just under the line on the 31st, and the first up was Rizin World Series in Korea, Rizin's first stab at breaking into the Korean market. The vast majority of the card was themed around Japan vs Korea, and out of the nine fights around that concept, like so many SCOTUS decisions, South Korea took a narrow 5-4 victory that included Kwon Yong-cheol handing Kota Miura his fourth straight knockout loss against an 0-0 fighter and Ji Hyuk-min stopping Koji Takeda on knees in two rounds, but Sho Patrick Usami and Kate Oyama both took decisions over Kim Si-won and Shim Yu-ri in the undercard headliners. Your top three fights were the ones of real consequence: Johnny Case knocked out Juri Ohara, which was rendered a No Contest on account of Case being half a pound overweight, Shoko Sato managed to outfight Kim Soo-chul to a decision, and in your (non-title) main event, Lightweight champ Roberto de Souza dropped and choked out Ki Won-bin in fifty damn seconds.
But the month didn't end until the second event, UFC on ESPN: Blanchfield vs Barber, which might well be the new biggest trainwreck the UFC has broadcast. The entire card was cursed: Multiple rumored fights fell apart in the hangar or were pushed to other events, two fighters failed to get visas on time, one fight saw multiple last-minute replacements, and on fight week proper one more got scrapped and Allan Nascimento, Ketlen Vieira and Maycee Barber all missed weight--in Vieira's case badly enough that the fight had to be pushed to Women's Featherweight for a one-night-only return. By broadcast there were only four prelims: Alice Ardelean outboxing Rayanne dos Santos, Bolaji Oki getting a decision against Michael Aswell, who took the fight on three days' notice, Jordan Leavitt choking out Kurt Holobaugh in a minute and a half, and Allan Nascimento winning a close grappling decision against Jafel Filho despite possibly having to leave the Flyweight division. The main card saw Zachary Reese struggle to a decision against Duško Todorović, Ketlen Vieira use her grappling advantage to grind out Macy Chiasson, Dustin Jacoby use his fists to punch Bruno Lopes out in under two minutes, and Ramiz Brahimaj manage to choke out Billy Ray Goff in a single round. Your co-main event saw Mateusz Gamrot hold onto his place as the UFC's most shat-upon top ten Lightweight after shutting out Ľudovít Klein with a 30-27. And your main event, Erin Blanchfield vs Maycee Barber, did not happen. As the UFC came back from video packages to begin the walkouts the commentators instead had to relay that Maycee was having some sort of issue, and one additional commercial break later, the fight was cancelled. There still isn't an official word on exactly what happened--Erin Blanchfield was told she had some form of seizure. Hopefully Maycee's okay, but Erin pretty adamantly stated she didn't want the fight rescheduled, and I don't blame her.
WHAT'S COMING IN JUNE
June 7th gets us ONE Fight Night 32 and as always there's like three MMA fights on the entire card, but it's worth noting them for pure comedy's sake. Remember last December, when Christian Lee finally made his comeback and faced the undefeated Alibeg Rasulov and it ended in a No Contest? Instead of a well-deserved rematch with ONE's favorite son, Christian Lee is back to ibeing MIA and Alibeg Rasulov is fighting the 9-1 Maurice Abévi in the middle of this random Fight Night. Thanks, ONE! You're getting Allycia Rodrigues defending the Women's Atomweight Muay Thai Championship against Shir Cohen in the main, so that should be fun.
The UFC's up later that day with UFC 316: Dvalishvili vs O'Malley 2. It's a card that isn't so much 'good' or 'bad' as it is 'vaguely infuriating as a standing tribute to the UFC's ownership of the sport.' On your early prelims: Quillan Salkilld vs Yanal Ashmouz, Jeka Saragih vs Yoo Joo-sang, and Ariane da Silva vs Wang Cong, who is getting a ranked fight even though the woman who beat her isn't. On your regular prelims: Serghei Spivac vs Waldo Cortes-Acosta, Azamat Murzakanov vs Brendson Ribeiro, and Bruno Gustavo da Silva vs Joshua Van. On your main card: Vicente Luque vs Kevin Holland, Mario Bautista vs a debuting Patchy Mix, Kelvin Gastelum vs Joe Pyfer, and a doubleheader's worth of title fights as Julianna Peña defends the Women's Bantamweight crown against Kayla Harrison and Merab Dvalishvili defends the Bantamweight title against Sean O'Malley, who is getting a rematch for some reason.
The 12th kicks off more PFL, thanks to PFL 5 and its complement of Welterweights and Featherweights. You've got some alternate bouts in play, with 170's including Magomed Umalatov vs Anthony Ivy and Featherweight seeing a consolation match between first-round losers Jeremy Kennedy and Ádám Borics, which is frankly really gross because Borics just got knocked out 70 days before this card and what the fuck are we doing anymore. Either way, your 145-pound tournament bouts are Movlid Khaybulaev vs Kim Tae-kyun and Jesus Pinedo vs Gabriel Braga and your 170-pounders are Logan Storley vs Masayuki Kikuiri and Jason Jackson vs Thad Jean.
Two days later, it's UFC on ESPN: Usman vs Buckley, the final chapter in the ongoing attempt to force new blood into the Welterweight contendership circle. The undercard on this one is just fuckin' weird. Cody Durden vs Jose Ochoa, Tereza Bledá vs Jamey-Lyn Horth, Michael Chiesa vs Court McGee at random on the prelims, Ricky Simón vs Charles Jourdain, and your rescheduled Paul Craig vs Rodolfo Bellato. On the ESPN broadcast, it's gonna be Alonzo Menifield vs Oumar Sy, Edmen Shahbazyan vs Andre Petroski, Mansur Abdul-Malik vs Cody Brundage, Cody Garbrandt vs Raoni Barcelos, Rose Namajunas vs Miranda Maverick, and your main event, Kamaru Usman's return to 170 pounds after almost two and a half years, where he will try to gatekeep the title picture away from Joaquin Buckley.
That late night also brings us Rizin Landmark 11, a long-ass card from Rizin's devleopmental division that, as of this writing, has nineteen bouts booked for it. I think only two people read this section of the monthly as it is, and I will not subject you to nineteen bouts. Your highlights, instead: Sina Karimian vs Hidetaka Arato, Hiraoki Suzuki vs Sora Yamamoto, Taichi Nakajima vs Kosuke Terashima, Viktor Kolesnik vs Keisuke Sasu, Yoshinori Horie vs Yamato Nishikawa, the final Rizin Heavyweight Grand Prix quarterfinal bout in Alexander Soldatkin vs Prince Aounallah, and in your main event, former champion Vugar Karamov vs undefeated prospect Shuya Kimura.
On June 20, PFL 6 is here to be aggressively silly. They're cramming Lightweight, Bantamweight and Women's Flyweight into one event, and with some recent changes, everything is even dumber. At Bantamweight you've got Marcirley Alves vs Jake Hadley and Justin Wetzell vs Mando Gutierrez, and down at Women's Flyweight, it'll be Ekaterina Shakalova vs Jena Bishop and Liz Carmouche vs Elona Dana. Your first Lightweight matchup is Brent Primus vs Alfie Davis, but your second has had a replacement, as Jay-Jay Wilson busted his jaw and is out of the tournament, meaning your semi-final--and the main event of this card--is Gadzhi Rabadanov vs Kevin fucking Lee, making his PFL debut. God save him and us.
The next day brings the UFC to Azerbaijan and we're getting stuck with UFC on ABC: Hill vs Rountree Jr.. The 'weird cards' theme of the month isn't slowing down here: The Iron Turtle Park Jun-yong is on the prelims against Ismail Naurdiev along with TUF winner Mo Usman vs Hamdy Abdelwahab, Melissa Mullins vs Daria Zheleznyakova, Irina Alekseeva vs Klaudia Syguła and Tagir Ulanbekov vs Azat Maksum and the rescheduled Oban Elliott vs Ko Seok-hyun, and your main card has Tofiq Musayev vs Myktybek Orolbai, Curtis Blaydes vs Rizvan Kuniev, Nazim Sadykhov vs Nikolas Motta, Muhammad Naimov vs Bogdan Grad, Rafael Fiziev vs Ignacio Bahamondes and your main event of former champ Jamahal Hill against former contender Khalil Rountree Jr.
On the 27th, it's time for yet more PFL. PFL 7 gives us the Middleweight, Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight semifinals, along with a special exhibition between Sergio Pettis and Raufeon Stots I'm probably looking forward to more than anything in the tournament itself. The big boy division is banished to the prelims, for once, with Oleg Popov vs Rodrigo Nascimento and Valentina Moldavsky vs Alexander Romanov. At 205 pounds, it's Antônio Carlos Júnior vs Simeon Powell and Phil Davis vs Sullivan Cauley. At 185: Dalton Rosta vs Aaron Jeffrey and the night's main event, Fabian Edwards vs Josh Silveira.
On the 28th, it's time for yet more PFL, this time PFL MENA 2 over in Riyadh. At least, I assume it will be. As I write this the event's less than a month away and there are zero fights announced. Will it even be broadcast in the west? Who the fuck knows.
Either way the real ending to the month that evening is UFC 317: Topuria vs Oliveira. There are only nine fights announced for the card as the month ends, so it'll probably get some more shit before fight night, but as of now: Terrance McKinney vs Viacheslav Borschev, Viviane Araújo vs Tracy Cortez, Jhonata Diniz vs Justin Tafa, Jack Hermansson vs Gregory Rodrigues, Paulo Costa vs Roman Kopylov, Brandon Royval vs Manel Kape, and the rebooked Beneil Dariush vs Renato Moicano. You have two title fights once again: Alexandre Pantoja defends the Flyweight championship against Kai Kara-France, and Ilia Topuria faces Charles Oliveira for the vacant Lightweight belt.
UFC CHAMPIONS
Heavyweight Champion, 265 lbs
Jon Jones - 28-1 (1), 1 Defense
Very few things in combat sports reach the crossroads of awe-inspiring and unfathomably frustrating as Jon Jones. In 2020, Jon Jones notched the third defense of his second light-heavyweight championship reign after an exceedingly contentious decision against Dominick Reyes, only to abdicate the title because the UFC wasn't paying him enough, and he was bored of 205 pounds and wanted to move up to heavyweight like he'd been planning to for nearly a decade, and he needed more time to cement his place as not just one of the sport's greatest pound-for-pound fighters, but one of its biggest pound-for-pound pains in the ass. On September 23, 2021, Jon Jones was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame; on September 24, 2021, he was arrested (for the fifth time!) after his daughter called the police on him for beating her mother, during which he antagonized the police and, inexplicably, headbutted a police car. Because this is Jon Jones, of course, the primary charges were dropped, he paid $750 for the hood of the police cruiser, and got a stern warning to stay out of trouble, young man, because there is a money-powered reality-distorting field around Jon Jones whereby nothing matters. After a year of rumors, and after the unconscionable firing of heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, the UFC gleefully announced Jon Jones vs Ciryl Gane to fill the vacant heavyweight throne. Did it matter to the matchmaking that there were more deserving candidates? Of course not, because it's Jon Jones: He deserves the spot for his earlier success. Did it matter to his public appearances that when last we saw him he was arrested for beating his fiancee? Of course not, because it's Jon Jones: He was, if anything, more up his own ass with self-righteousness than ever before. Did it matter to the fight that he hadn't competed in more than three years and looked terrible at the time? Of course not, because it's Jon fucking Jones. Ciryl Gane looked too nervous to use footwork let alone throw anything, and he should have been, as Jones effortlessly threw him to the canvas and choked him out in two minutes. The longest-running, most dominant and yet most persistently annoying show in mixed martial arts was back. And in the most predictable thing possible, some bullshit happened, he got injured and was ultimately inactive for more than a year and a half, and the UFC not only did not strip him, they gave him back the fight they'd scheduled in the first place: Stipe Miocic, who hadn't fought since early 2021. Jones beat a Stipe who looked tragically old and tired, and when asked about his future said he was leaning towards not retiring, but would not commit to fighting Tom Aspinall. The UFC also had a whole mess of graphics referring to Jon as the undisputed champion despite, y'know, the title being literally disputed, so I have a bad feeling Tom's twiddling his thumbs while they run Jones vs Pereirado literally nothing, jesus christ. It is a testament to how badly things are going that I wrote about how rudderless and dead the championship was nine months ago and there's still zero sign Jones is fighting again.
Interim Heavyweight Champion
Tom Aspinall - 15-3, 1 Defense
The UFC's Heavyweight division got itself into a weird spot in 2007. Randy Couture was the rightful, reigning, defending champion, but he and the UFC had a dispute that stretched out more than a year. The UFC couldn't strip him--it would have made it easier for him to get out of his contract--so they made an interim title. By the time Randy came back they had already made big plans for him and Brock Lesnar, but the interim title had gotten wrapped up in The Ultimate Fighter 8 (jesus christ) and it, too, had to be defended, meaning there were two championships being defended simultaneously: The Undisputed Championship, which was the 'real' belt despite being held by a guy trying to leave the company and contended for by someone with only two victories in the sport, and the Interim Championship, which was being fought over by the actual, legitimate top contenders. At UFC 295 on November 11th, 2023, Tom Aspinall, the rightful #4 contender, fought Sergei Pavlovich, the rightful #2 contender, for a new interim championship. And he won. On two weeks' notice! Aspinall's been one of the most promising heavyweight prospects in the world for years, his only loss in the UFC came from his knee tearing itself apart fifteen seconds into a fight, and he went toe-to-toe with one of the scariest punchers in the history of the sport and knocked him flat in just barely over a minute. He is, indisputably, the real deal. And now it's been so goddamn long that I had "Jon Jones is going to fight Stipe and then they'll figure it out" in this for like six months after the fight actually happened. Aspinall has eclipsed Renan Barao as the longest-reigning interim champion in UFC history, he even defended it by blasting Curtis Blaydes out in a single round at UFC 304 on July 27, 2024, and there are rumors they're setting up a second interim defense against Ciryl Gane. Will Tom ever get to reunify the title? Who goddamn knows.
Light-Heavyweight Champion, 205 lbs
Magomed Ankalaev - 20-1-1 (1), 0 Defenses
Took 'em long enough. Magomed Ankalaev's title fight came just one week too early to mark seven years since his UFC debut, in which a young, undefeated Combat Sambo champion hopped into the biggest fighting company in the world, dominated Paul Craig for 14 minutes and 53 seconds, and somehow managed to get himself submitted in those last seven seconds anyway. It was shocking, it was embarrassing, and it was the last time Magomed allowed himself to lose a fight. For the next four years Ankalaev beat everyone in his path, and in 2022, after the Light Heavyweight Championship was vacated, Ankalaev finally got a well-deserved shot against Jan Błachowicz and won! On almost all of the media scorecards. For the judges, it was inexplicably a draw, which meant no champion and a very, very angry Dana White who blamed the fighters, as he does. Rather than a rematch or a fight against new champion Jamahal Hill, Ankalaev was put on ice for a year and busted back down to contendership clashes--which also went weird, as he blasted Johnny Walker with an illegal knee and got a No Contest for it. They rematched, Ankalaev destroyed him in two rounds, and the world waited for the now inevitable and clearly logical match with new champion Alex Pereira. And they did not get it. In yet another example of egregious matchmaking, the UFC kept Ankalaev on ice for almost the entire year while Pereira had rematches and fill-ins, and then, in October, they booked Pereira and Ankalaev to fight within three weeks of one another. Ankalaev dominated Aleksandar Rakić, a top contender; Pereira beat Khalil Rountree Jr., who was one fight separated from beating up Chris Daukaus. Much to the UFC's chagrin, the public narrative shifted largely to the perception that they were protecting Pereira from Ankalaev out of fear that he would beat their star, which was cruel and disrespectful and also pretty true. The world finally got to find out at UFC 313 on March 8, and it was close--closer than most thought it would be no matter who they favored to win--but the UFC's least favorite internet haters wound up being right again. Ankalaev tanked Pereira's leg kicks, disarmed his footwork with forward pressure, kept him afraid of his wrestling and even stung him repeatedly with his boxing, and at the end of the night, he went home with a unanimous decision and the belt. It took two and a half years longer than it should have, but Magomed Ankalaev finally got his title and he did it by beating one of the UFC's favorite sons. Ankalaev was supposed to have a rematch with Pereira this Summer, but it appears to have not worked out, and now he's calling for the UFC to give him anyone they've got.
Middleweight Champion, 185 lbs
Dricus du Plessis - 23-2, 2 Defenses
Middleweight's fucking wild, man. Generally when a belt changes hands repeatedly in a short period of time you can blame injuries and strippings and title vacations, but recent history has simply been a case study in how goddamn weird things can get at 185 pounds. As of this writing (February 1, 2024) we've had five separate Middleweight champions in less than fifteen months. Divisional king Israel Adesanya dropped the belt to his nemesis Alex Pereira, Adesanya dropped Pereira himself in an immediate rematch, and in one of 2023's bigger upsets, Adesanya lost his belt to human exclusion zone Sean Strickland. But that shot, initially, didn't belong to him: It belonged to Dricus du Plessis. Dricus joined the UFC in 2020 as one of the international scene's best prospects--a two-division champion in his native South Africa's Extreme Fighting Championship, a Welterweight champion in Poland's Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki, and a finishing machine who'd never gone to a decision in his life. The spotlight of the UFC gave him two new reputations: For one, as an exceptionally awkward-looking fighter who could appear shaky and exhausted and still easily knock anyone out, and for two, as a guy with real uncomfortable feelings about his homeland. Shortly after his debut Dricus du Plessis began making comments about becoming the first "real" African champion in the UFC, citing the way fighters like Kamaru Usman, Israel Adesanya and Francis Ngannou had left the country, and, boy, there's just no way to get around the topic that isn't gross as hell. But du Plessis knocked #1 contender Robert Whittaker dead, so it didn't matter. He was in pole position. And then he lost it, because he wanted more than a month to prepare for a world championship fight and the UFC decided that just wouldn't fly. A fully-trained du Plessis stepped into the cage against his replacement and now-champion Sean Strickland on January 20 at UFC 297, and after a close fight and a split decision, du Plessis brought the belt back to South Africa just like he promised. The UFC decided to go right back to their original racially uncomfortable plan and book du Plessis vs Adesanya at UFC 305 on August 17, and after a good, back-and-forth battle, du Plessis emerged victorious with a fourth-round submission. He is the first man to defend the Middleweight title in two years and four reigns, and after UFC 312 on February 8th, he became just the fifth man to ever record multiple defenses of it thanks to a one-sided decision in his rematch with Strickland. The fireworks factory is next: du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319 on August 16.
Welterweight Champion, 170 lbs
Jack Della Maddalena - 18-2, 0 Defenses
Three years ago I wrote that the UFC would throw hundreds of fighters into the meat grinder of the Contender Series if it meant finding one Jack Della Maddalena, and three years later, he has justified their efforts. Jack was picked up as a striking-heavy, wrestling-allergic Australian boxing machine who dropped the first two fights of his career and never sniffed a loss again, and contrary to what I write about most UFC marketing darlings, they did not give him an easy path. He was fighting seasoned veterans and tough competitors two fights into his tenure with the company, and more impressively, he was stopping all of them. Ramazan Emeev, Danny Roberts, Randy Brown, he clocked all of them in a single round. And then he almost got wrestled to death by a regional replacement named Bassil Hafez and barely got to a split decision with Kevin Holland, and even in victory, the wheels seemed to be coming off the hype train. By the time Jack got to his top ten fight with Gilbert Burns in 2024 people were far less certain about his championship prospects, and for most of the fight they were right. With less than a minute and a half left in the fight, Jack was being outgrappled and outworked and was en route to having his winning streak snapped by a decision. And then he swept Gilbert, kneed him in the head and knocked him out. He wasn't supposed to get a shot at the title--he was booked in against former champ Leon Edwards. But Shavkat Rakhmonov got injured, and cards got shuffled, and suddenly, Jack Della Maddalena had a shot at Belal Muhammad. The conventional wisdom saw it was nearly inevitable that Belal would grind him into dirt, given all of Jack's historical problems with wrestling and Belal having the market cornered on the strategy. But the planets aligned for the UFC. Jack busted his ass improving his takedown defense, and Belal fell in love with his hands and didn't pressure him the way he was intending to, and at the end of five rounds, Jack took a unanimous decision, knocked off the company's least favorite champion, and added another world championship to the arguments people inevitably make for why the Contender Series is actually good. In yet another case of good fortune, Jack has also managed to inherit a superfight. Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev had long discussed his plans of challenging for the Welterweight title, but he did not want to fight Belal given their past as training partners and friends. The UFC openly announced that Belal/Jack would determine the fate of two belts--if Belal won, Islam would have stayed at 155 and defended the gate against Ilia Topuria. Instead, Islam left the Lightweight division and will be facing Jack in a champion vs ex-champion bout later this year. If Jack loses, he is a footnote in the Islam Makhachev story and his win will be completely overshadowed; if he wins, he slew one of the sport's pound-for-pound greats and he reinforces that weight classes exist for a reason. We'll find out sometime this Fall.
Lightweight Champion, 155 lbs
VACANT - The hole where weight classes used to be
For the second time in two months, a divisional great has tossed their belt in a ditch to chase the weight class above them. Islam Makhachev has long discussed his desire to compete for the 170-pound title, but as stated above, Belal Muhammad's title reign made that a no-go. In another reality, we're hurtling towards an incredibly interesting superfight between Featherweight superman Ilia Topuria and Lightweight kingpin Islam Makhachev. Instead, the belt is vacant. Islam's title reign is statistically the greatest in the UFC's 155-pound history, but now that it's over, it was also weird as fuck, consisting of a superfight with a Featherweight in Alexander Volkanovski, a rematch where Volk only had a week's notice and was visibly undertrained, a just-for-funsies match with Dustin Poirier thanks entirely to fan goodwill for the man, and his record-breaking fourth defense, which was supposed to come against Arman Tsarukyan, wound up changed to Renato Moicano the day before the pay-per-view. Champions are often accused of ducking their most dangerous challengers, but Islam repeatedly tried to face the top contenders of his division, and through no fault of his own, the universe chose to deny him. If he beats Jack, this conversation becomes pointless; if he loses, it's gonna be real weird forever. Either way the belt won't be vacant for long: Ilia Topuria and former champ Charles Oliveira will meet to fill the void at UFC 317 on June 28.
Featherweight Champion, 145 lbs
Alexander Volkanovski - 27-4, 0 Defenses
And just like that, 2024 never happened. For eleven years Alexander Volkanovski was the best Featherweight on the planet, and most of that time was simply waiting for everyone else to notice. He was short and he won by decisions a lot and the world was entirely into Max Holloway so he skated under the radar right up until the moment he finally beat Max. And that wasn't enough to convince people, so Volkanovski beat him again. And that somehow made the world doubt him even more, so he beat Max a third time. By 2023 Volk was second only to all-time great José Aldo in Featherweight title defenses--and he'd beaten Aldo in a fight, and his only actual loss was an all-timer of an effort against Islam Makhachev that still stands as the closest Islam has come to losing his title as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, so it was very, very easy to accept Alexander Volkanovski as the greatest Featherweight on the planet. And then he took a rematch with Islam with only one week to prepare and got knocked out in three minutes, and then he came back less than four months later and got flattened by Ilia Topuria, and in the space of two fights the audience went from celebrating him as the best around to calling for his retirement. Volkanovski took an entire year off to heal and rebuild, which was enough time for Ilia to get bored and vacate the belt to go chase Lightweight greatness, and the Topuria/Volkanovski rematch became Volkanovski vs Diego Lopes at UFC 314 on April 12 to fill the vacant throne instead. It was somehow both close and clear. Lopes gained steam in the middle stanza of the bout and at one point dropped Volk, but Volk got right back up and resumed punching him in the face, and by the end of the bout he'd outlanded him more than two to one. The judges sided with him, the audience sided with him, and Alexander Volkanovski became not just one of the rare few to win back a UFC title, but the first man over 35 to ever win a UFC belt in the sub-170 weight classes typically reserved for young lions. His logical next contender should be Movsar Evloev, but given that the UFC just tried to have him fight an unranked, debuting Aaron Pico, I wouldn't be surprised if they try to get Volk in against Yair Rodríguez for September's card in Guadalajara.
Bantamweight Champion, 135 lbs
Merab Dvalishvili - 19-4, 1 Defense
2024 is the year of belated championship justice, and for Merab Dvalishvili, justice has been hard to find. Merab spent his childhood training to wrestle, grapple and fight in his native Georgia, but as a devout fan of mixed martial arts he knew he needed to sacrifice his homeland to secure a future in the sport. More than Georgia, he needed Matt Serra and Ray Longo yelling at him in New York English. Merab's MMA career officially began with a 1-2 record in 2014, and there's an argument to be made that said rookie year is the last time he legitimately lost a fight. By 2017 he was already heralded as an unsigned prospect, and then he made, and lost, his UFC debut--but it was a split decision to Frankie Saenz, and, unsurprisingly, almost all the media scorecards had it in Merab's favor. One fight later he met Ricky Simón, and this time he clearly won a decision--but he had been stuck in a guillotine choke at the end of the fight, and in one of the most batshit endings to a fight I have ever seen, the referee ruled that he was retroactively unconscious after the fight had already ended. Merab had made it to the big show, and Merab was 0-2, and Merab was, to most of the world, already an afterthought. So he started wrestling as hard as he fucking could. Between 2018 and the midpoint of 2024 Merab ran up an astonishing ten-fight winning streak in one of the most talent-rich divisions in the sport. He made himself undeniable as one of the best in the world, and in 2022 he retired one of the greatest in all time, José Aldo, and made himself undeniable as a top contender. There was a problem: He didn't want the contendership. Aljamain Sterling was his good friend, best training partner, and the reigning champion, and Merab had no interest in fighting him, and that made the UFC furious. So when Aljo lost the title in 2023, the UFC denied Merab the shot he had clearly earned and handed it off to Marlon Vera instead. Merab kept winning, and the UFC kept trying to put space between his contendership and promotional favorite Sean O'Malley, but the road ran out on September 14, 2024, when Merab wrestled O'Malley into dust in front of the very tired audience of the Sphere. He's the champion, he has avenged his best friend, on January 18, he became cemented his legacy with a defense. After months of angry back-and-forths about preferential treatment from management, the undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov got the shot and Merab was a +300 underdog as a champion. By the end of the fight he was literally pointing and laughing at Umar as he cruised to a decision. Not only is Merab now a defending champion, he's in the odd position of having beaten all of his top contenders. But with Cory Sandhagen facing Deiveson Figueiredo, the UFC getting its way was officially inevitable. With a total record of 0 fights since losing their first match, Sean O'Malley will get his second crack at Merab at UFC 316 on June 7.
Flyweight Champion, 125 lbs
Alexandre Pantoja - 29-5, 3 Defenses
Sometimes, you just have someone's number. Brandon Moreno spent years fighting through a quadrilogy with Deiveson Figueiredo, and unfortunately for him, he had another trilogy waiting for him the second it was over. Alexandre "The Cannibal" Pantoja was Moreno's personal bogeyman, a man who'd fought and beaten him twice. But one of those fights was an exhibition on The Ultimate Fighter, and the other was against a Moreno with five less years of evolution and growth. Surely, a third fight in 2023 would be different. And it was--unlike the previous, one-sided dominations it was a fight-of-the-year candidate that took both men to their limit and led to a split decision--but its ending was not. Alexander Pantoja scored a third victory over Moreno, and with it, after sixteen years of competition, he finally became the clear, unequivocal best in the god damned world. Which was made even more poignant when he used his post-fight interview to ask if his absentee father was proud of him--and was made even more irritating when he also revealed that despite having eleven fights in the UFC at the time, he was paid so little that he'd been part-timing as a Doordash driver just to make ends meet right up until 2022. The idea that one of the absolute best fighters on the planet, after years and nearly a dozen fights in the world's biggest, most profitable fighting organization, would need to take on a gig-economy job to make money is outright offensive, and in a better world, it would have launched a furor. In this one, all we can do is be happy he's got the belt and will, hopefully, make some actual fucking money. His first title defense came against Brandon "Raw Dawg" Royval as the co-main event to UFC 296 on December 16th, and it was a wild affair with a couple scary moments, but Pantoja emerged victorious and notched the first successful defense of the title in three years. His next contender is, in all likelihood, the winner of the Brandon Moreno/Amir Albazi fight this February--or it would have been, until Albazi got injured. The UFC promoted a Moreno/Royval 2 showdown in hopes of scoring a Moreno rematch, but Royval won, so the UFC decided to forget the whole goddamn thing and book Pantoja against the #10-ranked Steve Erceg on May 4. It was a spirited fight, but Pantoja's experience ultimately got him the decision. On December 7 we got the rare cross-promotional treatment, as the UFC got Rizin champion Kai Asakura to sign up for an immediate title shot; Pantoja strangled him in two rounds and called out Demetrious Johnson. Instead, he's got a TUF24 rematch against Kai Kara-France at UFC 317 on June 28.
Women's Bantamweight, 135 lbs
Julianna Peña - 12-5, 0 Defenses
The women's divisions are all returning to their norms, and we are being dragged to hell with them. Julianna Peña winning the title in 2021 was one of the biggest upset shocks in mixed martial arts history. She wasn't an enormously accomplished fighter--winning The Ultimate Fighter 18 was her biggest career highlight--and she'd already been tapped out by Valentina Shevchenko and, somehow, became the one and only woman to ever get submitted by noted kickboxer Germaine de Randamie. She was on a one-fight winning streak when she fought Amanda Nunes at UFC 269, and her second-round submission was an absolute stunner. But questions abounded about Nunes--the fight had been postponed from an earlier date after Nunes had COVID, people thought she seemed slow and exhausted and sloppy, the fans wanted to see them run it back. Peña, of course, called it all naysaying from people too afraid to admit she was the best in the world, and she welcomed a rematch to prove once and for all just how great she was. Nunes promptly threw her in a dumpster over and over for twenty-five minutes. It was the kind of one-sided domination you just don't see often in title fights, and it let Nunes retire one fight later with a clear conscience. Peña was supposed to have a trilogy, but her own injuries kept her on the shelf for more than two years instead, and when she returned, it was straight into a title fight with newly-minted champion Raquel Pennington. It was, to be gentle, not a great fight. Pennington had the volume, Peña had the wrestling, very few people enjoyed the fight, but the audience--and 93% of media scores--agreed Pennington had pretty clearly won. So, of course, Julianna Peña got the belt back thanks to a split decision. Wasting no time in reminding everyone just how tired they were of her in the first place, Peña celebrated her victory not by offering Pennington a rematch, or by accepting the challenge of #1 contender Kayla Harrison, but by calling out Amanda Nunes for retiring because she was too afraid to fight her again. God bless the smoldering crater that is Women's Bantamweight. We're finally getting Peña vs Harrison at UFC 316 on June 7, and because time is a lie, the winner will defend their title against a returning Amanda Nunes late in the year.
Women's Flyweight, 125 lbs
Valentina Shevchenko - 25-4-1, 1 Defense
After almost two years of suffering, we have gone back to the start. At the end of 2022 Valentina Shevchenko was so thoroughly ensconced as The Greatest Women's Flyweight that a sizable segment of the fanbase had built an honest-to-god antipathy for her over it. Sure, she won, all the time, and sure, her only losses in almost a decade and a half came to the greatest of all time in Amanda Nunes, and sure, Shevchenko arguably won their second fight, but familiarity breeds contempt, and after watching the purported greatest struggle with a split decision to Taila Santos that could easily have gone the other way, too, a big chunk of the mixed martial world was ready to move on from Val. And then, unexpectedly, it did. Valentina was a -900 favorite when Alexa Grasso shocked the world, choked her out, and took her title away on March 4, 2023. An instant rematch was obligatory, given Val's long history on top, so half a year later they ran it back at Noche UFC in 2023, and, awkwardly, it ended in a draw. If the rematch had been obligatory, the threematch was mandatory, but a hand injury on Val's part and the UFC's desire to put an entire season of The Ultimate Fighter behind their promotion meant a full twelve months passed before they got back in the cage. That's a long goddamn time, and it left a lot of air, and that air was filled by doubt. Alexa won the first fight, after all--but she was on her way to losing a decision before Valentina made a costly mistake, threw one of her trademark nowhere-close-to-landing spinning back kicks, and got immediately jumped on and choked out for her troubles. Alexa didn't lose the second fight--but based on the scorecards, she should have, and would have, were it not for one judge handing her a completely indefensible 10-8 in the final round. When the third fight came on September 14, 2024, it was seen as Alexa's chance to cement her legacy: Either she was the superior fighter and the herald of a new generation for Women's Flyweight, or the whole thing was just a weird episode. Unfortunately for Alexa, it was the latter. Valentina dominated her. She outstruck her and outwrestled her with almost comical ease, the fight was a complete shutout, and despite their series being now tied at 1-1-1, no one has any doubts about the winner, nor any desire to see them fight again. Once again, much to the internet's chagrin, Valentina Shevchenko is a champion. And--only two years late--she defended her title against Manon Fiorot at UFC 315. It was close, it was contentious, and it was also a fight the audience does not want to see again.
Women's Strawweight, 115 lbs
Zhang Weili - 26-3, 3 Defenses
Are you really surprised? There's a long tradition of underestimating unlikely champions in mixed martial arts, particularly when they're not the fan-friendliest in style or personality, from Michael Bisping to Frankie Edgar, only to have those demeaned champions remind the world that they didn't reach the peak of their divisions by mistake. Many of the wise, studied scribes of the sport warned the foolish masses against assuming the same about Women's Strawweight Champion Carla Esparza: She was no pushover, they said, and Zhang will have real trouble. And then, come fight day, we unwashed masses pulled them from their ivory towers and forced them to run in the streets amongst the mud and filth so they, too, could feel the unburdened joy of being, because Zhang Weili, as basically every fan had assumed, did, in fact, beat the absolute tar out of Carla. It wasn't particularly close: Carla got outlanded 37-6, hurt several times on the feet, and choked out just a minute into the second round. The inexplicable, season-long Cookie Monster subplot is over, Zhang Weili is now a two-time world champion, and things are back as they should be. What comes next, however, is tricky. Carla was blown out, so a rematch is out of the question. Rose Namajunas, the only person in the UFC to beat Weili, is a likely candidate--but after her disastrous performance against Carla, it remains to be seen how much faith the UFC has in her. Jéssica Andrade has a claim, but she's splitting time between 115 and 125, and probably needs to pick a weight class if she wants a shot. So the UFC solved the problem by picking Amanda Lemos. In a surprise to no one, Zhang absolutely dominated Lemos, outstriking her 296-29, smashing her to the tune of multiple 10-8 rounds, and winning a very, very wide decision. The next step was a China vs China championship showdown against Yan Xiaonan at UFC 300, and Yan did better than some expected--which is to say she won a round while also arguably getting choked out once and TKOed once, and ultimately, Zhang took a lopsided decision again. Her fight with Tatiana Suarez on February 8th was supposed to be her most competitive defense: Ultimately, it was not. Tatiana won the first round; Weili proceeded to thwomp her for the next four and ultimately took a lopsided decision. The rumor now is Zhang will be moving up to Flyweight to face Valentina Shevchenko, but it has yet to be officially confirmed or denied. All we know is the UFC's putting on a card in Shanghai in August, and I'm sure they would've loved to have her on it, and she ain't.
NOTABLE CHAMPIONS ACROSS THE WORLD
Rizin Lightweight Champion, 156 lbs
Roberto de Souza - 19-3, 4 Defenses
Roberto "Satoshi" de Souza is trying to become the new Gegard Mousasi. On April 17 he had the chance to avenge the only loss of his career, a half-knockout half-injury against "Hollywood" Johnny Case back in 2019, and he succeeded in emphatic fashion, climbing Case's back, locking him in an inverted triangle choke and eventually forcing an armbar. He's now 14-1 and inarguably one of the best lightweights outside of the UFC, but unlike most of the other fighters to bear that title, he has made it clear he has no interest in changing that. Where the A.J. McKees and Michael Chandlers of the world want to test free agency and notoriety, Roberto de Souza is happy in Japan, both because his Rizin pay is fairly lucrative and his entire family jiu-jitsu business is based in the country. This is admirable, but it's also a little unfortunate: Rizin really only has around a dozen lightweights under contract, and "Satoshi" has already beaten a third of them. It was thus of particular interest when the main event for the New Year's Eve Bellator x Rizin card was announced as Roberto de Souza vs AJ McKee--a test of where Souza ranks with the rest of the world's competition. Unfortunately for him and Rizin, the answer was "under them." He positionally threatened McKee and was able to land some solid strikes in the final round, but was otherwise controlled and lost a decision. On May 6th, Satoshi beat Spike Carlyle in a fantastic fight--but it was a non-title fight, because Japanese promoters are still real scared of their own belts. Satoshi fought Patricky Pitbull at Bellator x Rizin 2 on July 29th--in another non-title fight, naturally--and took the first definitive beating of his career, getting utterly outclassed and ultimately stopped on leg kicks in three rounds. He fought Keita Nakamura at Rizin Landmark 9 on March 23 and put in one of the best performances of his career, battering K-Taro to a TKO in just 1:43--but because this is Japanese MMA it was, of course, a non-title fight, so it doesn't count as a title defense. His next title defense--his first in two and a half years--came against Luiz Gustavo at Rizin 48 on September 29, and it saw him drop Gustavo in fifteen seconds and pound him out to a maybe slightly premature TKO. He notched another win at Rizin Decade on New Year's Eve after putting the former 145-pound champion out with a triangle choke in the first round. He faced Ki Won-Bin on May 31 and destroyed him in less than a minute, but it was, once again, a non-title fight.
Rizin Featherweight Champion, 145 lbs
Razhabali Shaydullaev - 13-0, 0 Defenses
I asked how long the second reign of Kleber Koike Erbst would last, and as it turns out, the answer was sixty-two seconds. Razhabali Shaydullaev's rise through the sport has been impressively meteoric. Four years ago he was a rookie fighting on Batyr Bashy cards in Kyrgyzstan as a predominantly grappling-based fighter. Three years ago he was disposing of journeymen in the developmental leagues of Russia's Absolute Championship Akhmat. Two years ago he was choking out top contenders in South Korea's Road FC. One year ago he got signed to Rizin. In just six months he choked out a DEEP champion, submitted a Bellator champion and smashed through a K-1 Kickboxing champion with virtually no resistance. He was the favorite against Erbst, but few thought it would be an easy night, with Erbst having been finished only once in his entire career, and even that was an armbar all the way back in 2009 when he was still a rookie. Shaydullaev, as he has been doing for the entirety of his run thus far, destroyed Erbst. He walked through him and flattened him in just barely over a minute. Rizin's got another gaijin champion, and given how good he's looked, they may be stuck with him for awhile--or, worse, they might lose him to the UFC sooner than later. With Mikuru Asakura's victory over Chihiro Suzuki on the same night he's the logical next contender, but who knows what'll actually happen.
Naoki Inoue - 21-4, 1 Defense
Rizin is one step closer to an all-Japanese championship roster. Naoki Inoue's route to championship gold has been oddly circuitous, and as is so often the case, a big part of that comes down to UFC management. In mid-2017, Naoki was one of Japan's star rookies, an undefeated 10-0 mixed martial artist and an amateur kickboxing champion despite being just 20 years old by a matter of days. The UFC signed him and had him debut on 2017's Asian-focused Singapore card, where he beat Carls John de Tomas despite Tomas missing weight by half a weight class, and in response to his efforts, the UFC iced him out for an entire year. They brought him back 53 weeks later--once again, for a Singapore card--and this time he lost a close coinflip of a split decision to future top ten Flyweight Matt Schnell. In response to his 1-1 record, the UFC immediately released Inoue. A year later Inoue was in Rizin and immediately became one of their best Bantamweights, but try as he might, he couldn't quite get to the top. In 2021 he was eliminated from the semifinal round of the Bantamweight Grand Prix by eventual champion Hiromasa Ougikubo; in 2023, he fell to Juan Archuleta, who would become Rizin's Bantamweight champion one fight later. But Archuleta missed weight and Kai Asakura won the belt, and six months later Asakura promptly vacated the title to sign with the UFC, leaving Rizin struggling to fill the void. They ultimately settled on a bout between Inoue and top contender Soo Chul Kim for Rizin 48 on September 29. It was not an upset that Inoue won; he, too, was very well-regarded. It was an upset that Inoue, who had scored only one knockout in twenty-three fights, punched out Kim, who had never been stopped by strikes after fourteen years of competition. Naoki's finally got his gold: Now we see how long he can keep it. He notched his first defense at Rizin 50 after beating Yuki Motoya--and in doing so became the first man to ever defend the Rizin Bantamweight Championship.
Rizin Flyweight Champion, 125 lbs
VACANT - The recurring nightmare of unbeing
Rizin just can't really catch a break with the Flyweights. Kyoji Horiguchi was one of Rizin's biggest signings, as one of the best Flyweights in the world, but Rizin didn't have a Flyweight division so he fought at Bantamweight. This was successful, as was his winning the Bellator Bantamweight Championship during their co-promotion, but back-to-back losses made Kyoji long for Flyweight again. So Bellator and Rizin agreed to co-promote a Flyweight division, and Kyoji met Makoto Shinryu in a Rizin match for the Bellator Flyweight Championship, and it ended in twenty-five seconds with an eyepoke, and by the time the fight was rebooked for the New Year's Eve special, Bellator had been sold to PFL and its future was clearly in question, so Rizin proceeded with minting their own belt. Horiguchi won it on December 31, 2023, and he didn't defend it again until exactly one year later on December 31, 2024, and on March 28, 2025, Horiguchi's long-rumored re-signing with the UFC leaked when he was added to their testing pool and it was officially confirmed by the man himself at Rizin 50. That's two top champions the UFC has signed away from Rizin in a single year, and that's one more vacant belt for Rizin to fill--they're going to run a Flyweight Grand Prix, because you never miss an opportunity for a tournament.
Rizin Women's Super Atomweight Championship, 108 lbs
Seika Izawa - 15-0, 1 Defense
All hail the new queen. After years of reigning as Japan's best atomweight, the legendary Ayaka Hamasaki fell not once but twice to the rookie Seika Izawa. A 24 year-old who was pushed into judo as a child by a frustrated mother who was tired of her constant fighting with her brothers, Izawa discovered a love for grappling that led her to win junior championships in judo, wrestling and sumo alike. She would still be pursuing judo had the pandemic not shut down much of its competitive scene, but fortunately, mixed martial arts is a terrible sport run by monsters who don't care about things like deadly diseases, which made it a tempting professional prospect. Four months after her formal MMA training began Izawa was winning fights in DEEP, less than a year after that she was DEEP's strawweight champion, and one year later she was dominating one of the best women's fighters in history on Rizin's New Year's Eve special. As Japanese organizations tend to do, frustratingly, the fight was a non-title affair, meaning Izawa had to come back and do it again on April 17. After a scary moment where Hamasaki almost stole an armbar, Izawa resumed her wrestling domination and formally took Rizin's atomweight championship. As entirely fresh blood, the world of Rizin's talent is open to her--but that also means she's got a real, real big target on her back. Rizin's Superatomweight Grand Prix was both a big coming-out party for Izawa and a series of opportunities to look shockingly mortal: She had a fair bit of trouble with Anastasiya Svetkivska in the semifinals before ultimately submitting her, but her berth in the finals against former rival Si Woo Park proved the toughest fight of her career, ending in a split decision victory she easily could have lost. Seika was supposed to face Miyuu Yamamoto at Rizin 42, but after Yamamoto had to pull out with an injury, Izawa was instead scheduled to face...the last person Yamamoto beat, the 5-3 Suwanan Boonsorn, at DEEP Jewels 41 on July 28. Izawa choked her out, shockingly. It took more than an entire year, but Izawa finally had a title defense against the 8-4 grappler Claire Lopez, and Izawa scored the fastest championship victory in Rizin history, choking her out in just barely one minute. Seika scored one more win on New Year's Eve, choking out Miyuu Yamamoto in her retirement bout, and while it was an honor, it does sort of emphasize the problem with Seika's position. She's unquestionably the best Atomweight in the world, but the last real top fighter she faced was more than a year ago. Will Rizin bring her real competition, or are they trying to simply build a star? And what IS real competition at Atomweight? She choked out Si Yoon Park at DEEP JEWELS 44 to add yet another win and belt to her credit, but the Rizin title wasn't on the line, so she's still only got the one defense. She was booked for Rizin 48 on September 29th, and once again instead of a top contender it was Kanna Asakura, and once again, it was a non-title match. Three months later, Rizin booked her for their New Year's Eve supershow--against Lucia Apdelgarim, a 2-3 kickboxer who'd never beaten an MMA fighter with a single win. Seika submitted her easily and requested international competition, and by god, I hope she gets it, because this is an aggressive waste of her time.
is an aggressive waste of her time.
ONE Heavyweight Champion, 265 lbs
Oumar Kane - 7-1, 0 Defenses
The triple championship days are over, and we can go back to appreciating ONE's Heavyweight division for just how silly it really is. Oumar Kane's origins are very serious: He grew up near Dakar, the capital of Senegal, and established himself as an undefeated star of Laamb, better known as Senegalese wrestling, a particularly harsh form of the sport that takes place on sand or turf and is fought in tiny shorts. As a giant 6'4" muscle monster with a wrestling background, Kane was an internationally visible talent, and ONE picked him up just one fight into his MMA career and promoted him as an undefeated monster of African wrestling. And it was true! For two fights. In his third bout with ONE, "Reug Reug" lost his undefeated streak in 2021 after gassing just two rounds in against Kirill Grishenko, but the actual ending of the fight was a bizarre sequence involving Grishenko throwing a punch right at the bell that appeared to graze Kane's chin, only for Oumar to motion that he had been illegally punched in the throat after the bell and collapse onto the mat. After replays showed the punch barely connecting, the fight was ruled a TKO, and Oumar was accused of pulling a soccer dive. He spent three years building a three-fight winning streak--including a kickboxing match with "Boucher Ketchup" Mamadou Kamara, who is not a fighter but an influencer, and who fought exactly the way that sounds--and eventually that led him to a November 9, 2024 showdown with triple champ Anatoly Malykhin. The resulting fight was, to be gentle, pretty dreadful. Malykhin didn't know how to get in on Kane, Kane repeatedly backed himself into a corner to focus on countering, and outside of the first round and a bit of the fifth, very little actually happened. But a takedown in the first round, a yellow card on Malykhin's part for grabbing the ropes and a flash knockdown in the fifth were enough for Kane to win the title by split decision. "Reug Reug" is the champion. Unfortunately, he's the champion of a division with all of five other people in it and he's already fought four of them. ONE is trying to position Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida as the top contender, but given that Kane beat him to get his title shot in the first place--and, uh, Buchecha left the company after the fight--who knows what'll happen next.
ONE Light Heavyweight Champion, 225 lbs
Anatoly Malykhin - 14-1, 0 Defenses
ONE Middleweight Champion, 205 lbs
Anatoly Malykhin - 14-1, 0 Defenses
For the second time in as many title reigns, ONE has managed to put a ton of hype behind a champion only to squash them prematurely. Anatoly Malykhin is one of the most successful marketing campaigns ONE ever ran: An undefeated, heavy-punching Russian Heavyweight with a 100% finishing rate. He knocked out everyone he faced, he carried ONE's Heavyweight division as an interim champion while standing champion Arjan Bhullar was having contract issues, and when Bhullar finally re-entered the fold, Malykhin destroyed him with ease. But ONE had greater hopes for Malykhin as their spearhead for real international notoriety: They would make him the first three-division champion in the history of mixed martial arts. And it'd be real easy, because the other two belts were held by one guy. Reinier de Ridder had been their superstar double-champion, but his relationship with ONE had soured, and they cashed in by having de Ridder face Malykhin, twice, at both his weight classes. Malykhin destroyed him and became the first-ever 265, 225 and 205-pound champion the sport has ever seen--admittedly easier when you consider 225 is not a division that exists in almost any other federation on Earth. But he did it! And then they organized his first-ever title defense by having him put the Heavyweight belt on the line against Oumar "Reug Reug" Kane, and he lost a split decision, and now he is a lowly two-belt schmuck. It'll be interesting to see what they do with Malykhin now, given that the last 205-pound fight ONE promoted was Malykhin's bout against de Ridder, and the last 225-pound fight ONE promoted was Malykhin's 2022 bout with de Ridder.
ONE Welterweight Champion, 185 lbs
Christian Lee - 17-4 (1), 0 Defenses
ONE Lightweight Champion, 170 lbs
Christian Lee - 17-4 (1), 0 Defenses
It took three tries, but by god, Chatri gets what Chatri wants. Christian Lee, the male half of the first family of ONE Championship and its homegrown golden boy, was very mad about losing his lightweight championship in a controversial decision to Ok Rae Yoon last year. He demanded the decision be reviewed and overturned and his championship reinstated. Unsurprisingly: This did not happen. After months of complaining and just shy of a year of waiting, the two had their long-awaited rematch and Lee left nothing to chance, knocking Yoon out in six minutes to reclaim his belt. Having finally retrieved his title, Lee, being a responsible champion, proceeded to immediately challenge ONE'S 185-pound champion, Kiamrian Abbasov, for his title, a move that was definitely in no way influenced by ONE's repeated attempts to get his sister Angela Lee double-champion status. Fortunately for Christian, Abbasov horribly botched his weight cut: He came in overweight, lost his title on the scale, and was visibly depleted in the fight. Which is particularly lucky, because Abbasov beat Lee senseless in the first round to the point that a standing TKO would not have been an unreasonable stoppage. But whether from his failed weight cut or simply from punching himself out, Abbasov was exhausted by the second round, and Lee mounted a gutsy comeback and ultimately stopped him with ground-and-pound in the fourth round. After three attempts, ONE has succeeded in getting two belts on a Lee. Unfortunately, it was followed by tragedy. After the passing of his younger sister Victoria, Christian took the whole of the year to, understandably, grieve. ONE planned his comeback for February of 2024, but, y'know, that clearly did not happen. ONE held an interim title fight between Alibeg Rasulov and Ok Rae Yoon to welcome him back--but that didn't exactly happen either, as Rasulov failed hydration tests, became ineligible to win the title, then won the fight anyway. Lee vs Rasulov was scheduled for October. And then November. It finally happened on December 7--and it ended in a No Contest after two rounds thanks to Christian unintentionally gouging Rasulov's eye. Whoops.
ONE Featherweight Champion, 155 lbs
Tang Kai - 19-4, 1 Defense
Tang Kai has been flying under the radar for some time, and in hindsight, that was clearly a mistake. He made his professional debut as a 20 year-old collegiate wrestler and won a rookie featherweight tournament in China's WBK (after investigating, we THINK it's World Battle Kings), but his stylistic limitations became apparent when he moved up to Kunlun Fight--and stopped fighting rookies. Dominant decision losses to ACA standout Bekhruz "Ong Bak" Zukurov and Road to UFC runner-up Asikeerbai Jinensibieke made Kai's weaknesses too apparent to ignore, and he made the tough call to commit to his dream, pack up his life, and move away from home to start training with real fight camps, most notably Shanghai's Dragon Gym and Phuket's legendary Tiger Muay Thai. It's worked out quite well: He hasn't lost a fight in five years. Three knockout wins in China's Rebel FC got ONE's attention, and since debuting with the organization in 2019, Kai has soundly defeated everyone in his path. He claims his wrestling base makes him impossible to take down and he proves it by using it almost entirely defensively, vastly preferring to bludgeon his opponents on his feet. His fight against Thanh Le, while blistering and difficult, was proof: He evaded every takedown attempt, widely outstruck him, dropped him with punches and leg kicks alike, and took the belt he's held for two years. And then, absolutely nothing else happened. It took ONE almost a full year to book another match for Tang Kai, and it was just an instant rematch with Thanh Le with no fanfare, and it was delayed by eight full months thanks to an injury. So after more than a year and a half without a fight, Tang Kai finally fought Thanh Le again, and this time, he knocked him out in three rounds. Congratulations, Tang Kai: You are back at square one. His position hasn't improved much, either. He was supposed to defend his title against Akbar Abdullaev on January 10, and Abdullaev pounded him out in the fifth round, but he also missed weight by a pound and a half and thus was ineligible for the championship. So, hey: Still a world champion! You just got knocked out a little bit. It's fine.
ONE Bantamweight Champion, 145 lbs
Fabricio Andrade - 10-2 (1), 1 Defense
The second time was the charm. When Fabricio "Wonder Boy" Andrade joined ONE Championship back in 2020 he was a virtual unknown in the mixed martial arts world, a 20-3 kickboxer but only a 3-2 mixed martial artist who'd been fighting out in the regional circuit of China. His association with Tiger Muay Thai put him on ONE's radar, and his visible striking skills despite being just 21 at the time made him interesting enough for a developmental contract. Said contract proceeded to develop into Andrade going on a five-fight winning streak that only got more dominant as he met tougher competition, and three straight first-round knockouts punched his ticket to the championship picture. His first appearance in the spotlight, unfortunately, went a touch awry. First, bantamweight champion John Lineker lost his title on the scale after missing weight, meaning only Andrade was eligible to become champion, and he was well on his way to doing so before hitting Lineker with an errant strike to the groin so hard it shattered his cup, and with the fight not yet halfway complete, it had to be rendered a No Contest. It took four months to get to the rematch, and it was much more closely contested, but after four rounds Lineker threw in the towel, his face having been punched too swollen to continue. Fabricio Andrade is 25 and a world goddamn champion. He promptly skipped away from MMA completely and faced Jonathan Haggerty for ONE's Featherweight Kickboxing Championship on November 3rd, where he was immediately destroyed. At the end of January, 23 months after winning the title, Fabricio had his first defense against Kwon Won-Il, who he knocked out in 2022. At the time, it took him 62 seconds. This time it took 42. Thanks, ONE.
ONE Flyweight Champion, 135 lbs
Yuya Wakamatsu - 19-6, 0 Defenses
After two years of solitude, ONE's Flyweight title has a home again, and it is to one of the men most denied it. Yuya Wakamatsu was a Pancrase standout in Japan for years before the rest of the world knew his name, but even there, he couldn't get over the hump, winning their Flyweight Neo-Blood Tournament in 2016 only to get knocked out by standing champion Senzo Ikeda when he challenged for the title itself. But ONE's aggressive expansion in the late 2010s brought in a lot of Japanese talent, including both Wakamatsu and Ikeda, and fittingly, both lost their first two fights and were promptly forgotten by most of the audience. But where his nemesis retired in fairly short order, Wakamatsu kept grinding and ultimately built up a five-fight winning streak, which was more than enough to justify a shot at then-champion Adriano Moraes--which he lost. And then he missed weight and got knocked out. And then he won, but missed weight again. ONE was decidedly unhappy with him, but he got his weight cut under control and returned to his winning ways, and when Demetrious Johnson retired and abdicated the belt, ONE needed an answer. On March 23, 2025, Wakamatsu and Moraes had a rematch three years in the making, and this time, Wakamatsu made it count by pounding Moraes out in a single round. After a decade in the sport and three at-bats, Yuya Wakamatsu finally has his championship belt. Now we hope he gets booked to defend it.
ONE Strawweight Champion, 125 lbs
Joshua Pacio - 23-4, 1 Defense
It's been a difficult couple of years for Joshua Pacio. "The Passion" stands as a true veteran of ONE Championship, having made his debut--and his first, unsuccessful attempt at winning the Strawweight title--all the way back in 2016. Pacio established himself as both a fan favorite and a solid promotional favorite for the company, and when he lost his second bid for the title against Yosuke Saruta in 2019, ONE, in a trick they'd become very friendly with over the years, gave him an instant rematch anyway. Pacio knocked Saruta out in the rematch and became easily the greatest 125-pound champion in ONE history, ultimately defending the title three times--including a trilogy match against Saruta. By 2022, Pacio was a crown jewel for ONE's lineup. Which is when he promptly got wrestled into paste by UFC cast-off Jarred Brooks. Rather than having him defend the title, ONE booked Brooks into grappling matches, and in the meantime Pacio fought and defeated undefeated prospect Mansur Malachiev to earn himself a rematch. Multiple delays ensued, but on March 1, the Brooks/Pacio rematch finally came. Fifty-six seconds in, Pacio attempted a standing kimura on Brooks, who hoisted him off the ground, suplexed him, and knocked him out. Unfortunately, this was a problem. Under ONE's ruleset, slams that land headfirst are illegal. ONE has been regularly criticized for this--less for the rule itself as for ONE's tendency to selectively enforce the rule, using it to benefit fighters they would like to succeed. ONE, of course, denies this vehemently. However you draw your own conclusions, at the end of the day Jarred Brooks was disqualified, and thus, by DQ, Joshua Pacio is now a three-time Strawweight champion. He almost immediately announced he has torn his ACL and was out for an entire year. On February 20th, 2025, Pacio and Brooks finally fought again and it was weird, but definitive. Jarred Brooks seemingly exhausted himself after a round and Pacio pounded him for the entire second round, which eventually elicited a mercy stoppage from the ref. ONE has only one 125-pound champion again.
ONE Women's Strawweight Champion, 125 lbs
Xiong Jing Nan - 19-2, 7 Defenses
Xiong Jing Nan dreamed of lifting weights. She'd enjoyed sports as a child, and when China started its national push for Olympic supremacy she began training heavily in hope of joining the national weightlifting team. But then she met aspirants for its boxing team and fell in love with the idea of living out a martial arts movie and getting to hit people for fun and profit and she never looked back. She turned pro in 2014 and immediately became a standout, going 9-1 in China's Kunlun Fight promotion with wins across three separate weight classes. What made her truly dangerous wasn't one-punch power, but the ability to break her opponents with constant pressure striking, scoring TKOs with combinations stretched out across dozens of consecutive, unending strikes. The story was no different when she moved to ONE in 2017, and she was strawweight champion within two fights. ONE's women's MMA divisions have been its most stable, each having had exactly one champion, and they were so dominant that they inevitably had to fight each other--and, hilariously, traded wins back and forth in the process. 115 lbs champion Angela Lee went up to 125 to challenge for Xiong Jing Nan's belt but Nan stopped her with body kicks in the fifth round, and half a year later Nan dropped down to 115 to challenge for Lee's belt only for Lee to choke her out with twelve seconds left in the fight. Xiong has notched three successful title defenses since, which set her up for her greatest challenger yet: Angela Lee, again, apparently. Despite ONE's best attempts, Xiong successfully defended her title against Lee again, nearly finishing her in the first round and ultimately winning a decision. An entire 364 days later, she had her next fight: A special rules match, with MMA gloves but only punches and no takedowns or clinching allowed, against Muay Thai champion Nat "Wondergirl" Jaroonsak. Half a year later her next fight was finally announced, and it was, once, defending her title against ONE's new postergirl in Stamp Fairtex as the company attempts, once again, to make a double champ at Xiong Jing Nan's expense, and with Stamp out injured ONE went back to radio silence. It took half a year for Xiong to get rebooked--and it was a non-title fight against Bo Meng at 115 pounds. Xiong won, and once again, what the hell are we doing.
ONE Women's Atomweight Champion, 115 lbs
Denice Zamboanga - 12-2, 0 Defenses
Denice Zamboanga, to be clear, is not the problem. She's a good fighter. She's been trucking along in ONE since 2009, she's proven herself repeatedly as a solid all-around competitor. She's tough, she's talented, she's never been finished. She's also never beaten a top fighter. She's fought 0-0 rookies, she's beaten journeywomen on losing streaks--in a dozen fights with ONE, she's only beaten someone coming off a victory at all twice. She was also notably defeated by Seo Hee Ham, the top Atomweight contender and former Rizin champion, twice in a row. It was consequently a bit of a surprise to Ham when ONE announced an interim title fight to make up for Stamp's injury absence and she wasn't in it. Instead of her, the #1 contender whose only loss in ONE was to Stamp herself, it would be Denice Zamboanga, the woman she beat, against Alyona Rassohyna, a woman she also beat and who, as a bonus, had not fought in ONE since September of 2021--when she lost to Stamp Fairtex. This was all supposed to end in a unification match with Stamp at ONE 173 on August 1, but in early May, ONE announced that Stamp had reinjured her knee and was going to miss at least the rest of 2025. With the awareness that it would have been close to two and a half years between title fights, Stamp 'voluntarily relinquished' her title. Congratulations on becoming champion by default, Denice. The question now becomes if ONE will book her at all.
Invicta Bantamweight Championship, 135 lbs
Jennifer Maia - 23-10-1, 0 Defenses
It did not take Jennifer Maia long to find her way back home to Invicta after the UFC cut her in 2023, and it only took a year for her to reclaim gold in the company she left behind. This is, in fact, Maia's third stint with Invicta: The first time around was back in 2013, when Invicta was barely a year old and Maia was only a couple years and nine fights into her career, and it saw Maia distinguishing herself as a hot prospect but failing to get past the top ranks. She came back in 2016 as a more seasoned fighter and captured its Flyweight championship, but, as is the fate of all regional champions, she traded the belt for a ticket to the UFC. Her half-decade in the big show was by no means bad--she even fought Valentina Shevchenko for the UFC's 125-pound title--but she still couldn't crack the top of the mountain, and eventually, the UFC got tired of her derailing prospects and let her go. It only took two fights for Maia to dethrone Talita Bernardo and gain her second Invicta gold. Hopefully she sticks around this time.
Invicta Atomweight Championship, 105 lbs
Elisandra Ferreira - 9-2, 1 Defense
The only major Atomweight division in America is back, and as happens so often, it belongs to Brazil. Elisandra "Lili" Ferreira started competing as an amateur at 19, lost all of her amateur fights, and proceeded to turn pro anyway, because giving up sucks. She spent the first third of her professional career fighting at Strawweight simply because Atomweight opportunities are few and farbetween, but she made the turn to the lower weight class in 2021 and never looked back, and boy, it's worked out for her. With one exception--a loss to Anastasia Nikolakakos, maybe the best Atomweight on this side of the globe--Ferreira's cleaned house on the division. She made the jump to Invicta in 2023, and a year and a half later she's 4-0 and the new bannerwoman for its most unique weight class, thanks to a hard-fought decision over Andressa Romero on September 20, 2024. Invicta's 2024 comeback has reclaimed its first lost title; now we just have to see who they line up to test Ferreira over the next year of its renaissance. Her first at-bat came against Ana Palacios at Invicta FC 61 on April 4, and Ferreira earned a near-shutout on the scorecards.