THE PUNCHSPORT REPORT FOR MARCH 2025

A Pitbull, a vacant belt, and a few more weeks before we're fully up to speed.

Welcome to March. We're picking up momentum, we've got five UFCs, multiple ONEs and the first Rizin of the year, but even that is slow mode because the PFL starts next month and the GFL is maybe going to attempt to wish itself into existence. Enjoy the relative peace while you've got it.

THIS MONTH'S PUNCHSPORTS EVENTS

• UFC Fight Night: Kape vs Almabayev, March 1

• UFC 313: Pereira vs Ankalaev, March 8

• UFC Fight Night: Vettori vs Dolidze 2, March 15

• UFC Fight Night: Edwards vs Brady, March 22

• UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Erceg, March 29

• ONE Fight Night 29: Rodrigues vs Cohen, March 8

• ONE 172: Takeru vs Rodtang, March 23

• Rizin 50, March 29

IS THERE ANY NEWS

A whole bunch of matches got announced in the last week of the month, but we'll focus down on three things.

For one: Patrício Pitbull, ace of the now-fallen Bellator, managed to escape the clutches of the Professional Fighters League after a whole year of very public issues with the company's lack of matchmaking. He's signed with the UFC and given his stature, his cache with the fans and his already being 37, they're not wasting any goddamn time with him: He's fighting Yair Rodríguez in April.

In less fun news, Ilia Topuria made good on his threat to move on from Featherweight greatness. After dropping Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway back to back, Topuria is moving up to Lightweight and vacating the belt. The odds-on likelihood is his facing Islam Makhachev sometime later this year, but who the hell knows what'll happen. Volkanovski and Diego Lopes will meet for the vacant belt in April.

And, two years after she already clearly earned it, the UFC is finally done wasting Manon Fiorot's time. Valentina Shevchenko vs Manon Fiorot will co-main event UFC 315 for the Women's Flyweight Championship in May.

---

WHAT HAPPENED IN FEBRUARY

We got off to a quick start on February 1st with UFC Fight Night: Adesanya vs Imavov. It was an early-morning card from Saudi Arabia and it felt every bit like it. Down on your prelims, Hamdy Abdelwahab won a vaguely wonky decision over Jamal Pogues, Bogdan Grad pounded out Lucas Alexander in two rounds, Jasmine Jasudavicius dominated Mayra Bueno Silva, Terrance McKinney destroyed Damir Hadžović in two minutes, Shami Gaziev knocked out Thomas Peteren, adn Muhammad Naimov outworked Kaan Ofli. Up top, Farès Ziam won a deeply fun grappling battle with Mike Davis, Vinicius Oliveira outlasted Said Nurmagomedov, Sergei Pavlovich had a definitive if slightly underwhelming victory over Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and Michael "Venom" Page took a decision over Shara Magomedov. The main event provided the sadder version of passing the torch, as Israel Adesanya got himself torched by Nassourdine Imavov in five and a half minutes after looking like he just couldn't quite dodge the punches anymore.

Invicta FC popped up again on the 7th for Invicta FC 60: Rubin vs Cantuária. As is always the case with Invicta it had a great subset of under-the-radar women's talent, and as is often the case with Invicta it had very few finishes so you probably didn't see a thing about it. The two finishes on the card came from the rookie fights on the prelims, as amber Medina pounded out Anna Somers and Joy Pendell choked out Julia Dorny, and the prelims were rounded out with the rare Atomweight fight, as Giulliany Perêa took a decision over Jessica Holmes. Up top, Liana Pirosin beat Shino VanHoose, Rayla Nascimento took the duke over Victoria Leonardo, Katharina Lehner won a close split against Shanna Young, and in your main event, Mayra Cantuária won a really fucking fun slugfest against Olga Rubin. Please watch Invicta. It's good for you.

The weekend continued with ONE Fight Night 28: Prajanchai vs Barboza. Am I qualified to write about Muay Thai? No. Am I emotionally attached to ONE Championships? Not really. Do I feel honor-bound to put them here even though in truth I'm doing them a huge disservice by writing disinterested summaries of events I barely perceive? The answer to all of these questions is Jeremy Miado beat Gilbert Nakatani, Zhang Lipeng knocked out Hiroyuki Tetsuka, and Prajanchai P.K.Saenchai retained the ONE Strawweight Muay Thai World Championship with a doctor's stoppage over Ellis Barboza. One day, maybe, we will come to terms.

Particularly because the UFC sucks and I still watch it, as evidenced by UFC 312: du Plessis vs Strickland 2 on the 8th, or 9th, depending on your time zone. It wasn't bad, exactly, but it was very, very long. On the early prelims, Quillan Salkilld crushed Anshul Jubli in nineteen seconds, Jonathan Micallef kicked Kevin Jousset for fifteen minutes, and Rongzhu won a really great fight with Kody Steele. On your regular-flavor prelims, Ilia's older brother Aleksandre Topuria dominated Colby Thicknesse, Wang Cong won a fight against Bruna Brasil, who seemed uncertain what she was doing there, Tom Nolan won a good bout with Viacheslav Borshchev, and Gabriel Santos overcame getting dropped in the first round to hurt Jack Jenkins and choke him out in the third. And on your main card, which cost eighty dollars, Jake Matthews beat Francisco Prado, Jimmy Crute went to a majority draw with Rodolfo Bellato, and Tallison Teixeira knocked out Justin Tafa in about half a minute. The co-main event saw Zhang Weili successfully defend her Strawweight title against Tatiana Suarez, who had a good first round but unfortunately fell apart afterward; the main saw Dricus du Plessis take a pretty dominant decision over Sean Strickland, which was a bit close until Dricus broke his nose in the third round. May the story end here.

UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs Rodrigues was up next on the 15th, and despite being thoroughly hurt by substitutions and iffy booking, it was pretty solid. The prelims say Jacqueline Cavalcanti, Elijah Smith, Rafael Estevam and Angela Hill all pick up decisions, the latter a particularly close but important split with Ketlen Souza; Valter Walker managed to heel hook Don'Tale Mayes, Gabriel Bonfim choked Khaos Williams unconscious, and Jose Delgado notched a knockout against Connor Matthews. Up tope, Andre Petroski got a decision over Rodolfo Vieira, Nazim Sadykhov managed a doctor's stoppage against Ismael Bonfim after kicking his eye open, Edmen Shahbazyan unsurprisingly knocked out Dylan Budka in about a minute and a half, and Youssef Zalal managed to outwork Calvin Kattar to a decision. The main event was a fun back-and-forth that saw Gregory Rodrigues almost finish Jared Cannonier in the first round, only for Cannonier to outlast him, punch him loopy at the end of the thirdf and finish him shortly into the fourth.

The 20th brought us ONE 171: Qatar, and boy, it's hard not to notice that after months of so many months of barely paying attention to MMA, the moment ONE is in front of its Qatari financiers, they put on a card where 10 of its 12 fights took place under MMA rules. Crazy! Your highlights: Kade Ruotolo continued his transition to the sport by quickly submitting Nicolas Vigna, Ayaka Miura probably broke poor Ritu Phogat's leg with a kneebar, Kirill Grishenko stopped Mauro Cerilli on leg kicks, Bibiano Fernandes won his retirement match by beating Kevin Belingon for the fourth time (no, that's not a typo), Shamil Gasanov beat Martin Nguyen, Shamil Erdogan stopped Aung La Nsang with a headkick in about thirty seconds, and Roberto Soldić faceplanted Saygid Arslanaliev in the first round. Your co-main was the one prominent kickboxing match, as Jonathan Haggerty retained the Bantamweight Kickboxing Championship over Wei Rui; your main event saw Joshua Pacio finally settle the long-standing interim championship rivalry and reunify the Strawweight World Championship by stopping an exhausted Jarred Brooks in two rounds.

The month closed with UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs Song on the 22nd, a long-suffering but very fun card that ended really, really poorly. The prelims were an all-finish special: Modestas Bukauskas punched out Raffael Cerqueira in a round, Nursulton Ruziboev got Eric McConico out of there in the second, Austin Vanderford ground-and-pounded Nikolay Veretennikov in two rounds, Ricky Simón got a big upset by dropping Javid Basharat cold with a one-two in four minutes, Mansur Abdul-Malik pounded out Nick Klein, Melquizael Costa choked out Andre Fili, and Ion Cuțelaba arm triangled Ibo Aslan. The top card started really poorly--Alonzo Menifield beat Julius Walker in one of those fights that just kinda makes you not feel good about Light Heavyweight existing--but Jean Silva stopped Melsik Baghdasaryan in one round, Rob Font put on a great veteran performance in defeating Jean Matsumoto, and Anthony Hernandez overcame some difficulties and an apparent sickness to take the decision over Brendan Allen. Then the main event happened and stuff got real dumb. Two and a half rounds in, Song Yadong poked Henry Cejudo in the eye and badly damaged him, Cejudo took the full five minute foul break and continued despite being so compromised that he had stated he was having trouble seeing, and when between rounds he again insisted he could not see, instead of his corner or a doctor stopping the fight, in an arcane reading of the rules, the referee began round four so he could instantaneously suspend the fight, leading to a technical decision that went Song's way. No one's happy and everything is silly.

WHAT'S COMING IN MARCH

We're starting bright and early on the 1st with UFC Fight Night: Kape vs Almabayev. If you're reading this, there's a really good chance you already saw my writeup on it, which got published before February ended because scheduling is weird! Manel Kape was supposed to fight Brandon Royval for #1 contendership but Royval got hurt so now he's gotta wrestle Asu Almabayev instead. Also, Cody Brundage vs Julian Marquez is a UFC co-main event in 2025. But there's a Heavyweight I don't hate on it! I don't have the joy for this one, man. I just don't.

ONE's back in Lumpinee on the 8th for ONE Fight Night 29: Rodrigues vs Cohen, which is the exact kind of mostly-kickboxing affair my eyes slide off of. Allycia Rodrigues defends the Women's Atomweight Muay Thai title against Shir Cohen, and I hope our kickboxing-friendly friends have more ot say about it than I do because I know how ridiculously hard these fighters work and I feel bad shortchanging them just because they happen to fight for an organization that pretends to also be into MMA.

UFC 313: Pereira vs Ankalaev is also on the 8th, and while the card took some hits over the last few weeks, it's still pretty okay. Your early prelims are Djorden Santos vs Ozzy Diaz and Mairon Santos vs Francis Marshall, your regular prelims are Alex Morono vs Carlos Leal, Brunno Ferreira vs Armen Petrosyan, Joshua Van vs Rei Tsuruya and Curtis Blaydes vs Rizvan Kuniev, and your main card is King Green vs Maurício Ruffy, Amanda Lemos vs Iasmin Lucindo, Jalin Turner vs Ignacio Bahamondes and Justin Gaethje vs Rafael Fiziev. The main event is the long, long-awaited matchup between Light Heavyweight Champion Alex Pereira and the rightful #1 contender for at least a year, Magomed Ankalaev.

March 15th gives us UFC Fight Night: Vettori vs Dolidze 2, which is a pretty fuckin' weird one even by Apex standards. Yuneisy Duben vs Carli Judice? Josiane Nunes vs Priscila Cachoeira? Carlos Vera vs Josias Musasa, Stephanie Luciano vs Sam Hughes and Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs Ryan Spann? Alexander Hernandez vs Kurt Holobaugh, a match that somehow feels like it could have happened in like 2006 even though neither was fighting yet? Chidi Njokuani vs Elizeu Zaleski should be potentially fun as a co-main, but the main event is a real weird rematch between Marvin Vettori and Roman Dolidze, even though their last fight was just two years ago and Vettori has only had one fight since. Middleweight: What can you do.

We're back to London for the first time since the Summer of 2023 for UFC Fight Night: Edwards vs Brady on the 22nd. It is, unsurprisingly, another big ol' Englandfest. Nathan Fletcher vs Caolán Loughran, Shauna Bannon vs Puja Tomar, Christian Leroy Duncan vs Andrey Pulyaev, Marcin Tybura vs Mick Parkin, Lone'er Kavanagh vs Felipe dos Snatos and Jai Herbert for Chris Padilla are your UK preliminary all-stars. On the main card: Nathaniel Wood vs Morgan Charrière, Jordan Vucenic vs Chris Duncan, Molly McCann vs Istela Nunes, Gunnar Nelson vs Kevin Holland, and in your co-main event, Jan Błachowicz faces rising contender Carlos Ulberg in one of Dana White's please-rid-me-of-this-aging-Polish-man specials. In your main event, Leon Edwards has his first non-title fight in almost three years, as he defends his spot at the top of the ladder against Sean Brady, who despite being generally overlooked is still 6-1 in the UFC, with his one and only loss coming to the champ, Belal Muhammad. Which might make a title shot awkward.

The UFC knocks off for the month on the 29th with UFC on ESPN: Moreno vs Erceg, their annual return to Mexico City. The card isn't fully finalized yet as of this writing, but said writing is like 36 hours before the month ends and I'm tired of waiting. Besides, the big stuff's already set: Christian Rodrigues vs Melzquizael Costa, Loopy Godinez vs Julia Polastri, Manuel Torres vs Drew Dober, Édgar Cháirez vs C.J. Vergara, Rafa García vs Vinc Pichel, and Kelvin Gastelum vs Joe Pyfer. Your actual main event is Brandon Moreno against Steve Erceg, a matchup that quietly infuriates me in a great number of ways, but I'm sure we'll talk all about that four weeks from now.

The month actually ends on Rizin 50 that night. It's a long-ass card, with thirteen MMA fights and four kickboxing fights, so stay the hell up and watch it until you pass out in a puddle of Japanese martial arts. Some of it's weird--7-10 Kyohei Hagiwara vs 12-11 Toby Misech is just a deeply perplexing choice--but Polo King vs Ryo Sakai should be the right kind of silly Heavyweight action, and 22-year veteran Yoshiro Maeda having his 62nd career bout against the professionally-debuting 18 year-old Sanoh Yokouchi is the most Japanese MMA thing possible, and Spike Carlyle is going to continue his attempts to become a gaijin icon by fighting Takeshi Izumi, and Luiz Gustavo will try to knock out Shunta Nomura and probably succeed. Your co-main is a real interesting fight against just-dethroned former Featherweight champion Chihiro Suzuki and Kazakhstani top contender Karshyga Dautbek, and your main event sees Naoki Inoue defending the Bantamweight title against the much more experienced Yuki Motoya.

---

CURRENT 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 Pereira.

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 he gets to be the interim champion of a Heavyweight division in which the real champion, Jon Jones, is going to be out injured well into next year and, the UFC has made clear, will be returning to defend his title against Stipe Miocic, who by that time will have been on the shelf for 3+ years and will be going on 42. So congratulations, Tom. You're the real Heavyweight champion, and to prove it, you're defending your title before Jon Jones. Aspinall avenged his one UFC loss by blasting Curtis Blaydes out in a single round at UFC 304 on July 27, 2024. Will he get to reunify the title? Who goddamn knows.

Light-Heavyweight Champion, 205 lbs

Alex Pereira - 12-2, 3 Defenses

Conflicting things can be simultaneously true in this sport. It is true that Alex Pereira was brought into the UFC as a 3-1 rookie based on his history as a kickboxer rather than his accomplishments in the sport. It is true that he was fast-tracked to a title shot against the primary focus of that history, megastar Israel Adesanya, after beating just three fighters, none of whom had any hope of testing his grappling. It is also true that he rendered that discourse ultimately irrelevant by not just beating but stopping Adesanya in his title shot anyway, in the process becoming the fastest Middleweight to go from debut to champion since Anderson Silva. It was more or less an open secret that he wasn't going to stay there: Being bigger than most Heavyweights in the UFC, the weight cut to 185 was always a short-term thing. Luckily for the UFC, he got knocked out by Adesanya and gave him the title right back on his way up to 205. Once again, he got fast-tracked, this time by happenstance. A split decision victory over Jan Błachowicz made Pereira a top five contender, and when Jamahal Hill was forced to vacate his title thanks to an ankle injury--and the previous champion, Jiří Procházka, was back from his own title vacation and injury--Pereira was slotted right back into championship place. They met at UFC 295 on November 11th, and after two back-and-forth rounds, Pereira punished a Jiří who dared to grapple by elbowing his skull until he briefly stopped moving. The commentary and audience thought it was an early stoppage, but Jiří Procházka didn't, so fuck 'em. It is true that Alex Pereira has fought seven UFC fights without having to fight an actual grappler, and that was an intentional choice by matchmaking. It is true that getting the chance to win championships in two weight classes within just two years and seven fights in the UFC is not a thing that happens to most fighters. But it is unavoidably true that Alex Pereira is a two-division champion and no one can take it away from him. After none of the UFC's other ideas worked out, Alex Pereira vs Jamahal Hill became the main event of UFC 300, and after weeks of talking endless rafts of shit, Hill got knocked out in the first round. Pereira was scheduled to defend his title against Procházka for a second time in August, but after Conor McGregor pulled out of UFC 303 because his toe hurt, the rematch was moved up with fourteen days to prepare. There was no question about the stoppage this time: Alex dropped Jiří right at the end of the first round and finished the job thirteen seconds into the second. Pereira ironically reinjured his already-injured toe on Jiří's skull, but that didn't stop him from defending against Khalil Rountree Jr. on October 5. After a surprisingly competitive first two rounds, Pereira took over and stopped him in the fourth. Next up, finally, will be Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313 on March 8.

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.

Welterweight Champion, 170 lbs

Belal Muhammad - 24-3 (1), 0 Defenses

It took everything for Belal Muhammad to finally get here. Being a lifelong wrestler and shooting as many doubles as you do big right hands does not make you a marketing darling, and when Belal made his UFC debut in 2016 as an undefeated wrestling stylist and immediately went 1-2 he was quickly lost in the background radiation of the sport. The first sparks of momentum were visible after toiling away in mostly preliminary fights en route to a four-fight winning streak, but then Geoff Neal beat him and everyone wrote him off altogether. Everyone except Belal Muhammad. Belal worked harder, trained better, doubled down on his style, and forced his way back into the rankings with another four victories. And then, for the first time, the UFC tried to use him. Their other problem child contender, Leon Edwards, was supposed to fight and be summarily derailed by Khamzat Chimaev, but for the third time, the fight was cancelled; Muhammad stepped in on short notice. The fight ended in a No Contest thanks to an eyepoke just eighteen seconds into the second round. Despite having decidedly not lost the fight, despite having done the UFC a favor by taking it in the first place, it would be five fights and almost three and a half years before he got the rematch he deserved. He hadn't beat anyone in contendership, so he dominated Stephen Thompson. He had an unavenged loss to Vicente Luque, so he beat him. He was too boring, so he knocked out the undefeated Sean Brady. He was pressed to take a fight against top contender Gilbert Burns with three weeks to prepare while nursing one barely-functional ankle. He did it and won. He hadn't been defeated in ten straight fights. And Colby Covington got his title shot. The UFC tried everything to keep Belal away from contention, to the point that Leon Edwards attests that he asked the UFC why they weren't offering him the Belal fight and the UFC replied that Belal just wasn't important enough. But, on a long enough timeframe, you run out of both options and excuses. On July 27, at the UFC's big British supershow on UFC 304, Belal finally got the shot he'd deserved for years, and he did not waste a second of it. After five grueling rounds, Belal took a wide, definitive decision, and with it, the recognition he's been chasing. He's the UFC Welterweight Champion of the World. And now he has to deal with a division that's suddenly looking very, very lively. Belal was scheduled to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310 on December 7, but a nasty bone infection in his toe has put him on the shelf, possibly until mid to late 2025 if treatment goes poorly. Shavkat beat Ian Machado Garry in a title eliminator instead--and then he got injured, so instead it'll be Belal vs Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 in May.

Lightweight Champion, 155 lbs

Islam Makhachev - 27-1, 4 Defenses

Destiny has come. When Islam Makhachev made his UFC debut in 2015, Khabib Nurmagomedov, considered by most to be the #1 contender and soon to be the best in the world, swore up and down that Makhachev, not him, would be the best lightweight champion of all time. Coming from him, the praise made sense: Khabib and Islam have trained together since they were children growing up and learning to wrestle in Makhachkala. Islam learned under Khabib's father, trained with Khabib's team and even made the pilgrimage to America to join Khabib at the American Kickboxing Academy. And then, two matches into his UFC tenure, Islam got knocked the fuck out in the first round by the little-known Adriano Martins, who hasn't won a fight in the six years since. Even as Makhachev racked up wins, the memory of his loss and his wrestling-heavy approach to his fights let people cast doubts on him. Sure, he's good--but he lost, so he's not as good as Khabib. Islam Makhachev, as his trainer tells it, never wanted to be Khabib. He loves fighting, but he doesn't love the spectacle or the glory or the attention. So when, after ten straight wins, Makhachev was picked to challenge Charles Oliveira for the vacant title he never truly lost, a lot of folks just weren't quite sure what to think. Sure, he was an incredible wrestler, but Charles Oliveira is a submission wizard, and sure, he's on a ten-fight streak, but he hasn't fought a single person actually IN the top ten, and Oliveira represents a huge, dangerous step up as a man who's been destroying some of the most accomplished lightweights in the sport's history. Analyst opinion was split right down the middle; the fight, as it turned out, was nowhere near that competitive, and the only analyst who was entirely correct was Khabib. Islam demolished the former champion, outstriking him, taking him down at will, controlling him in the grappling, and ultimately dropping him with punches and choking him out in the second round. His first defense was a different story. Islam faced featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284 on February 12th in a rare best-of-the-best, champion vs champion match, and this time, his team's prediction of domination was thoroughly incorrect: It was a pitched battle that ended with Makhachev visibly exhausted and Volkanovski pounding on his face. Islam took an extremely close decision and the divisions will remain separate, but his aura of invulnerability has been thoroughly punctured. Or, at least, it was. In one of those funny moments of sport deterioration, his title defense against Charles Oliveira got scratched thanks to Oliveira busting his eyebrow in training, and on less than two weeks' notice the UFC ran Makhachev/Volkanovski 2, and with no hype, no marketing and no time to prepare, a visibly depleted Volkanovski got dropped by a headkick in the first round. Islam defended his Lightweight title against a Lightweight for the first time against Dustin Poirier at UFC 302 on June 1, and unfortunately for the dreams of many, he dominated Dustin and choked him out in the fifth round. Islam was supposed to defend his title against top contender Arman Tsarukyan on January 18, but Arman had to pull out the day before the fight and the #10-ranked Renato Moicano stepped in; Islam, unsurprisingly, choked him out in one round. Islam's in a weird spot. He's unquestionably a top pound-for-pound fighter, he's unquestionably the world's best Lightweight, and now, with four defenses, he's broken the UFC's all-time 155-pound title defense record. But he also, through no fault of his own, has yet to defend against a top contender in his own division. With the UFC making clear Arman will have to fight another title eliminator and Islam talking about challenging for Welterweight gold, that may be true for some time to come—especially now that Ilia Topuria is a Lightweight.

Featherweight Champion, 145 lbs

VACANT - The recurring hole in the world

Well, the Ilia Topuria era was fun while it lasted. Everyone with eyes spied Topuria as a potential future champion, but everyone who reads the news knew he was planning his exit from the division before he even mantled it. It sure would've been nice if he'd stuck around just a bit longer, though. On February 19th, the UFC announced Ilia was vacating his title and moving up to Lightweight in the hopes of a big-ticket match against Islam Makhachev. They stopped short of announcing that matchup is actually going to happen, so it remains to be seen if he actually gets the fight first or if he has to make it through a top contender. The world won't have to wait too long for the throne to be filled--Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes will be fighting for the vacant belt at UFC 314 on April 12th--but with Topuria walking through the division, knocking out its two top stars and peacing out to Lightweight, it's going to take awhile for any new champion to feel legitimate.

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. In all likelihood, some mixture of Sean O'Malley, Petr Yan, Cory Sandhagen and Umar will have rematches to determine his next challenger.

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. Godspeed, buddy.

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. The rumor is Peña vs Harrison will finally happen at UFC 316 in June, but we'll see.

Women's Flyweight, 125 lbs

Valentina Shevchenko - 24-4-1, 0 Defenses

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'll be defending her title against Manon Fiorot at UFC 315 on May 10th.

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 the winner of Shevchenko/Fiorot, but it has yet to be officially confirmed or denied.

---

NOTABLE CHAMPIONS ACROSS THE WORLD

Rizin Lightweight Champion, 156 lbs

Roberto de Souza - 18-3, 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.

Rizin Featherweight Champion, 145 lbs

Kleber Koike Erbst - 34-7-1 (1), 0 Defenses

I'm not the biggest Michael Schiavello fan, but he nailed it when he asked how often a fight starts in one year and ends in the next. Kleber Koike Erbst was one of the best Featherweights in the world--a grappling champion, a wrestling threat, and a standout in Poland's Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki--when he was first betrayed by the scale. His hard-earned KSW championship was taken away from him after he missed weight by three pounds for his first defense, and a future UFC contender in Mateusz Gamrot kept him from regaining it. It was Erbst's only loss in three years, and it'd be his last for four more. He made the jump to Rizin in 2020 and strangled his way to a five-fight winning streak in just sixteen months, and after submitting Juntaro Ushiku Erbst earned his second set of international gold, and once again, it all fell apart immediately afterward. First, in December of 2022, the much-hyped Bellator vs Rizin interpromotional card ended with all of Rizin's competitors losing in non-title fights, including Erbst, who was outfought by Patrício Pitbull. Six months later Erbst had his first title defense against growing Japanese star Chihiro Suzuki, and he easily won, submitting Suzuki in three minutes--but once again, Erbst missed weight, meaning he not only lost his belt on the scale, but he was disqualified from winning the fight itself, rendering it a No Contest. Rizin was eager for a rematch, especially after Suzuki shocked the world by knocking Pitbull out during the second Bellator vs Rizin event the following year, but Erbst took an upset loss to aging veteran Masanori Kanehara. After thirteen years without back-to-back losses, Erbst found himself 0 for 3. And he chose to deal with it by staying as busy as possible. Three months later he choked out Yutaka Saito at the 2023 New Year's Eve special, six months later he tapped out former Bellator and Rizin champion Juan Archuleta in just two and a half minutes, and finally, he main-evented the 2024 New Year's show against Chihiro Suzuki for their long-belated rematch. It was much closer this time around, with Suzuki arguably doing more damage and Kleber having more near-finishes thanks to his submission attempts, and ultimately, the judges sided with him and returned the crown he never truly lost.

Rizin Bantamweight Champion, 135 lbs

Naoki Inoue - 20-4, 0 Defenses

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'll defend against Yuki Motoya on March 31.

Rizin Flyweight Champion, 125 lbs

Kyoji Horiguchi - 33-5 (1), 1 Defense

Well, this was a long time coming. Before Rizin even existed, Kyoji Horiguchi was the consensus #2 Flyweight fighter on the planet. He'd won Shooto's 125-pound title, he'd come to America half to face the best in the world and half because Japan's MMA scene was in a real, real bad place at the time, and by mid-2015, he was 15-1 and ready to fight for a world championship. Unfortunately, said championship was held by Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson, the best Flyweight of all time. Johnson dealt Kyoji his second-ever loss and first-ever stoppage, and it stopped Horiguchi's dream of being the best, but it also opened him up to becoming a star. A year later he was out of the UFC, back home in Japan, and, immediately, one of Rizin's top attractions. But Rizin didn't have a 125-pound division--so he settled for just winning is 135-pound belt instead. When Rizin began cross-promoting with Bellator, he went and took their belt, too, just for good measure. But his strength of schedule and his own injuries caught up with him: He ultimately vacated both belts without ever recording a title defense. By the time he came back in 2021, things had changed. He'd been knocked out for the first time in Kai Asakura back in 2019, but he was fighting hurt and on short notice, so that was excused. When Sergio Pettis knocked him out in his 2021 return fight, it was a warning; when Patchy Mix dominated him in his first match in the Bellator Grand Prix of 2022, it was a sign. Horiguchi needed to be back at 125. Bellator opened a Flyweight division more or less just for him, and at Bellator x Rizin 2 in the summer of 2023, Horiguchi faced Rizin star Makoto "Shinryu" Takahashi to crown the company's inaugural champion--and the fight ended in a No Contest after Horiguchi poked Shinryu in the eye twenty-five seconds into the first round. And then Bellator got sold and stopped operating as an independent entity. Whoops! Rizin decided to just make the goddamn belt themselves, and on New Year's Eve of 2023, Horiguchi and Takahashi had their rematch, and this time, Horiguchi choked him out. Eight years after his first attempt, Kyoji Horiguchi has a Flyweight world championship. His first act as a 125-pound champion? Taking a June 9 fight against Sergio Pettis at 135 pounds, which he won by unanimous decision, but which, of course, was not a title defense. He finally got on the board--his first title defense in five lifetime championship reigns--by beating Nkazimulo Zulu at Rizin 49 on New Year's.

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.

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

VACANT - The fallen arch on the pinion

One of the greatest legacies in mixed martial arts ended in September of 2024, as ONE Flyweight Champion and unquestionably the greatest Flyweight fighter in history, Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson, announced his retirement. We thank him for his service, we pray he does not pop up in BKFC, and we turn our eyes to ONE for the future. On one hand, ONE has not at all subtly been getting out of the MMA business, and losing one of their most internationally popular fighters isn't going to motivate them to change. On the other: It's an empty belt, and Chatri has never missed a chance to put a giant belt on someone's shoulder. We'll probably see a new Flyweight champion one day, it's just a question of how long it takes.

ONE Strawweight Champion, 125 lbs

Joshua Pacio - 22-4, 0 Defenses

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 - 18-2, 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 is, once again, completely silent about Xiong's future.

ONE Women's Atomweight Champion, 115 lbs

Stamp Fairtex - 10-2, 0 Defenses

It was slightly awkward when Seo Hee Ham and Stamp Fairtex were booked to meet at ONE Fight Night 14 in an interim atomweight title match, given the longstanding rumors of Angela Lee's retirement, and boy, it didn't get any less weird when ONE, which clearly knew what was going on, had Angela Lee announce that retirement just minutes before said match, which was promptly changed to an undisputed championship bout. But that's just part of how ONE rolls, as is their blatant attempts at favoritism, and boy, Stamp Fairtex is their most successful case study thus far. ONE signed her back in 2017 as a Muay Thai stadium champion, and within one fight in ONE she was their Atomweight Kickboxing Champion, and within two fights she was their Atomweight Muay Thai champion. Is this a statement about how quickly they push people they want or how thin their divisions can be? The answer, as always, is Yes. But none of that stopped Stamp from being really fucking good at fighting, and as she transitioned to mixed martial arts she ran up a great record--with the sole exception of a two-fight series with Alyona Rassohyna, where she tapped out in the first and attempted to deny it, then won a real close split decision in an immediate rematch. ONE did not feel the need to book a rubber match, for some odd reason. Stamp won the 2021 Atomweight Grand Prix, got her shot at Angela Lee, and got choked out for her troubles, but a year and two wins later, she was good to go for another championship showdown. It wasn't easy--Seo Hee Ham dropped Stamp in the second round and, for some mysterious reason, when recapping the round, ONE chose to highlight Stamp's offense and not show it--but she stopped Ham with body shots in the third round, and in doing so became not just the undisputed champion, but the first person to ever actually knock Ham out in a fight. (Before you say it: No, Ayaka Hamasaki doesn't count, that was a corner stoppage.) ONE has their new star, and she's a hell of a striker. They immediately booked the rest of their championship year around her, setting up fights with Denice Zamboanga and Xiong Jing Nan regardless of what happened in the first, and as always before a fall, Stamp immediately got injured and will miss the rest of the year. Fuck off, ONE.

ONE Interim Women's Atomweight Champion

Denice Zamboanga - 12-2, 0 Defenses

Speaking of ONE needing to fuck off, we've got another interim champion. 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. So now Denice is an interim champion in an organization with thirty-four different championship belts thanks to her knockout over someone who hadn't won a fight in almost half a decade and her reward is an eventual unification match with Stamp. Xiong Jing Nan has not had a mixed martial arts bout since September of 2022.

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 - 8-2, 0 Defenses

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.