THE PUNCHSPORT REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 2024

Bellator is back, Saudi Arabia invades multiple countries at once, and my house is full of boxes.

Welcome to September. With the UFC taking a week off and PFL gone 'til NovemberOctober we're in for a slightly gentler month. However, after being MIA for months, Bellator is suddenly back twice this month. And Invicta's here. And ONE is back in America! And the UFC is at the fucking Sphere. God bless our sport.

THIS MONTH'S PUNCHSPORTS EVENTS

• UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Brady, September 7

• UFC 306: O'Malley vs Dvalishvili, September 14

• UFC Fight Night: Moicano vs Saint Denis, September 28

• ONE 168: Denver, September 6

• Bellator Champions Series 4: Nurmagomedov vs Shabliy, September 7

• Bellator Champions Series 5: Eblen vs Edwards, September 14

• Invicta FC 57: Ferreira vs Romero, September 20

IS THERE ANY NEWS

BENJI RADACH - APRIL 5, 1979 - AUGUST, 2024

The mixed martial arts world lost Benji Radach without knowing how, why, or even exactly when he passed, and it's a weirdly appropriate coda for a particularly weird career.

"Razor" was one of the vanishingly dying breed of mixed martial artists who could confidently say they did goddamn near everything in the sport. He was a king of the regional scene, he was there for the nascent years of World Extreme Cagefighting and fought for the second-ever MMA promotion in Canada, he had a beautifully even 1-1 (1) record in the UFC, he fought for a world championship thanks to the International Fight League, he scored a knockout win live on network television thanks to the short-lived EliteXC, and he even made it to Strikeforce and Bellator before he retired.

He was, at one point, one of the top Welterweights in the sport.

But his career is remembered primarily for internet legend. In 2003, at 15-1 (1), Benji Radach fought the 0-0 Danny Lafever and got knocked cold in a single minute. It was a viral sensation of the early-2000s internet, and the mythology around it is bigger than the clip itself. UFC champion knocked out by local bar brawler! Top-ranked fighter brawls with man over his girlfriend! Disgraced loser pays firm to scrub all records of his loss from the internet! In truth--as reported through an interview with Drake Riggs--there was no bad blood between the men, and upon learning they'd dated the same woman they decided to fight essentially for shits and giggles. They stayed friends afterward and even talked about running it back just for the hell of it.

If weirdness is the coda on Benji Radach's career, that sort of placidity is the coda on his life. Seemingly no one has a bad word to say about the man. His training partners have been remembering him as an unusually kind man, his opponents have recollected talking with him genially before and after their fights, and there are a dozen takes out there about his beating up a guy with a gun at a restaurant.

And we will probably never know what happened to him. Underrated fighter, underappreciated part of the sport, and whatever happened, at 45, it happened too damn young. Benji leaves behind a 21-7 (1) record in mixed martial arts.

In the grindingly slow wheels of public justice, former UFC champion Cain Velasquez has elected not to go to trial fighting the charges for that whole 'speeding down the highway while trying to shoot someone' thing from early 2022. Pleading No Contest means he'll escape the more serious charges that could've caught him a life sentence, but it also means his fate is ultimately up to how much the judge likes him. Sentencing starts on October 18, so we'll find out for Halloween.

Civil justice is taking slightly longer. When last we touched base with the UFC's antitrust lawsuit, Judge Boulware had decided to spike the company's settlement and ordered them back to the table. It didn't work out, and, shockingly, neither did Dana White's tactic of accusing the judge of prolonging the trial because he didn't like him in high school: The trial is now officially set for February 3 of next year. No one has any goddamn idea what's happening anymore, and anyone who says they do is lying.

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WHAT HAPPENED IN AUGUST

We kicked things off on August 2nd with PFL 7, the beginning of the 2024 playoffs. The undercard was your typical conglomeration of random fights and alternate bouts, highlighted by Anthony Ivy choking out Jaleel Willis, Dedrek Sanders punching out Sergio Cossio, our old friend Cody Law managing to submit Zachary Hicks, and Sergey Bilostenniy becoming a successful alternate after heel hooking Tyrell Fortune. But the playoffs were the big deal, as always. At Women's Flyweight, Taila Santos managed to narrowly defeat a Liz Carmouche who missed weight for the first time in her career and Dakota Ditcheva knocked out Jena Bishop in one round; at Heavyweight, Oleg Popov outworked Linton Vassell and Denis Goltsov punched out Timothy Johnson.

ONE was up next with ONE Fight Night 24: Brooks vs Balart on the 3rd. What had already been a thoroughly messed up card in conception wound up even funnier when 1/4 of the card's fighters managed to miss weight--including main eventer Gustavo Balart, meaning not only was this fight already for an interim championship, only Jarred Brooks was allowed to win. So in a card littered with catchweights and split between multiple sports everything got thoroughly weird, and at the end of the day most people remembered it for three things: Elias Mahmoudi knocking out Taiki Naito in a kickboxing match with a spinning backfist, Mayssa Bastos unseating Danielle Kelly to become ONE's new Women's Atomweight Submission Grappling World Champion, and Jarred Brooks quickly disposing of Gustavo Balart in the main with a rear-naked choke.

The UFC also got started that day with UFC on ABC: Sandhagen vs Nurmagomedov, their latest trip to Abu Dhabi. The prelims saw Sedriques Dumas defeat Denis Tiuliulin, Jai Herbert make a successful comeback against Rolando Bedoya, Sam Hughes get a split over hyped prospect Victoria Dudakova, Guram Kutateladze return to the sport to narrowly beat Jordan Vucenic, Shamil Gaziev scoring a broad decision over Don'Tale Mayes, Kauê Fernandes punching out an exceedingly misplaced Mohammad Yahya, and Azamat Murzakanov knocking out Alonzo Menifield. Up on the main card, Joel Álvarez stopped Elves Brener in the third round, Mackenzie Dern managed a close decision over Loopy Godinez, Michael Chiesa choked out the corpse of Tony Ferguson, Deiveson Figueiredo took a decision over Marlon Vera, and Shara Magomedov finished his soup by defeating Michał Oleksiejczuk. In the main event Umar Nurmagomedov passed his contendership test by getting a wide decision over Cory Sandhagen, much to my personal chagrin.

Invicta was back for the month on the 9th with Invicta FC 56: Maia vs Cantuária. Down in your prospect prelims, Ashley Barrett made a successful MMA debut by pounding out Tatiana Salazar in ninety seconds, Ali Pellegrini won her debut by choking out the slightly more experienced Marissa Ellis, Giulliany Perêa took a decision over Ailed Zubieta, and Ana Palacios got her own against Flor Hernandez. Up top, Kate Bacik got a close split against Paula Cristina, Jackie Cataline got a late Featherweight knockout over Kelly Ottoni, and Valesca "Tina Black" Machado managed a solid decision against Yulia Ostroverkhova. The main event saw the rather unjustly cast-off UFC veteran Jennifer Maia return to Invicta for the first time in seven years, and she dutifully outfought Mayra Cantuária to a three-round decision.

The next day on the 10th, we got UFC on ESPN: Tybura vs Spivac 2. This particularly tormented card saw a number of replacements and cancellations, ultimately went to broadcast with only ten fights and saw three of those ten happening at catchweight after people blew their cuts, which is always grand. Your four-fight prelims saw Stephanie Luciano dominate Talita Alencar, Youssef Zalal choke out Jarno Errens, Jhonata Diniz score a decision over Karl Williams after he infuriatingly forgot he was a wrestler, and Karol Rosa shut out Pannie Kianzad. On the main, Toshiomi Kazama choked out Charalampos Grigoriou, Yana Santos beat Chelsea Chandler in Chandler's second straight failed attempt to make 135, Chris Gutiérrez defeated a debuting Quang Le, Danny Barlow narrowly beat Nikolay Veretennikov, and Chepe Mariscal beat the stuffing out of Damon Jackson but could not finish him. In your main event, Serghei Spivac won his rematch with Marcin Tybura after Tybura threw himself recklessly into Spivac's guard and got armbarred in just over a minute and a half.

August 16th brought us PFL 8, the Lightweight/Light Heavyweight side of the year's playoffs. Once again the prelims were somewhat scattershot, with Michelle Montagu winning the rare Women's Featherweight bout by choking out Marilia Morais, Mads Burnell becoming a Lightweight alternate after beating Elvin Espinoza, and the Danny Sabatello humiliation tour continuing as he got dropped on his ass by Lazaro Dayron and ultimately fought to a draw. Also Biaggio Ali Walsh got another knockout over a warm body. In your Lightweight playoffs, Brent Primus scored a dominant decision against Clay Collard and Gadzhi Rabadanov knocked out Michael Dufort; at Light Heavyweight, Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov got a decision over Rob Wilkinson and Impa Kasanganay survived a tough first round to win the judges over against Josh Silveira.

The weekend brought us the 18th and our pay-per-view for the month in UFC 305: du Plessis vs Adesanya. On your early prelims: Jesús Aguilar choked Stewart Nicoll unconscious, Kenan Song beat Ricky Glenn, and Tom Nolan had to go to a decision to beat Alex Reyes. On your regular prelims: Jack Jenkins beat Herbert Burns to his second TKO (Couldn't Get Up) loss in three fights, Casey O'Neill outboxed Luana Santos for fifteen minutes, Ricardo Ramos won a real close split decision against Josh Culibao, and Valter Walker heel hooked Junior Tafa, after which Tafa slapped him in the face, which seems like it should be a bigger deal. On the main card: Carlos Prates knocked out Li Jingliang, Jairzinho Rozenstruik beat Tai Tuivasa by split decision--which, to be clear, was so obviously not a split decision that the judge who inexplicably scored it 30-27 for Tai was relieved of duty for the night--Dan Hooker won maybe the closest, could-go-either-way decision of the year thus far against Mateusz Gamrot, and Kai Kara-France returned from his long layoff by knocking Steve Erceg out in one round. The main event was the year-belated showdown between Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya, and it was a wild, back-and-forth affair that ended with du Plessis stunning Adesanya, chasing him down and choking him out in the fourth round, after which he apologized for all the weird Real African bullshit and they made peace, which was rare and pleasant.

The 23rd saw the end of the PFL playoffs in PFL 9, consisting of the Featherweights and Welterweights. The prelims included a really good reserve bout that saw Enrique Barzola beat Tyler Diamond and a close bout where Mukhamed Berkhamov beat the once-prized Ray Coper III, but the world was there for semifinals, and semifinals they received. At Welterweight, Shamil Musaev got a decision over Murad Ramazanov and Magomed Umalatov defeated the eternally underprepared Neiman Gracie; at Featherweight, Timur Khizriev won the incredibly rare double 30-27 split decision over Gabriel Alves Braga and Brendan Loughnane won a hard-fought split over Kai Kamaka III.

August ended the next day with UFC on ESPN: Cannonier vs Borralho. The entire damn card was short-notice, so in some ways it's amazing it happened at all. On your prelims: Wang Cong made a successful debut by knocking out Victoria Leonardo, Jacqueline Cavalcanti got a split (that really should've been unanimous) over Josiane Nunes, Viacheslav Borshchev got an equally wonky split over James Llontop, Zachary Reese put a one-sided and lengthy beating on José Daniel Medina, and Francis Marshall won--guess what--a wonky split over Dennis Buzukja. Lots of unnecessary splits on this card. Up top, Gerald Meerschaert got a great comeback submission over Edmen Shahbazyan to become the all-time Middleweight finishes leader, Michael Morales passed his rankings test when he pounded out Neil Magny in one round, and both of your Ultimate Fighter finales ended in second-round knockouts, with Mairon Santos putting Kaan Ofli out cold and Ryan Loder elbowed Robert Valentin's face off in the crucifix. The co-main was a close call, with Tabatha Ricci narrowly defeating Angela Hill, and the main event saw Caio Borralho beat Jared Cannonier by decision, except for one he took some nasty lumps on the way, and for two, Cannonier was knocked out in the fifth round to the point of doing a slow-motion cut-down-tree fall, only for the ref to inexplicably not stop the fight.

WHAT'S COMING IN SEPTEMBER

It's a slightly gentler month, but there's still plenty to see.

ONE gets off first with ONE 168: Denver on September 6th. It's their big return to America, and suddenly, shockingly, ONE rediscovered the ability to book MMA fights the second they were in America. But not enough to put them in any of the headlining spots, because Xiong Jing Nan exists only if Stamp Fairtex does. Your MMA bouts: Adrian Lee vs Nicholas Cornejo, Hiroba Minowa vs Sanzhar Zakirov, Alyse Anderson vs Victória Souza, Hiroyuki Tetsuka vs Isi Fitikefu, Maurice Abévi vs Samat Mamedov, and Aung La Nsang vs Shamil Erdogan. Your other highlights include John Lineker inexplicably having a Muay Thai fight against Asa Ten Pow, Saekan Or. Kwanmuang Muay Thai-ing against Liam Harrison, Kade Ruotolo defending the Lightweight Submission Grappling Championship against Mikey Musumeci, the grappling champion of a division 30 pounds lighter, and in your main event, Jonathan Haggerty defends the Bantamweight Muay Thai Championship against Superlek Kiatmuu9.

Bellator's back for an unseasonable two events in as many weeks, starting with Bellator Champions Series 4: Nurmagomedov vs Shabliy on September 7th. It's their first shot in America since the new PFL schedule began, and the prelims are traditionally a bit of a mess--with the exception of Sumiko Inaba, whom you should watch--but the main card is, by Bellator standards, pretty solid. Yancy Medeiros meets Jora Ayvazyan, Douglas Lima faces Aaron Jeffrey, Lorenz Larkin tries to elbow Levan Chokheli, and Raufeon Stots is back in action against Marcos Breno. The main event sees Usman Nurmagomedov finally defending his title against Alexandr Shabliy after their May 17th scheduling got postponed over an Usman injury.

On the same day, we are back to the Apex for UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Brady. We're nearing the (temporary) end of our time with the Apex, but this visit at least has some solid fights on it. On the prelims: Andre Petroski vs Dylan Budka, Yi Zha vs Gabriel Santos, Felipe dos Santos vs André Lima, Isaac Dulgarian vs Brendon Marotte, Jaqueline Amorim vs Vanessa Demopoulos, Ryan Spann vs Ovince Saint Preux--yes, really--and Rong Zhu vs Chris Padilla. On your main card: Trevor Peek swings lunchboxes at Yanal Ashmouz, Matt Schnell meets Alessandro Costa, Steve Garcia faces Kyle Nelson, Jéssica Andrade gives Natália Silva her final exam, and in the main event, Gilbert Burns tries to end his first-ever losing streak against Sean Brady.

It's week two for Bellator on the 14th, this time thanks to Bellator Champions Series 5: Eblen vs Edwards 2, the company's return to London. I'll be honest: Even by the standards of local-fandom regional support cards, this one's a little weak. You've still got your Darragh Kellys and Ciarán Clarkes and Archie Colgans, but as good as some of those fighters are, you're trying to run a 12,000-person arena with a card that's scoring 4 out of 22 on fighters with Wikipedia pages. But that's okay, because your main card has, uh, Marc Diakiese! Making his Bellator debut. And Sara Collins! Facing Leah McCourt! That's something, right? Your main event sees Johnny Eblen defending the Bellator Middleweight Championship against Fabian Edwards, and honestly, that's the problem, being as Eblen knocked him dead in their previous fight last September, and since then Edwards has defeated exactly one man. Like, it's Bellator, there is only so much one can do with its roster at the moment, but even within those constraints this isn't quite capturing the imagination.

What's worse, later that day is,, and take a deep fucking breath, here, Riyadh Season presents Noche UFC 2: UFC 306: O'Malley vs Dvalishvili. This is a Mexican Independence Day-themed pay-per-view broadcast live from The Sphere in Las Vegas starring Two Fighters Who Are Not Mexican presented to you by The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. At a certain point, what do you even fucking say. But Irene Aldana is going to fight Norma Dumont, Raul Rosas Jr. is going to wrestle Aoriqileng and Brian Ortega is going to fight Diego lopes even though that was a late replacement fight in the first place and is now completely pointless, but what can you do. You've got two title fights up top. Despite being an actual, honest to god Mexican fighter, Alexa Grasso is stuck defending the Women's Flyweight Championship in the co-main event where she will (hopefully) finish her trilogy with Valentina Shevchenko, and in the main event, Sean O'Malley puts his Bantamweight Championship up against top contender Merab Dvalishvili.

Invicta gets the penultimate event of the month on September 20th with Invicta FC 57: Ferreira vs Romero. And, uh, as of this writing that's the only scheduled fight: Elisandra Ferreira vs Andressa Romero for the vacant Invicta FC Atomweight Championship. Hopefully I'll update this with more stuff before August is over.

And, finally, September 28th brings us UFC Fight Night: Moicano vs Saint Denis live from Paris. It's a lot of stuff, but a lot of it is good. Germaine de Randamie vs Nora Cornolle is potentially neat. William Gomis vs Joanderson Brito is almost definitely neat. Kevin Jousset vs Bryan Battle is a GREAT matchup, as are Farès Ziam vs Matt Frevola and Morgan Charrière vs AJ Cunningham. Ion Cuțelaba vs Ivan Erslan? Less enthused. Nassourdine Imavov vs Brendan Allen? It'll be interesting. But the main event, where Renato Moicano will meet Benoît Saint Denis? That should be fuckin' great.

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If you like coming here for weird pictures, I must warn you that aside from adding Jarred Brooks as an interim champion in ONE, there are no picture updates this time around. Sorry! We are in the thick of moving, I just have not had the damn bandwidth for it. We'll be back for funny Halloween pictures next month.

CURRENT UFC CHAMPIONS
Heavyweight Champion, 265 lbs

Jon Jones - 27-1 (1), 0 Defenses

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 is back. And in the most predictable thing possible, some bullshit happened, he got injured, he's going to be gone for at least eight months, and the UFC is not only not stripping him of the title like they've done to everyone else, they've already gotten out ahead of themselves and made clear that when he comes back, he will be fighting Stipe Miocic, not whoever the interim champion is at the time. Funny, that.

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. Now he waits to see what the hell happens with Jones and Stipe, I guess.

Light-Heavyweight Champion, 205 lbs

Alex Pereira - 11-2, 2 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, so hopefully he gets more than two months to recover this time around.

Middleweight Champion, 185 lbs

Dricus du Plessis - 22-2, 1 Defense

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.

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.

Lightweight Champion, 155 lbs

Islam Makhachev - 26-1, 3 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.

Featherweight Champion, 145 lbs

Ilia Topuria - 15-0, 0 Defenses

The king is dead, long live the king. Everyone paying attention knew Ilia Topuria was a special sort of prospect all the way back in 2020, but it wasn't until he destroyed Ryan Hall that the rest of the world noticed. A man who is equal parts German, Georgian and Spanish, Topuria established himself immediately as a force to be reckoned with: An undefeated wrecking machine with a strong wrestling game, a thoroughly solid grappling game, and the combination of terrifying knockout power and the sheer confidence to use it that can only come from having never lost a fight. Which was tested, thoroughly, when Topuria went up to Lightweight on short notice, fought a man in Jai Herbert who was half a foot taller than him, nearly got knocked out twice, and proceeded to recover, regroup, and fold Herbert in half with a punch in the second round. Suddenly, his prospect status was proven. Not only was he good, he was capable of dealing with adversity. Within the year he'd become the first (non-exhibition) fighter to ever beat Bryce Mitchell after ragdolling him and choking him out, and by the end of 2023 he'd dominated Josh Emmett, proving both his place at the top of the Featherweight contendership ladder and his ability to go five full rounds without falling over. His ascension couldn't have come at a better time. Alexander Volkanovski, one of the greatest champions in UFC history, was finally beginning to show signs of wear--somewhat unfairly, as those signs came from an incredibly inadvisable last-minute fill-in 155-pound fight against Islam Makhachev--but getting knocked out is getting knocked out, and when you've only been beaten once in a decade, getting knocked out in one round makes people ask difficult questions about your age, longevity, and durability. When Volk and Ilia met at UFC 298 on February 17, almost every question people had was, in fact, answered. Can Volk outwork Topuria? Absolutely; he won the first round handily and was dancing around him. Can Ilia keep himself in check? Completely; knowing just how good Volk was, Ilia was uncharacteristically patient and measured and didn't get himself in any real trouble in the first round while he figured out what he wanted to do. Can Alexander Volkanovski stand up to Ilia Topuria's punching power? Buddy: No one can. Three and a half minutes into the second round Topuria successfully trapped Volkanovski against the cage with his footwork, and one combination later, Volkanovski was on the floor. Ilia Topuria's destiny has come. He's the Featherweight champion. And he has, of course, already sworn to try to become a double champion within his next two fights. But fight #1 is a defense against Max Holloway at UFC 308 on October 26.

Bantamweight Champion, 135 lbs

Sean O'Malley - 18-1 (1), 1 Defenses

The house always wins. I have spent years being mad about Sean O'Malley. Very few people get the red carpet rolled out for them without having some other previous success to draw on, but Dana White seemingly hand-selected Sean O'Malley as The Guy back in 2017 when he won a contract on the second-ever episode of the Contender Series, and from the second he first stepped into the octagon, he was treated like a Big Fucking Deal. His matchmaking was favorable, his marketing was endless, and even when he fucked up--getting his leg broken against Andre Soukhamthath, pissing hot for ostarine and missing a year, getting knocked out by Marlon Vera--the UFC was there to pick him up and keep pushing him up the ladder. He went from fighting regional fighters and flyweights to a top ten matchup, and when that match ended with him poking out Pedro Munhoz's eye, he was catapulted into a title eliminator against the #1-ranked Petr Yan, and when he got one of the year's worst decisions against Yan, he was allowed to sit on his hands for almost a year to wait for a title shot against a champion who was given three months and no injury recovery time to prepare. Is it fair for me to dislike Sean O'Malley for decisions the UFC made? Absolutely not, and I don't blame him for them whatsoever. Fortunately for me, Sean O'Malley also has a great love of making public hot takes like "here's my power ranking of my female coworkers by how fuckable I think they are" and "publicly avowed rapist Andrew Tate is a great guy I want to co-promote and advertise with" and "convicted child molester Tekashi69 is my homeboy" and "I have an open relationship with my wife where I get to bang other people but she doesn't because I'm the man" that make me feel deeply, thoroughly at peace with disliking him for other reasons. But none of that means he isn't a hell of a fighter or he didn't absolutely fucking flatten Aljamain Sterling with a picture-perfect counterpunch in their title fight. Did he deserve the shot? Not even a little. Did he prove he belongs at the top? Undeniably. However much of a shithead he may be, he's the champion of the goddamn world. Just in case his status as a marketing favorite had not been made abundantly clear, the UFC announced he will have his first title defense not in a rematch with Sterling, or a meeting with top contender Merab Dvalishvili, or even a bout with the streaking Cory Sandhagen, but--of course--a rematch with Marlon "Chito" Vera, the #6 contender on a one-fight win streak who knocked O'Malley out back in 2020. O'Malley dominated him, won a clear shut-out, and then called out Ilia Topuria, but he finally gets to deal with Merab at Noche UFC on September 14.

Flyweight Champion, 125 lbs

Alexandre Pantoja - 28-5, 2 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.

Women's Bantamweight, 135 lbs

Raquel Pennington - 16-8, 0 Defenses

The throne is once again full. Amanda Nunes left a gaping void in the world of women's mixed martial arts when she retired last Summer, and it took the UFC seven months to do something about it. The Women's Featherweight title? That's just gone, man. The patient could not be resuscitated. There's still life in Women's Bantamweight, though, and with Nunes gone and Julianna Peña injured, there was only one sensible match to make. Raquel Pennington should have gotten her title shot more than a year ago. "Rocky" is one of the UFC's longest-tenured women, at this point--her debut came more than a decade ago as a runner-up on The Ultimate Fighter 18 (jesus christ)--and the millstone weighing down her championship aspirations was the fact that more than five years ago she had a title fight, and it saw Amanda Nunes just beat her to a pulp. Despite being on the division's longest winning streak at the start of 2023, this loss was commonly cited as reason enough to deny Pennington the shot, and given that she's a generally affable, no-nonsense fighter with a grinding wrestling style, she is, categorically, the UFC's least favorite kind of person, which meant getting passed up over and over and having to settle for serving as a backup challenger for Irene Aldana--whom Pennington had already beaten. But with the top prospects out and Aldana having just gotten beaten even worse by Nunes than Raquel had, there was nowhere left for the company to hide. Mayra Bueno Silva had established herself as one of the division's most dangerous fighters after tearing apart Lina Länsberg's knee and nearly popping Holly Holm's skull out of her head with a ninja choke, and there were quite a few hoping she'd stop Pennington in her tracks when the two met at UFC 297 on January 20, but they were gratifyingly incorrect. Pennington outwrestled Silva, escaped her submission attempts, outstruck her 265 to 96, and finally, on a night where the UFC loudly celebrated bigotry, sexism and homophobia, took the belt home to her wife. Raquel's the first post-Nunes champion, and godspeed to her. The UFC is almost certainly waiting to see if either Peña gets healthy or the newly-signed Kayla Harrison beats Holly Holm to figure out what's next for Raquel.

Women's Flyweight, 125 lbs

Alexa Grasso - 16-3-1, 1 Defense, Sort Of

Every once in awhile someone gets to shock the combat sports world, and in 2023, it's Alexa Grasso. The UFC has been high on Grasso since she left Invicta for her company debut back in 2016--she's been one of the most consistently featured fighters in ANY women's division, be it her time at strawweight or her move up to flyweight--but her two bids at the top of the mountain at 115 pounds met with disaster, once in Tatiana Suarez handing her the only stoppage loss of her career and once in Carla Esparza outwrestling her to a decision, and watching her manhandled by 115-pound fighters left the world doubting her 125-pound chances. But thanks to her solid boxing and her ever-improving ground game she ran up a four-fight winning streak, and when the UFC announced that she'd be taking on divisional queen and one of the greatest of all time in Valentina Shevchenko, the collective fan reaction was a unanimous "sure, okay," because Valentina disposing of people was a generally accepted phenomenon and she needed a warm body. The first round was a slight surprise, with Grasso stinging Shevchenko on the feet, but as so often happens, by the fourth round Valentina had taken over the fight, was ahead on every judge's scorecard and looked poised to cruise to her eighth title defense. And then, she was struck down by the bane of the sport: Spinning shit. Backed into the fence, Shevchenko did what she does entirely too often--a spinning back kick--and in the half-second she was turned away Grasso leapt to her back, dragged her to the floor, and became the first person to ever submit Valentina Shevchenko. Alexa Grasso, after years of work, is the Women's Flyweight Champion of the World. A rematch was inevitable, and it came at UFC Noche on September 16th, and, like everything does, it ended in controversy. After an incredibly close fight that the media had split almost cleanly down the middle, the judges ruled the contest a split draw. Which wouldn't be crazy--were it not for said draw hinging on Mike Bell, who is typically one of MMA's most reliable judges, giving Grasso a completely, utterly inexplicable and inexcusable 10-8 score in the final round, without which Valentina Shevchenko would have won a split decision. So Grasso did not win, in the end, but she did defend her title, technically. But good news: We’re running it back again. Grasso and Shevchenko coached against each other on The Ultimate Fighter 32 (jesus christ), and finally, at Noche UFC on September 14--just shy of 18 months after their first fight--we have a trilogy bout.

Women's Strawweight, 115 lbs

Zhang Weili - 25-3, 2 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.

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NOTABLE CHAMPIONS ACROSS THE WORLD

ONE Heavyweight Champion, 265 lbs

Anatoly Malykhin - 14-0, 0 Defenses

ONE Light Heavyweight Champion, 225 lbs

Anatoly Malykhin - 14-0, 0 Defenses

ONE Middleweight Champion, 205 lbs

Anatoly Malykhin - 14-0, 0 Defenses

Nothing is real, and we are all a part of the great dream. Anatoly Malykhin, a Master of Sport and international champion wrestler, took to MMA in 2016. Five years later, at the tender professional age of 8-0, he was in ONE. Two fights later, he was the interim Heavyweight champion. ONE's mixed martial arts divisions have always been slim at best and ephemeral at worst, but above 185 pounds, the air got real, real thin. Arjan Bhullar, the actual 265-pound champion, was having contractual issues with ONE and didn't want to fight. In another universe, Malykhin fought other Heavyweights and carried the torch for ONE's big boys. In this one, he dropped to 225 pounds in 2022 and just beat the absolute shit out of double-champ Reinier de Ridder, taking his title in the process. But he was still the 265-pound champion, and he still wanted to unify the belts, and thus, in June of 2023, he mauled a finally-present Bhullar to become the undisputed Heavyweight champion. In another universe, he defended either of these titles, lending credibility to ONE's divisional depth. In this universe, ONE didn't have any divisional depth, and thus, on March 1, 2024, Anatoly dropped to 205 pounds to, once again, beat the shit out of now single-champ Reinier de Ridder. ONE immediately began astroturfing as much marketing as they could behind the idea of having the first major triple champion in mixed martial arts history, and like all good marketing, that is, technically, true. But he got there by beating the same guy twice, once at a weight class recognized by no other major organization on Earth, and now rules over three divisions with almost no one in them. On November 8, more than seven hundred days after his first undisputed championship win, Malykhin will finally defend a belt when he puts the Heavyweight title on the line against Oumar "Reug Reug" Kane.

ONE Welterweight Champion, 185 lbs

Christian Lee - 17-4, 0 Defenses

ONE Lightweight Champion, 170 lbs

Christian Lee - 17-4, 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. In June, ONE announced Ok Rae Yoon will meet the debuting Alibeg Rasulov at ONE Fight Night 24 for an interim Lightweight championship. Whether that means it's more or less likely Christian is still coming back is up to you.

ONE Featherweight Champion, 155 lbs

Tang Kai - 16-2, 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.

ONE Bantamweight Champion, 145 lbs

Fabricio Andrade - 9-2 (1), 0 Defenses

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. Haggerty wants an MMA fight next.

ONE Flyweight Champion, 135 lbs

Demetrious Johnson - 31-4-1, 0 Defenses

The king has returned. Demetrious Johnson's 2019 debut with ONE Championship was essentially scandalous. "Mighty Mouse" had long been a fan favorite of the lighter weight classes, a 5'3" combat machine who had been going the distance with world champions like Kid Yamamoto and Dominick Cruz while still working a day job in a warehouse, but it was only in 2012 when he dedicated himself to mixed martial arts as his full-time job that he became a star. He won the UFC's flyweight tournament and became its inaugural champion, and his talents are the reason a division that has existed for a decade has only had five champions--three of whom came in the last two years after he left. By 2018, Johnson had one of the longest winning streaks in the UFC, was the all-time recordholder for championship defenses in the UFC and had recorded some of the most outstanding finishes in the history of the UFC. By 2019, he was out of the company. Johnson and the UFC never got along--or, to be blunt, Johnson was one of the few publicly calling the UFC out on its bullshit. When he won the flyweight title and became a world champion while only getting paid $23k/23k he let it be known, when the UFC cut sponsorship money in the Reebok era he noted the raw deal it gave the fighters, and when Dana White tried to force him to take fights up at bantamweight by threatening to kill the flyweight division if he didn't, he told the world. After Henry Cejudo beat him in a razor-close coinflip decision and took the bargaining leverage of his championship away, it was over in a heartbeat. Dana White personally disliked him enough that he traded him to ONE Championship in exchange for their welterweight champion, Ben Askren. Johnson proceeded to immediately win ONE's flyweight grand prix, but took the first stoppage loss of his entire career in his shot at Adriano Moraes and his world championship and engendered a thousand MMA thinkpieces about if his time as a top fighter was over. A year and a half later, he got his rematch, and on August 27 at ONE on Prime Video 1 he returned the favor, handing Moraes his own first stoppage loss after knocking him out with a flying knee. The trilogy match was inevitable, and on May 5th, Johnson beat Moraes by a comprehensive decision, ending the story--and maybe his career. He says he's not sure if he's coming back yet. Fingers crossed.

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 is out for the next year. Because he's out, Jarred Brooks instead fought Gustavo Balart at ONE 25 in August for an interim Strawweight championship.

ONE Interim Strawweight Champion, 125 lbs

Jarred Brooks - 21-3 (1), 0 Defenses

When the competitors are 'the guy who arguably should still be champion' and 'the 4-3 guy who lost to his last challenger,' the results are not particularly in doubt. Jarred "The Monkey God" Brooks feels like a singular symbol of ONE having lost the plot on mixed martial arts. In 2021 he was a huge free-agent pickup, in 2022 he became a popular world champion, and somehow, two years later, nothing has functionally changed, but all of the value of his presence has been squandered. He beat Joshua Pacio, and over the fifteen months of his title reign he didn't have a single fight--just a grappling match with Mikey Musumeci. When he did finally get a fight? It was a rematch. ONE's response? Another rematch. When Pacio was hurt? Yet another belt thanks to an interim title. Now that Brooks is the interim champion, what's next? You guessed it: A Pacio rematch after he's healed up. ONE Championship Does Not Care About Mixed Martial Arts.

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 Denise 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.

Rizin Lightweight Champion, 156 lbs

Roberto de Souza - 16-3, 2 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. So his next title defense--his first in two and a half years--will come against Luiz Gustavo at Risin 48 on September 29.

Rizin Featherweight Champion, 145 lbs

Chihiro Suzuki - 13-3 (1), 1 Defense

Chihiro Suzuki has had a very fortunate year. Suzuki rose to Rizin's notice not through MMA, but after winning Japan's KNOCK OUT Super Lightweight Kickboxing championship. He made his Rizin debut six months later--and got knocked out in twenty seconds. He spent the next two and a half years simultaneously rounding out his MMA game and annually defending his kickboxing gold, and by 2023, he was one of Rizin's top Featherweight contenders, more than ready for his shot at Kleber Koike Erbst's Rizin championship. And--he got armbarred in three minutes. However, hilariously enough, Erbst lost his belt on the scale after missing weight, meaning the title was vacant and the fight, by Rizin rules, was a No Contest, so Suzuki didn't even technically lose. He then proceeded to get the biggest break of his career. At Bellator x Rizin 2 on July 30th, 2023, despite having just lost a five-round fight to Sergio Pettis a month prior, Patrício Pitbull was thrown onto the card against Suzuki on four days' notice--and Suzuki not only beat him, he became the first person to ever knock out Bellator's GOAT. Rizin immediately booked Suzuki in against new champion Vugar Keramov for their debut in Keramov's home country of Azerbaijan, and Keramov looked poised and powerful and was in the process of ragdolling Suzuki like he does everyone else--and Suzuki caught him with an upkick on the jaw and punched him the rest of the way out from his goddamn back. Chihiro Suzuki, you are Rizin's new star. Hold onto it as long as you can and pray they don't book a Kleber rematch. He defended his title for the first time at Rizin 46 on April 29 by stopping Masanori Kanehara in one round.

Rizin Bantamweight Champion, 135 lbs

VACANT - The empty flask

We went three whole months without Vacant holding a title belt, and those months were the darkest of our lives. Rizin's Bantamweight Championship of the World is one of the most snakebitten titles in the entire goddamn sport. Kyoji Horiguchi won the inaugural belt in 2018, got injured in a non-title loss to Kai Asakura, and vacated to spend a year on the shelf rehabbing his injuries. Manel Kape, one of Rizin's biggest international stars, won the belt a month after Kyoji let it go--and vacated it four months later to sign with the UFC. Kai Asakura, the man who beat Kyoji only to be denied his title, won the once-again vacated belt and, finally, became a world champion--and got knocked out by Kyoji in his comeback fight just a few months later. Kyoji proceeded to hold the title for two years without ever once fighting in Rizin, as he instead went over to Bellator and lost two fights in a row, and upon returning to Japan, he once again vacated the belt, this time so he could drop to Flyweight. Bellator's Juan Archuleta took the belt home to America after winning at the big Bellator vs Rizin cross-promotional event, and he promptly lost it on the scale. This past December, Kai Asakura finally won the belt--again!--and just under six months later announced he, too, was vacating it to sign with the UFC. The Rizin Bantamweight Championship has existed for almost six years, and it has had six champions, and five of them had to give up the belt for one reason or another, and none of them ever successfully defended it. Naoki Inoue and Soo Chul Kim will fight to fill the vacant throne at Rizin 48 on September 29.

Rizin Flyweight Champion, 125 lbs

Kyoji Horiguchi - 32-5 (1), 0 Defenses

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.

Rizin Women's Super Atomweight Championship, 108 lbs

Seika Izawa - 13-0, 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. So now she's booked again, for the second time this year, and once again instead of a top contender it's Kanna Asakura, and once again, it's a non-title match.

Well, once month after I started doing this Danni McCormack tossed Invicta's Strawweight Championship in the trash to go on Road to UFC. Not the UFC, not the Contender Series: Road to UFC. The exchange rate has never been worse. Invicta hasn't announced plans for title replacements yet, so for now, Talita stands alone as the only active Invicta champion.

Invicta Bantamweight Championship, 135 lbs

Talita Bernardo - 11-4, 1 Defense

Sometimes you bounce off the top to get where you need to be. Unlike a lot of her peers, Talita Bernardo wasn't a childhood martial artist--she didn't even start training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu until 2009, when she was already 22, as part of a dare. Five years later she was a brown belt and by the sixth she was 5-1, trained with UFC fighters, and had just won her first international fight after a successful trip to Poland. This put her on the UFC's radar, and in 2017 Germaine de Randamie pulled out of a fight with Marion Reneau, the UFC needed a late replacement, and Bernardo was ready. Except, as it turned out, she wasn't. Over the next year and a half Bernardo went 1-3 in the company, and after getting flattened by Viviane Araujo, she was cut. Talita, undeterred, sat out a couple COVID years before picking up where she left off and just aggressively grappling the shit out of people, and one victory later she was in Invicta, and two victories after that she was its top contender. On January 18, 2023, Talita outworked one-time Contender Series competitor Taneisha Tennant to become the seventh Invicta Bantamweight Champion. After a long wait, half from scheduling problems and half from Invicta itself seeking a new broadcast partner, Bernardo made her first successful defense of the title on June 28, choking out Bellator vet Olga Rubin in two rounds.

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THE BELLATOR CHAMPIONSHIP GRAVEYARD

Bellator Heavyweight Champion, 265 lbs

Ryan Bader - 31-8 (1), 3 Defenses

Ryan Bader is the greatest Bellator Heavyweight Champion of all time, and on a dairy farm somewhere in Wisconsin, Cole Konrad feels a pang of regret. Bader made his name as the winner of The Ultimate Fighter: Nogueira vs Mir all the way back in 2008, but his UFC career proved to be one of Sisyphean torment and humiliation that included, somehow, impossibly, being the only man to lose a UFC fight to Tito Ortiz during his last six years in the company. Bader left for free agency and Bellator in 2016 and became its light-heavyweight champion on his first night with the organization, and just two years later he became its first-ever simultaneous double-champion after knocking out the legendary Fedor Emelianenko and taking the heavyweight title. Bader would go on to lose his 205-pound crown, but Fedor never forgot his 35-second drubbing at the American wrestler's hands, and for his retirement fight, he demanded a rematch. Thus it was that the entire mixed martial arts community watched with bated breath as on February 4th, 2023, Fedor Emelianenko walked into the cage one last time and promptly got the absolute crap beaten out of him again. Ryan Bader remains undefeated at heavyweight. He was to defend his title against Linton Vassell at Bellator's series finale-sounding Bellator 300, but Vassell got injured and, as Bader himself put it in a reddit post, Viacom is done with Bellator and didn't want to pay for a replacement. Ryan Bader is the best heavyweight champion outside of the UFC, and it's anyone's guess if he'll still be champion of anything by January. He also, unfortunately, got his shit completely wrecked by Renan Ferreira in thirty seconds, making him the one and only Bellator fighter to lose at PFL vs Bellator.

Bellator Light-Heavyweight Champion, 205 lbs

Corey Anderson - 18-6 (1), 0 Defenses

Corey Anderson has been passed over by the sport so many times, but now, finally, his day has come. His success as a college wrestler led him to Ben Askren, and Ben Askren actually tricked him into trying mixed martial arts, and getting outsmarted by Ben Askren might still be the worst loss of his career. Anderson burst into the UFC as the champion of The Ultimate Fighter 19 back in 2014, and as a big, strong, undefeated 5-0 wrestler, he looked like a genuine championship threat. He was, of course, immediately knocked out by Gian Villante, and if you do not know or remnember who that is: That's the point. This sort of derailing became the story of Anderson's career, and by 2017 he had been knocked out twice in a row and was considering retirement. Instead, he launched into a fantastic, four-fight winning streak that included effortlessly destroying the UFC's big hype project Johnny Walker, giving Anderson a #5 ranking and a title eliminator against Jan Błachowicz, whom he'd beaten back in 2015. Unfortunately, this time Jan knocked him out--and despite being 4 for his last 5 and unequivocally one of the best 205-pound fighters in the world, the UFC released him because they didn't want to market a wrestler. Anderson went to Bellator, joined the 2021 Light Heavyweight Grand Prix, knocked out Ryan Bader in less than a minute and made it to the tournament final against reignning, Bellator-undefeated champion Vadim Nemkov--and he almost won. But at 4:55 of the third round, an inadvertent headbutt busted Nemkov's eye, and a doctor ruled him unable to continue. If the fight had lasted five more seconds it would have gone to a technical decision, and Anderson would have won the $1 million tournament purse and his first world championship. Instead, he got nothing, and Nemkov beat him in a rematch seven months later. It took a year and a half and Nemkov's own move up to Heavyweight for Anderson to get another chance, but at the first-ever PFL-owned Bellator Champions Series event on March 22, 2024, Corey Anderson wrestled Karl Moore for five excruciating rounds and won that god damned belt. His future as a titleholder will depend on PFL's commitment to the Bellator brand.

Bellator Middleweight Champion, 185 lbs

Johnny Eblen - 15-0, 2 Defenses

There's an old combat sports tradition whereby a champion isn't really a champion until they defend their title. Gegard Mousasi has been established as the best middleweight outside the UFC that, despite the one-sided nature of their fight, Johnny Eblen's victory over him was treated as an aberration rather than the passing of a torch. It didn't matter that Eblen was undefeated, widely considered one of the absolute best by his cohort at American Top Team or that he'd dropped Mousasi on his face with his bare hands, the world needed verification. On February 4th at Bellator 290, they got it. Fedor Emelianenko's team was intending to pull one big, beautiful night of success out of the ether for their leader's retirement fight, but it was not to be: Vadim Nemkov had to pull out of the card thanks to an injury, Fedor himself was crushed for the second time by heavyweight champion Ryan Bader, and middleweight hopeful Anatoly Tokov was competitive for the first couple of rounds but was subsequently washed out by Eblen's overwhelming assault. Johnny Eblen is a defending champion now, and as things always seem to go, the conversation changed overnight from his being overrated to his being better than everyone in the UFC. This mindset only grew again after Bellator 299 on September 23rd, as Eblen faced Fabian Edwards, knocked him out in the third round, and nearly got into a post-fight brawl with his brother, UFC champion Leon Edwards. Eblen admits he has no idea what his future is or if Bellator will still be around, but he's considering a move to light-heavyweight with Vadim Nemkov leaving the division wide open. Eblen had a scare against Impa Kasanganay but ultimately won his PFL vs Bellator bout, and in a sign that they may already be running out of ideas, he'll be fighting Fabian Edwards for the second time in a year when they rematch at Bellator Champions Series 5 on September 14.

Bellator Welterweight Champion, 170 lbs

Ramazan Kuramagomedov - 13-0, 0 Defenses

On a long enough timeline, the Russian grapplers come for us all. Jason Jackson made multiple marks on history in 2023: He became the first man to ever defeat Yaroslav Amosov, the first new champion of the PFL era, and the winner of the last main event in Bellator-branded history. It was a long road for a man who'd been plugging away in the company since 2018. Ramazan Kuramagomedov, by contrast, came in right as the door was closing. He'd won a Contender Series fight back in 2019, but he did it through grappling and Dana White was disinterested. Ramazan kept racking up victories in regional organizations instead, and he ultimately became the last major talent signed by Bellator, making his debut in June of 2023 and running up a 2-0 record before the year was out thanks to unsurprisingly great wrestling and the freedom to throw winging hooks and kicks that comes from possessing no fear of the ground game. Bellator's new reality as a PFL-owned operation meant a number of adjustments to the way they booked talent, and with a number of their more popular Welterweights booked into the 2024 PFL tournament instead, Kuramagomedov was tapped to fight Jason Jackson at Bellator Champions Series 3 on June 22. It was a much harder fight than Ramazan was accustomed to, but ultimately, he came away with both the decision and the Welterweight championship. Where he goes from here is up to the PFL.

Bellator Lightweight Champion, 155 lbs

Usman Nurmagomedov - 17-0 (1), 2 Defenses

If there's a single, developing throughline of mixed martial arts in 2022, it's the growing power of the Dagestani wrestling brigade. Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov built an army of ultra-grapplers, and after his passing the American Kickboxing Academy's Javier Mendez and Adulmanap's son and protege, the now-retired Khabib Nurmagomedov, unleashed them on the world. Usman, Khabib's cousin (as well as the younger brother of Umar Nurmagomedov, undefeated and ranked UFC bantamweight), took to Bellator in April of 2021 and proceeded to burn an undefeated path through the Manny Muros and Patrik Pietiläe of the world. His style was a little more eclectic--lots of spinning kicks, lots of stick-and-move jabs and stomps to the leg--but the resemblance became uncanny once he inevitably, and easily, ragdolled his opponents to the canvas and generally choked them out in short order thereafter. When he was announced as the #1 contender to Bellator's lightweight title, I was somewhat miffed: He hadn't beaten any top contenders, Bellator had already held a title eliminator and it was won in a crushing thirty-second knockout by Tofiq Musayev, the whole thing smacked of a pathetic attempt to glom onto some of Khabib's mainstream attention. I at no point said that he wouldn't very, very easily win. At Bellator 288 on November 18th, Usman very, very easily won, defeating Patricky "Pitbull" Freire at every aspect of the game and leaving him sans both his championship and one eyebrow. Usman's first fight as champion was both a defense and an entry into the first round of Bellator's Lightweight Grand Prix on March 3rd at Bellator 292, where he met, crushed, and retired former UFC champion Benson Henderson, handing him just the third submission loss of a 17-year, 42-fight career. He faced fellow tournament semifinalist Brent Primus at Bellator 300 on October 7th, and it was as one-sided and yet uneventful as you can imagine. Until Usman failed his drug test. Bellator says it was for medication rather than PEDs and thus he won't be stripped, but the fight's a No Contest and they need a rematch, which seems awfully selective. And then the company got bought, so it was all forgotten anyway. He was supposed to face Alexander Shabily on May 17, but an injury scratched the fight; it'll now take place at Bellator Champions Series 4 on September 7.

Bellator Featherweight Champion, 145 lbs

Patrício Pitbull - 36-7, 2 Defenses

Patrício Pitbull had a weird goddamn 2023. Pitbull has long been the GOAT of Bellator, sometimes to the company's open chagrin--there were definitely times they would have vastly preferred a Pat Curran or a Michael Chandler to carry their banner, and Patrício had this unfortunate habit of not just beating them but making them look like shit. By mid-2021, he was Bellator's dual featherweight and lightweight champion, he was on a seven-fight win streak, and he was a finalist in their Featherweight Grand Prix. And then undefeated rising star A.J. McKee dropped him and choked him out in two minutes. Bellator, clearly, felt they had hit the jackpot and were going to be riding the McKee train for some time, as by their rematch ten months later, McKee was the centerpiece of all of their advertising. It was somewhat awkward when, as he had done to so many before, Patrício took him to a victorious decision that made McKee kind of look like shit, neutralizing his offense in the clinch, jabbing under his range, and grinding away the clock. Bellator pushed for a trilogy, but McKee, pissed off, tired of cutting weight and worried about having it happen all over again, declined and moved up to lightweight. Instead of a big-money rematch, Patrício was left to face top contender Ádám Borics, and the match, while hard-fought, was not particularly entertaining or memorable. Pitbull's next fight was the rare cross-promotional bout, facing Rizin's featherweight champion Kleber Koike Erbst on the New Year's Eve Bellator x Rizin special. It was the only fight on the card that wasn't particularly competitive: He shut Kleber down completely and won a wide decision. There is only one featherweight king outside the UFC--and it's one who had a two-fight losing streak, with one of those fights being a bantamweight loss to Sergio Pettis and the other a lightweight knockout to Chihiro Suzuki that he took on four days' notice, because MMA is silly. Pitbull did, however, become the first Bellator champion to canonically defend a title under their new PFL ownership: He fought Jeremy Kennedy at Bellator Champions Series 1 on March 22 and mauled him in three rounds.

Bellator Bantamweight Champion, 135 lbs

Patchy Mix - 20-1, 1 Defense

It took a long goddamn time, but Patchy Mix is finally getting the credit he deserves. Fans had already singled out Patchy as a uniquely talented fighter by 2019, when he signed to Bellator as the 10-0 King of the Cage Bantamweight Champion who'd submitted almost everyone he faced, but it wasn't really until he choked out Yuki Motoya at Bellator's first co-promotion with Rizin that people really paid attention. Which was unfortunate, because his next fight was a shot at Juan Archuleta for the vacant Bellator Bantamweight Championship and Archuleta schooled him on their feet, ending both Mix's title hopes and his undefeated streak. It didn't help matters when, two fights later, he blew his weight cut for a big Dublin match against James Gallagher. But Mix kept winning, and when he entered the Bantamweight Grand Prix and promptly stormed the bracket by beating Kyoji Horiguchi and choking out Magomed Magomedov, suddenly, people paid attention again. When he fought interim champion Raufeon Stots and knocked him out cold with a knee in less than a minute and a half, people began wondering if maybe he was the real champion and Sergio Pettis, who'd been out for a year and a half and returned to a vanity fight with Patrício Pitbull, wasn't the fake. The two met at Bellator 301 on November 17th, and Mix left no doubt: He outwrestled Pettis and choked him out in the second round. Patchy Mix is, finally, the undisputed Bellator Bantamweight Champion. He technically defended his title against Magomed Magomedov at Bellator Champions Series 2 on May 17, but as much as I love Patchy, the decision probably should've gone the other way.

Bellator Women's Featherweight Champion, 145 lbs

Cris Cyborg - 27-2 (1), 5 Defenses

Yup. It's 2024 and Cris Cyborg is still out there. For those who don't know, Cris Cyborg was the canonical women's featherweight fighter, a Muay Thai wrecking machine who didn't just beat but brutalized essentially all of her opponents, including ex-Star Wars Gina Carano, and her popularity as a destroyer of humans is the only real reason women's featherweight even exists as a division, to the point that the UFC added it when she was the only actual fighter at the weight class they employed. She was 20-1 (1) when she passed the torch to Amanda Nunes, who slew her in just fifty-one seconds. She took one more fight in the UFC to complete her contract, but left for Bellator almost immediately afterward with uncharacteristic cooperation from the UFC itself--after all, they'd gotten what they wanted out of her. Her first Bellator fight was a one-sided destruction of their featherweight champion, and she's defended it three times since. At this point in Cyborg's career the problem isn't her or her fighting or her age, but simply that there's no one in Bellator for her to fight--after just five fights she's already hitting rematches, having just recorded her second one-sided bludgeoning of a very game but outmatched Arlene Blencowe. Cyborg decided her next fight would be a boxing match, and on September 25 she faced Simone da Silva, a jobber to the stars coming off twelve straight losses who had been knocked out just one month prior. Undeterred, she had her second boxing match on the undercard of December 10th’s Crawford/Avanesyan card, taking a unanimous decision over Gabrielle “Gabanator” Holloway, who is 6-6 in MMA and 0-3 in boxing. After a year and a half of inactivity, Cris Cyborg returned to MMA to defend her title against Cat Zingano at Bellator 300 on October 7th. It lasted four minutes. Cyborg has been open and public about her lack of communication with PFL, and despite being one of Bellator's biggest names, those fences do not appear to be mending.

Bellator Women's Flyweight Champion, 125 lbs

Liz Carmouche - 22-8, 3 Defenses

It took more than a decade and some controversy, but Liz Carmouche got her flowers. "Girl-Rilla" was just as present a figure in establishing women's MMA in the mainstream, but she's the most consistently forgotten because she was the losing fighter in all of those establishing moments. She was a challenger for the early, pre-fame Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Championship, and was winning on the scorecards before Marloes Coenen choked her out. She was a central part of the inaugural Invicta FC card, and was planned as a title contender before the big show came calling. She became one half of the first women's fight in UFC history, and at one point had Ronda Rousey in a nearly destiny-defying neck crank, but was ultimately submitted in the first round. She's one of two women to ever defeat Valentina Shevchenko, but when given a second chance at the now-UFC champion Shevchenko, she fell short. Despite her powerful wrestling and submission skills, she was eternally denied the top of the mountain. So it was both particularly appropriate and particularly cruel when she finally won a championship on April 22, 2022--in a way that displeased everybody. Standing champion Juliana Velasquez was winning on every scorecard, but Liz Carmouche got her in the crucifix position and landed a number of, respectfully, small elbows, but referee Mike Beltran called a TKO to the immediate chagrin of the entirely safe ex-champion. The controversy made a rematch all but mandatory, and it took Bellator most of the year to do it, but the two met in the cage to run it back at Bellator 289 on December 9, and this time there was no controversy, as Velasquez submitted to an armbar two rounds in. The weirdness didn't stop there: Liz's next title defense against Deanna Bennett also hit the skids, as Bennett missed weight and was thus ineligible to win the championship. Carmouche put it on the line anyway, and fortunately, she choked Bennett out in the fourth round. She defended her title against Ilima-Lei Macfarlane at Bellator 300 on October 7th, and it was one of those fights where friends don't really want to hurt each other--until Ilima got kicked enough that her leg collapsed in the fifth round. Her status as champion is questionable, though--of all Bellator's titleholders, Liz is the only one taking part in this year's PFL season. At PFL 1 on April 4 she beat Juliana Velasquez for the third time, and at PFL 4 on June 13 she got into real trouble with Kana Watanabe only to get an amazing comeback armbar submission with just seconds left in the fight. She was eliminated from the 2024 PFL playoffs after a decision loss to Taila Santos. What that means for her Bellator future, who knows.