2025 is nearly over.
2025 was a particularly eventful year in MMA, with titles changing hands all over the place and huge storylines unfolding seemingly every weekend. We here at MMA Fighting did our part to recap
this monumental 12-month stretch, handing out our usual Year-End awards (you can catch up via the links below if you missed any of them), but, of course, those five categories can’t cover everything.
So, as we begin to look ahead toward 2026, join Alexander K. Lee, Damon Martin, Jed Meshew, and Mike Heck as they take one final look back on all the other wild, wonderful, and weird things that happened in 2025.
Event of the Year
UFC 317: Topuria vs. Oliveira
Martin: With a new champion being crowned, another champion defending a belt, and the Fight of the Year all taking place on one card, it’s easy to see why UFC 317 was the best event in 2025.
At the top of the card, Ilia Topuria ascended to true superstar status — he was arguably there already — when he delivered a brutal first-round knockout over Charles Oliveira to capture the UFC lightweight title. That win came after Topuria already vanquished two of the best featherweights in history with knockouts over Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway.
But Topuria eviscerating Oliveira in less than three minutes crowned him champion and arguably the most marketable active fighter on the entire UFC roster.
The co-main event didn’t provide the same level of thrills and chills, but Alexandre Pantoja dismantling and submitting Kai Kara-France via third-round submission was still a showcase for possibly the second greatest flyweight of all-time (Demetrious Johnson says hello).
And Joshua Van secured a title shot with a knockdown, drag-out fight against Brandon Royval, where they combined to land more than 400 significant strikes during the three-round war. And those were just the top three fights, not to mention Beneil Dariush and Payton Talbott getting impressive wins to open the main card while Gregory Rodrigues and Jose Miguel Delgado went scorched earth with a pair of blistering knockouts on the prelims.
UFC 317 delivered everything you could want and more, which is why this is the event of the year for 2025.
Comeback of the Year
Jiri Prochazka vs. Khalil Rountree (UFC 320)
Lee: Through two rounds, Jiri Prochazka vs. Khalil Rountree was actually kind of a disappointment.
Rountree, a sharp technical striker with oodles of power, was expected to be a difficult matchup for the always unpredictable Prochazka, but no one could have predicted the Czech samurai would be so ineffective for much of the contest. It looked like Rountree had his number heading into the final frame.
Then Jiri just Jiri’d.
To Rountree’s credit, he didn’t wilt when a wildly aggressive Prochazka charged at him to start Round 3. If anything, Rountree attempted to match Prochazka blow for blow, which may have proven to be his undoing. It also made the round that much more legendary.
Prochazka started landing heavy hooks and straight punches down the middle, just battering Rountree from every angle. He was relentless. By the time Rountree smartened up and attempted to grab Prochazka, his face had already changed shape, and sure enough, said face was soon kissing canvas after Prochazka landed a finishing left hook.
As long as there is time on the clock, there is no one more exciting than Prochazka, and he proved that once again with this all-timer of a comeback.
Round of the Year
Iwo Baraniewski vs. Ibo Aslan (UFC 323)
Martin: For a fight that lasted less than 90 seconds, Iwo Baraniewski and Ibo Aslan provided some of the best entertainment in any fight during 2025.
The light heavyweights were determined to take each other’s souls because from the first exchange, this fight unleashed a pair of savages ready to swing until they could swing no more. Words almost can’t describe the frenzied pace these two kept while scoring three knockdowns and a total of 52 significant strikes in the fight that ended at just 1:29 in the opening round.
The drama that unfolded saw Baraniewski connect with the first huge punch that briefly dropped Aslan, but he came back firing immediately. That’s when Aslan had Baraniewski trapped against the cage, dropping bombs — and then Baraniewski countered with a shot that put Aslan down.
“This is like a bar fight between two guys who know how to fight!” UFC color commentator Joe Rogan screamed in approval during the broadcast.
Aslan came back from the knockdown, and he once again had Baraniewski backing up and seemingly hurt —until Baraniewski unleashed another brutal punch that put Aslan down again. This time there was no getting up as Baraniewski continued to hammer away until Aslan was unconscious.
It was the definition of pure, unadulterated mayhem and the best round of the year in 2025.
A more than honorable mention goes to Round 2 of Adrian Luna Martinetti vs. Mark Vologdin (the best Contender Series fight of 2025) and whatever the hell happened between Thiago Goulart and Leonardo Mesquita at this Thunder Fight event.
Rookie of the Year
Kevin Vallejos
Meshew: The last several years, MMA Fighting awarded a Rookie of the Year to the fighter who made their promotional debut in either the UFC or another major promotion. However, this year we decided to return to a Breakthrough Fighter of the Year award instead, so Rookie falls to us here. And while several good prospects arrived in the UFC this year from Contender Series and elsewhere, Vallejos joins the likes of Carlos Prates, Diego Lopes, and Jailton Almeida to win Rookie of the Year honors.
Vallejos earned a UFC contract in 2024 in his second attempt on Contender Series (he lost to Jean Silva in 2023 on the show in an extremely close bout) but didn’t make his UFC debut until March of this year. He immediately started making waves, though, knocking out Seung Woo Choi in the first round, before taking a unanimous decision over Danny Silva a few months later. That earned “El Chino” a fight with Giga Chikadze in the co-main event of the final fight card of 2025, and he made the most of it, knocking out Chikadze with a spinning backfist to break into the featherweight rankings.
Just 24 years old, the future looks bright for Vallejos, who finished fourth in the Breakthrough Fighter of the Year voting as well.
Fantasy League MVP
Waldo Cortes-Acosta
Heck: Shout out to “Salsa Boy,” the gold medalist in the three-headed monster of the Team Heck fantasy squad. Cortes-Acosta delivered an astounding 500 points for the team with his efforts in the back half of 2025 — two wins over ranked opposition, plus bonuses on top of it — and this is with losing a fight during the season. Cortes-Acosta sneaking in on short notice to obliterate Shamil Gaziev kept the team in the game, and was a huge catalyst for the win.
How ridiculous was Cortes-Acosta, you ask? My team had FIVE fighters not even compete, with another fighter dropping a goose egg, and it was still enough to win.
Shout out to the rest of the three-headed monster — new bantamweight champ Petr Yan, who put up a whopping 400 points, while Ateba Gautier basically had half a cup of coffee in two fights to net a cool 350.
Promo of the Year
Kyoji Horiguchi
Lee: With friends like these…
… you know the rest.
Kyoji Horiguchi’s UFC return couldn’t have gone much better from an in-cage performance standpoint as he outworked Tagir Ulanbekov before choking him out in the third round, reminding anyone who wasn’t keeping track of his overseas exploits that he’s still that dude. And he was just getting started.
Asked what he wants next, Horiguchi didn’t shy away from an often-discussed dream match with Alexandre Pantoja, who just so happens to be Horiguchi’s friend and American Top Team stablemate.
“Of course, I want a UFC belt,” Horiguchi said. “Where’s Pantoja? He’s my teammate, but it doesn’t matter, I will beat your ass!”
Horiguchi clarified that it was strictly a business decision, but the message had already been sent: Hey Pants, your homie is coming after you.
Sadly, Pantoja would later suffer a freak arm injury at UFC 323 that cost him the belt, rendering the “best friends, bitter enemies” matchup moot, and Horiguchi has already moved on to a February clash with Amir Albazi. Still, Horiguchi’s UFC Qatar post-fight promo remains one of the best—and funniest—moments of 2025.
Bozo of the Year
Isaac Dulgarian
Meshew: In MMA, there is never a shortage of contenders for the ignoble Bozo of the Year award, but it takes a special fighter to be the runaway winner for this in a year where one active UFC fighter came out as a Hitler apologist. And yet, Isaac Dulgarian pulled that feat off.
In November, Dulgarian took on Yadier del Valle in a main card fight at UFC Vegas 110 that no one was especially interested in. That changed shortly before the bout as suspicious betting patterns emerged, and then ramped up to a fever pitch as Dulgarian gave such a poor performance that the commentary team was criticizing him during the bout. Pretty quickly, people started to put two and two together, and the fight-fixing allegations flew, resulting in Dulgarian getting suspended by the athletic commission, and Dana White saying he was working with the FBI to investigate the matter.
As things currently stand, Dulgarian has not been proven guilty of anything. But unless he somehow comes out of this entirely exonerated, at the minimum, this will follow him for the rest of his MMA career, and it will be hard for him to get fights. And if something concrete does stick to Dulgarian here, he’s the face of the sports gambling problem and MMA.
Whatever really happened at UFC Vegas 110, I’m betting Dulgarian wishes it had gone differently.
Walkout of the Year
Dustin Poirier
Heck: This was about as big of a no-brainer as it gets.
In a world where all walkouts look exactly the same, only one put us all on an emotional rollercoaster ride, and it was Dustin Poirier.
The former interim champion, fighting as hard as he could to keep his emotions in check, with Lil Wayne by his side, in front of a hometown crowd in New Orleans, walked to the octagon one last time to face Max Holloway for the BMF title in the main event of UFC 318. The event was built for and around Poirier, and the UFC gave “The Diamond” the best possible sendoff they could.
Throughout the card, Poirier was featured in some unforgettable promotional materials, and it built the anticipation for the final walk to the octagon. And shout out to the commentators for letting the moment breathe.
This is the only choice.
Performance of the Year
Petr Yan
Heck: Petr Yan not only delivered the performance of 2025, but one of the greatest performances in UFC history.
Very few gave Yan a chance to regain the bantamweight title in a rematch against the, seemingly, indestructible Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 323 — especially with how their first fight went. But Yan delivered the goods, dominating Dvalishvili over five rounds to pull off the massive upset and become a two-time undisputed champion.
Dvalishvili signed the contract, and even though he fought three other times this year, not even “The Machine” would use it as an excuse. And honestly, the way Yan performed, the way he repeatedly hurt Dvalishvili on the feet to the body, the confidence in which he implemented his game plan, I’m not sure anybody could’ve beaten him that night. Sensational showing from “No Mercy,” and I can’t wait for the trilogy fight.
Honorable mention: Eddie Hall against Mariusz Pudzianowski at KSW 105
This needs absolutely no explanation, outside of the most electric 30 seconds in MMA this year.
