1. Leo Santa Cruz: Avenged his razor-thin loss to Carl Frampton with a razor-thin victory to reclaim his belt. I hope these two fight until the sun explodes.
2. Miguel Berchelt: In an upset, in the main event of HBO, Berchelt clubbed the undefeated Francisco Vargas in a slugfest and winning the WBC World Junior Lightweight championship.
3. Mikey Garcia: Is a three-weight-class world champion after an absolutely vicious knockout of Dejan Zlaticanin.
4. Valentina Shevchenko: The Bullet put on one hell of a performance against Julianna Pena, outgrappling the grappler and punching her ticket to a title fight with Amanda Nunes.
5. Jorge Masvidal: Technically knocked out Donald Cerrone twice in the same fight, which is hard enough to do just once. A dominant and menacing statement.
6. Jerwin Ancajas: At the Venetian in Macao, Ancajas earned a stoppage over Jose Alfredo Rodriguez to retain his IBF World Junior Bantamweight title.
7. Chidi Njokuani: Put on an absolute clinic on Melvin Guillard. I haven’t seen Guillard handled like that very often, especially from a pure striker.
8. Takashi Miura: In a battle of two veteran sluggers, it was Miura getting the best of Miguel Roman, putting him on his wallet three times in the championship rounds.
9. Antonio Carlos Junior: The last year and change have been very, very good to Garry Tonon, firmly establishing him as one of the best grapplers in the world, and master of the heel hook, but late-replacement Antonio Carlos Junior stepped in and hit a flying triangle on Tonon for a win on Submission Underground 3.
10. Francis Ngannou: Knocking out Andrei Arlovski doesn’t really hold the same cache it did at one point, but it’s a hell of a violent win over a former champion and it’s a springboard moment for Ngannou.
11. Dillon Danis: In the main event of Chael’s Submission Underground 3, Danis defeated AJ Agazarm via OT escape.
12. Matt Bessette: TKO’d Kevin Croom in the third round of the main event in CES MMA 41 on AXS.
13. Diego Brandao: Brandao, certifiable crazy person, picked up an armbar victory in the main event of EFN on Fight Pass.
14. Osvaldo Queixinho: In the main event of Fight To Win Pro 23, the 155lber Queixinho decisioned Bruno Frazatto.
15. David Rickels: The Caveman returned in a big way, and laid a big thumping at Bellator 171.
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