1. Artem Vakhitov: Won the rubber match with Saulo Cavalari and TKO’d him in the process, remaining king of the hill as the Glory Light Heavyweight championship.
2. Rey Vargas: Vargas claimed his first world title, edging out Gavin McDonnell in his native Yorkshire to claim the vacant WBC World Junior Featherweight strap.
3. Taiga: In the main event of K-1’s Grand Prix, Taiga defeated Hirotaka Urabe in a fight that lived up to its considerable hype between two of the most exciting fighters in all of combat sports.
4. Jarrett Hurd: Made a drastic comeback to finish Tony Harrison in the ninth-round to win his first world championship on FOX.
5. Ariel Machado: Went through Danyo Ilunga and Zinedine Hameur-Lain in less than four rounds to win a stacked Glory LHW tournament, and a date with Vakhitov awaits.
6. Eleider Alvarez: KO’d Lucian Bute in Quebec, to the astonishment of the crowd, and now a date with Adonis Stevenson awaits.
7. Deontay Wilder: It took The Bronze Bomber a few rounds before he understood, that, yes, a fight was occurring, and yes, he was in it, but once he got around to that, he ended it swiftly and brutally, finishing a game Gerald Washington well before the title rounds.
8. Benjamin Adegbuyi: Picked up a nice little win over Braddock Silva on the Glory Superfight Series, improving to 6-0, including winning his last three in Glory, along with a Heavyweight Contender tournament, so a third crack at Rico can’t be far off.
9. Wei Rui: Won K-1’s Lightweight Tournament over the weekend.
10. Dat Nguyen: Pulled off a huge upset, flooring 24-year old mega-prospect Miguel Flores in the main event of the ever-treasured weekday FS1 card.
11. Murthel Groenhart: In a dream matchup against Thongchai, it was Groenhart who was a relentless force who dominated on the Glory Superfight Series, and another shot at gold can’t be far away.
12. Damien Lapilus: Unseated Ronnie Mann as BAMMA featherweight champ.
13. Cecilia Braekhus: Defended her Ultimo Dragon-esque arm of world titles with a clear UD over Klara Svensson.
14. Andrei Kulebin: Won Kunlun Fight’s 70kg tournament Sunday, and set up a huge fight against Davit Kiria on March 11 at the Kunlun Fight/Magnum FC card.
15. Adam Townsend: With seven seconds left in the third round, the Colorado-native Townsend went for it, and got the finish over Marcus Edwards, and is either due for a title shot, or a call-up.
Honorable Mention:
Vitaly Minakov: Advances to 19-0 with a KO of longtime journeyman DJ Linderman in the main event of EFN 59.
Justin DeLoach: Flattened Christopher Pearson in the main event of Friday’s ShoBox card to claim the USBA Junior Middleweight title and is due for bigger and better things.
Liam McGeary: Took care of business over a late-notice opponent as he should, and is still another win away from a rematch with Phil Davis for his lost Bellator Light Heavyweight title.
Mina Kurobe: Defeated former Invicta headliner Naho Sugiyama in the main event of Deep Jewels 15.
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