Fighters of the Week

  1. Robert Whittaker: Bobby Knuckles is the new interim UFC Middleweight championship after a five-round hard-hitting battle with Yoel Romero. Bisping is on deck if his knee ever heals and/or the GSP situation gets ironed out.

  2. Justin Gaethje: Now that was a goddamned debut. Shook off any octagon jitters that first-timers usually have, bit down on his mouthpiece and just slugged with Michael Johnson in a Fight of the Year contender, getting rocked, but eventually putting Johnson down.

  3. Jesse Taylor: Is the champion of the 25th season of The Ultimate Fighter, after the hard-nosed veteran took advantage after being floored by Dhiego Lima and got the submission in the second round.

  4. Denis Lebedev: Is stil the WBA Super World Cruiserweight champion after defeated Mark Flanagan Sunday in Russia.

  5. Ramona Kuehne/Mariana Juarez: Defended the only female world championships in boxing this weekend with UD wins in Germany and Mexico, respectively.

6. Alistair Overeem: In the trilogy that spanned three different companies, Overeem won the series against Fabricio Werdum in a razor-thin majority decision that the crowd didn’t agree with.

7. Nobuhiro Sawada/Lucas dos Santos Pinheiro/Osvaldo Honorio/Renato Forasieppi/Jaime Soares/Lucas Barbosa/Keenan Cornelius/Dany Guy Steve Gerard/Gabriel Lyrio Lucas/Tammi Musumeci/Jena Rae Bishop/Beatriz de Oliveira Mesquita/Charlene Coats: The winners of this weekend’s IBJJF American National Championships. Bonus kudos to Cornelius and Mesquita for winning their openweight classes, as well.

8. Iman Barlow: Defended her 54kg Enfusion championship for the sixth time after a surprisingly close contest with Canada’s Ashley Nichols in Halifax for Enfusion Live 51.

9. James Puopolo: Picked up a kneebar victory in the main event of Fight To Win Pro 39.

10. Rousimar Palhares: Not only did he earn a quick victory in the main event of Fight Nights, he didn’t commit assault like usual! Baby steps.

11. Rena Kubota: Took home the main event win from the ShootBoxing Girls S Cup.

12. Drakkar Klose: Temporarily derailed the Marc Diakiese hype train, beating him by split-decision at the TUF Finale and not letting him really get loose for most of it.

13. Giovanni Santillan: It was a weak weekend for boxing, as Telemundo had the only televised offering, but nonetheless, you take what you’re given, and Santillan improved to 22-0 with a win in the main event.

14. Oleksiy Oliynyk: Tapped out whatever’s left of Travis Browne, who desperately needs a change of camps about two years ago.

15. Ivan Shtyrkov: Added another big name to his win card, joining Ricco Rodriguez, Bigfoot Silva, Jeff Monson, and others is Satoshi Ishii, who went down in the seceond round via TKO.