1. Mikey Garcia: Mikey’s death march rolled on, taking a game Sergey Lipinets and handing him his first loss and taking his IBF title to stake hisclaim for dominating 140lbs next.
2. Regis Prograis: Absolutely battered former champ Julius Indongo with body shots before knocking him down thrice in the second round to earn a TKO win, the interim WBC Junior Welterweight title, and a world title shot against the winner of Amir Imam and Jose Carlos Ramirez next weekend.
3. Kiryl Relikh: Despite Rances Barthelemy’s absurd low blows, he rose above, defeated him badly, and claimed the vacant WBA Junior welterweight championship as the 140lb division attempts to put itself back together after Bud Crawford took a nuke to it.
4. Oscar Valdez: Really liked this matchup, that is, before Quigg missed weight. Alas, a spirited bout, and Valdez passed his stiffest gatekeeper to date, retaining his WBO Featherweight strap for the fourth time.
5. Gezary Matuda/Karen Antunes/Beatriz Mesquita/Angelica Galvao/Nathiely de Jesus/Maria Malyjasiak/Claudia Doval/Luiza Monteiro/Tomoyuki Hashimoto/Joao Miyao/Gianni Grippo/JT Torres/Gabriel Arges/Lucas Barbosa/Leandro Lo/Keenan Cornelius/Joao Gabriel Rocha: Your 2018 IBJJF Pan Jiu Jitsu black belt champions. Extra credit to Monteiro and Lo for winning the women’s and men’s absolute divisions, respectively.
6. Azat Hovhannisyan: Derailed Ronny Rios’s title quest by stopping him in the sixth round in the main event of Golden Boy on ESPN, and now he’s reeled off eight wins in a row, seven by (T)KO, and a junior featherweight title shot probably awaits.
7. Jonay Risco: Aside from that sham against Yi Long, this was Buakaw’s first loss in twelve bouts, as Risco took Enfusion’s 70kg and defeated a legend.
8. Reece McLaren: Put down Gianni Subba by arm-triangle in the main event of OneFC: Visions of Victory as he works his way towards another title shot.
9. Nick Newell: Ended his short-lived retirement with a return to LFA, and it didn’t even take a round for him to submit Sonny Luque in the main event.
10. Terry Brazier: BAMMA’s new welterweight champion after a split-decision main event win over Alex Lohore in the main event of BAMMA 34.
11. Mansour Barnaoui/Shamil Zavurov: Advanced in RoadFC’s million-dollar lightweight tournament.
12. Haruma Saikyo: Krush’s 58kg champ retained his belt by the slimmest of margains, an extra round split-decision over Yuta Murakoshi in the main event of Krush 86 at Korakuen Hall.
13. Luis Tavares: And still Enfusion heavyweight champion after Fatih Ulusoy’s corner had seen enough after the third round in the Enfusion Live 63 main event.
14. Yohann Drai/Victor Nagbe: Both won Kunlun Fight’s one-night 70kg qualification tournaments to advance to Kunlun Fight’s neverending 70kg tournament.
15. Alexis Rocha: Absolutely beat the hell out of Miguel Dumas in the Golden Boy on ESPN co-main, and knocked him clean out in the first round.
Honorable Mention:
Mina Kurobe
Mikhail Kolobegov
Ivan Buchinger
Issei Tamura
Wei Ninghui
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