1. Manny Pacquiao: He’s not dead yet! Pac-Man took the life out of Lucas Matthysse and added yet another title for his collection, showing he’s still got some gas in the tank and he’s not completely washed.
2. Junior dos Santos: It was UFC vs. WSOF and JDS held up his company’s banner very well, making his return to the octagon and soundly handling Blagoi Ivanov in the main event of UFC Boise.
3. Rocky Fielding: I had predicted that with Fielding being the biggest test to Tyron Zeuge’s questionable reign, that he would defeat him, and he sure as shit did, flattening the WBA Super Middleweight champ and taking his title and winning his first (“Regular”, sigh) world title.
4. Patricio Freire: This time Pitbull narrowly escaped with his belt, sneaking by a highly-motivated and well-trained Daniel Weichel by split-decision.
5. Julia Budd: Retained her Bellator Featherweight title with extreme prejudice, setting down Talita Nogueira in the third round in the main event of Bellator 202.
6. Gabriel Varga: Varga, who I will not argue was the body model for Vega on Street Fighter, forced a ref stoppage and is now the Bellator Kickboxing Featherweight champion, taking it from Kevin Ross and adding it to his Glory gold, as well.
7. Giorgio Petrosyan: The Doctor was in and performed surgery on Chingiz Allov, becoming the first Bellator Kickboxing Lightweight champion.
8. Carlos Canizales: “Regular” championship or not, Canizales is a hell of a fighter. Bin Lu will have a great career and might be a world champion one day, and lasted until the 12th round, but Canizales was too much.
9. Michael McDonald: Mayday rides again! Dispatching a fighter like Eduardo Dantas, a former Bellator world champ, in under a goddamned minute is one hell of an accomplishment.
10. Chad Mendes: The former Moneyshot made a triumphant return after a less-than-triumphant suspension, pressuring Myles Jury into a pile in the corner of the cage.
11. Sage Northcutt: Super Sage rebounded from a disasterous first round to finish Zak Ottow in the Boise co-main.
12. Niko Price: HAMMERFIST KO FROM THE BOTTOM?! WHAT IN THE SHIT??
13. Regis Prograis: Sent Juan Jose Velasco to the mat three times en route to a TKO win in the main event of Saturday’s ESPN card.
14. Kevin Aguilar: This is a big Kevin Aguilar house, and he didn’t disappoint again, as the current LFA featherweight champion stepped in on short notice and won the main event of Dana White’s Contender Series. Give this man a goddamned contract already!
15. Bevon Lewis/Jordan Espinosa: Even though Aguilar didn’t get a contract, these two gents did, and are on their way to the UFC.
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