1. Terence Crawford: Jose Benavidez was more game than expected, but once the rounds started adding up, the wheat seperated from the chaff and Crawford became Crawford, stopping Benavidez in the twelfth.
2. Zolani Tete: Both defended his WBO Bantamweight championship, and advanced in the World Boxing Super Series with a dull win over Olympic bronze-medalist Mikhail Aloyan.
3. Angel Acosta: Flattened Abraham Rodriguez in the second round on Golden Boy’s Facebook Watch on Saturday night to retain his WBO Junior Flyweight title.
4. Ryan Bader: Posted an absolutely dominant rout of Matt Mitrione to advance to the finals of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix.
5. Fedor Emelianenko: Turned Chael’s biggest weapon beside his mouth, top control, on him, and finished him to face Ryan Bader in the finals of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix.
6. Vagner Rocha: Is now the Fight To Win Black Belt Light AND Welterweight No-Gi champion after a win over Augusto Mendes in the main event of Fight To Win Pro 89.
7. Sean O’Connell/Rashid Magomedov/Natan Schulte/Vinny Magalhaes: Advanced to PFL’s finals in Madison Square Garden on New Year’s Eve and are one fight away from a million dollars.
8. Andrew Tabiti: In the first Cruiserweight bout of the WBSS, Tabiti advances to the semifinals to take on the winner of Krzsztof Glowacki and Maxim Vlasov.
9. Marouan Toutouh/Davit Kiria/Deng Xingli/Dzianis Zuev: Advanced the semifinals in Kunlun Fight’s 70kg tournament over some pretty big names.
10. Shakur Stevenson: The co-main on a Terence Crawford ESPN card in Omaha in front of a sold-out crowd is pretty damned good exposure for the Olympic silver medalist, and he took full advantage of it, putting Viorel Simion on his wallet three times in the first round. He’s an on-fire prospect destined for huge things.
11. Benson Henderson: Solid performance for Bendo, proving that he’s still a world-title-caliber fighter after a dominant decision over Saad Awad.
12. Sergei Kharitonov: Became the first fighter in over four years to stop Big Country, and did so emphatically.
13. Ben Egli/Mladen Brestovac/Shkodran Veseli/Shawn Miller: All four walked out of Final Fight Championship 31 in Vegas champions from MMA, kickboxing, and boxing, respectively.
14. Cheick Kongo: Nailed a walkoff KO over longtime UFC heavyweight veteran Timothy Johnson, and even better, no groin kicks!
15. Henry Corrales: Andy Main was game, but Corrales put on a stellar performance, ended it violently in the third, and called out some of the top featherweights in Bellator.
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