1. Andrew Cancio: IT WASN’T A FLUKE! Cancio landed a body shot in round three that Alberto Machado had no interest in coming back from. After the stunner early this year, Cancio proved his merit as a legit world champion.
2. Elwin Soto: You can’t blame the fighter for a bad stoppage, but he pulled a tremendous upset by even being in the fight with Angel Acosta, dropping him twice, and while Acosta deserved to fight on, Soto did enough to warrant the ref jump in. Hopefully we get a quick rematch.
3. Cedric Doumbe: Delivered an outstanding performance in front of his home-country’s fans, avenging a previous loss to Alim Nabiev a year and change ago, this time for the welterweight title, defending it for the first time in his second reign.
4. Kazuto Ioka: TKO’d Aston Palicte in the tenth-round to claim the vacant WBO World Junior Bantamweight championship in the main event on UFC Fight Pass.
5. Hiroto Kyoguchi: Defended his WBA “Super” (ugh) Junior Flyweight title with a UD over Tanawat Nakoon to stay undefeated at 13-0.
6. Anissa Meksen: After an absolutely brutally surgical high-kick and followup combo, you could practically see Sofia Olofsson’s thoughts in the co-main of Glory 66, defending her Women’s Super Bantamweight title, and probably awaiting either Tiffany Van Soest or Jady Menezes in this three-horsed merry-go-round.
7. Rafael Lovato Jr.: The new Bellator Middleweight Champion after winning a tight majority-decision over Gegard Mousasi in the main event of Bellator 223/Bellator London. I really hate the way they laid out this card. From the multiple names to the tape-delay.
8. Chan Sung Jung: Despite the knockout of Dennis Bermudez in his return from military service, he busted his ass, but took that last-second knockout from Yair Rodriguez, and going in, I didn’t know the Korean Zombie we were going to get. Was he going to be an fight of the night guy who would give it all, but come up on the losing end, or would he rediscover the form he used to have, and be an entertaining winner? Well, on Saturday night, we had our answer. Jung took less than a minute to eliminate Moicano, faster than even Brian Ortega and Jose Aldo could, his only other losses. It’s clear that Jung is back in the title picture, and while it’s crowded, KZ’s story and popularity is an easy sell.
9. Nicholas Meregali: In what I’m calling a big upset, Meregali submitted a BJJ legend in Cyborg Abreu with a loop choke.
10. Miyo Yoshida: The women’s WBO World Junior Bantamweight strap was up for grabs, and Miyo Yoshida was one round on one judge’s scorecard from pitching a total shutout over American Casey Morton to claim the vacant title on Fight Pass.
11. Artem Vakhitov: Although he was relegated to the Superfight Series in Paris, Vakhitov did what he had to do, but just barely, and defeated Donegi Abena by split-decision to retain his Light Heavyweight championship.
12. Jermell Charlo: In his first fight after losing his WBC 154lb title to Tony Harrison, he returned with a massive right hand that put Jorge Cota out in the third-round in the Sunday night main event on FOX.
13. Guillermo Rigondeaux: Goddamn, what a fun fight! A fun Rigo fight! A Christmas miracle! The stoppage was a little early, which seemed to be the theme of the weekend, but goddamn, what a fun scrap from Rigondeaux in finishing Julio Ceja in the co-main event on FOX Sunday night.
14. Artem Lobov: In what has to be a career low-point for Paulie Malignaggi, he got outpointed, ironically, if you followed his boxing career, by Artem Lobov, cut by the UFC for losing too much despite being their Golden Goose’s close friend and training partner.
15. Jairzinho Rozenstruik: A new heavyweight record! Nine goddamned seconds before his knockout of Allen Crowder to set a heavyweight record and make a big name for himself.
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