Fighters of the Week

  1. Khabib Nurmagomedov: On a scintilating evening in Abu Dhabi, Khabib enveloped Dustin Poirier like the very humidity in the air, Poirier was unable to get anything going on the feet, and couldn’t shrug off Nurmagomedov at all, as Khabib just pressured, pressured, pressured, until Khabib finally got the choke, the tap, and his the undefeated, undisputed, lightweight champ of the world.

  2. Pedro Taduran: The only boxing world championship up for grabs this weekend was the vacant IBF World Minimumweight championship in Manila, and Taduran claimed it over Samuel Salva.

  3. Nong-O Gaiyanghadao: Made his third successful defense of his OneFC Muay Thai Bantamweight championship in the main event of ONE: Immortal Triumph by split-decision over and young and hungry Brice Delval, though I had it fairly clearly for Nong-O.

  4. Paul Felder: It was controversial, but Felder enacted some measure of revenge over his previous loss to Edson Barboza, taking a close decision over Barbosa in the co-main of UFC 242, and setting him up for a huge fight next.

  5. Derek Campos/Adam Borics/Pedro Varvalho/Emmanuel Sanchez: Advances in the Bellator Featherweight Grand Prix after defeating their quarterfinalists.

6. Jack Cartwright: Cage Warriors’s new bantamweight champion after winning their championship tournament at the second edition of their Unplugged series.

7. Miranda Maverick: Maverick and DeAnna Bennett were clearly the two best competitors in Invicta’s flyweight tournament at their second Phoenix Series, and alas, they ended up in the finals with Maverick locking in a rear-naked with a little more than a minute left to claim the tournament as her own.

8. Khalid El Bakouri: Anis Bouzid fought like hell to keep his Enfusion 85kg championship, especially in the late rounds, but Bakouri won it by decision in a good scrap.

9. Carlos Diego Ferreira: Winner of the biggest upset of the weekend, defeating Mairbek Taisumov to send rubes like me into the poor house at UFC 242.

10. Joao Miyao/Paulo Miyao: The brothers Miyao did well for themselves in Liverpool at GrappleFest 6, securing submission wins in the main and co-main event slots.

11. Josh Hinger: In the main event of Fight To Win 124, Hinger decisioned Arnaoldo Maidana by decision.

12. Karen Antunes: It wasn’t the main event, but Antunes battling Mayssa Bastos was the fight that had the highest-ranked grapplers at Fight To Win, and it was Antunes who came out the victor by decision.

13. Vinicius de Jesus: And Chris Lozano remains winless since 2012 in only his second bout since then, as de Jesus had his way with him, finally finishing him off in the third round with strikes to walk out of CES MMA 58 as the welterweight champ.

14. Andrew Cruz: Jon Neal had absolutely nothing for Cruz, and shut him down almost completely before slapping on a rear-naked at the tail-end of the second round in the main event of LFA 75.

15. Kay Prospere: Propspere drew Sam O’Maison for the BBBofC 140lb title in March, they ran it back, and it was Prospere getting the better of him this time around.