1. Rene Alvarado: When he and Andrew Cancio tussled almost four years ago, it ended with Alvarado on his wallet and TKO’d in the eighth round. Here, now, it was Alvarado that just kept coming, just kept swinging, just kept landing, and until Cancio’s corner did the right thing and saved their fighter. And, at last, on his 40th professional fight, Alvarado is a world champion.
2. Deontay Wilder: Unlike Alvarado, Wilder did not keep coming, he did not throw, and he did not land. He was getting buried in points, losing badly, probably should have been losing by more. And then…boom. All it takes is one, and nobody in boxing has a harder killshot than The Bronze Bomber. It’ll make highlight reels until he’s long gone, but I worry about if Wilder is neglecting his overall game and just focusing on his right hand.
3. Leo Santa Cruz: Is a world champion in his fourth weight-class after a one-sided shellacking, that, strangely, the judges saw much, much closer, over woefully overmatched Miguel Flores in the co-main event of Wilder-Ortiz II.
4. Yuki Egawa: Mowed through the entire tournament field at K-1’s World Grand Prix in Yokohama, winning the featherweight tournament with KO and after KO. Brutally efficient.
5. Nong-O Gaiyanghadao: Made his third defense of his ONE Muay Thai Bantamweight championship, and earning his first knockout since 2014, in the main event of OneFC: Edge of Greatness over Saemapetch Fairtex.
6. Can Xu: Punches in bunches was the key to victory for the WBA Featherweight champion, defending his title over Manny Robles III in the co-main event of Cancio-Alvarado II.
7. Garry Tonon: In what Fight To Win is calling the Fight of the Year, Tonon and fellow BJJ superstar Davi Ramos clashed in the main event of Fight To Win 132 in Honolulu, with Tonon coming out the victor by decision.
8. Tiffany van Soest: I’ve long talked about the Glory Women’s Bantamweight/Super Bantamweight carousel of Anissa Meksen, van Soest, and Jade Menezes going round and round for the title. It was a solid possibility that it would be ground to a halt with a third victory of van Soest by Meksen. HOWEVA! Tiffany Timebomb overcame her biggest challenge to date and finally slayed her longtime dragon, defeating Meksen, albeit by pretty questionable judging. Around and around we go!
9. Levi Jones-Leary/Kaynan Duarte: Won the loaded lightweight and heavyweight tournaments, respectively, at the Spyder Invitational BJJ Championships.
10. Craig Jones: In a loaded card from across the pond, it was Jones in the main event locking on a kimura for a win over Adam Wardzinski.
11. Nathias Frederick: With one solitary second left in the fourth round, Fredrick avenged a previous loss via majority draw and finished James Webb in the main event of Cage Warriors 111.
12. Brandon Royval: It took just 23 seconds for Royval to become the new LFA flyweight champ with an armbar.
13. Benjamin Adegbuyi: After not venturing inside the Glory ring in nearly a full year, Adegbuyi faced a stiff test in D’Angelo Marshall, but came out on the other side with a win in the co-main of Glory 71 Friday night.
14. Modestas Bukauskas: Made a successful first defense of his Cage Warriors Light Heavyweight title in the first round, then called out Dana White and Sean Shelby. Hey, 205 does desperately need fresh blood.
t15. Ohara Davies/Mohamed Mimoune/Jeff Ofori/Tyrone McKenna: These four advanced in thde second edition of the MTK Golden Contract tournament on ESPN.
t15. Ben Askren: Once he exhausted his career as far as it could go, Funky tried his mettle in the UFC. He won a fantastic bout, then dropped two in spectacular fashion, finally calling it a career, and goddamned, it was a fun ride.
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