Fighters of the Week

  1. Jermell Charlo: All it took was one sidestep counter, and just like that, in the first round, the blue-chipper, Erickson Lubin, was on his back for the count, and Charlo had a highlight reel knockout and a devastating title defense.

  2. Jarrett Hurd: Handed Austin Trout his first career stoppage loss, and thus legitimized himself as a legit force and dynamic world champion.

  3. Alex Pereira: The Brazilian puncher is the new Glory Middleweight champion in an throttling of Simon Marcus in a fight that I didn’t give him much of a chance in.

  4. Leo Santa Cruz: Chris Avalos never presented much of a challenge and this card was a showcase for LSC and Abner Mares so they can face each other soon.

  5. Abner Mares: Terrorized Andreas Gutierrez seemingly at will, and now a date with Leo Santa Cruz awaits.

6. Erislandy Lara: Lara’d his way to the only decision on the card, but in doing so, handed Terrell Gausha his first career loss and figured out his amateur, point-based style, even landing a knockdown on Gausha.

7. Nikita Krylov: Took just 40 seconds for Krylov to make quick work of former Bellator LHW champ Emanuel Newton at Fight Nights Global.

8. George Groves: Still the WBA Super Middleweight champ after a fourth-round drubbing of Jamie Cox, handing him his first career loss, and advancing to a semifinal meeting with Chris Eubank Jr. in the World Boxing Super Series.

9. Chenglong Zhang: Won Glory’s Featherweight contender’s tournament, defeating Quade Taranaki and Masaya Kubo in the process.

10. Liam Harrison/Jordan Watson: Retained their titles in the main events of YOKKAO 27 and 28, respectively.

11. Curtis Millender: Absolutely starched Matthew Frincu with a head kick in the main event of LFA 24.

12. Ismael Barroso: Battered, bloodied, and brutalized Fidel Maldonado Jr. in their ESPN main event on Friday.

13. Roberto Soldic: In Saturday’s Cage Warriors main event, it took just 40 seconds and a head kick knockout for Soldic to defeat Lewis Long to claim his sixth straight win.

14. Yoni Sherbatov: The up-and-comer remained undefeated with his biggest win to date, a main event UD of former UFC fighter Zach Makovsky.

15. Junior Tafa: Mark Hunt’s teammate made his name known with three knockdowns in under a hundred seconds on the Glory 46 main card.