1. Henry Cejudo: Marlon Moares’s clinch-defense, despite being taller and having a longer reach than Henry Cejudo, should haunt him and his team for decades. It was absurd, and I can’t imagine what went wrong when he was actually faced with it. Alas, Cejudo holds the title at 125 and 135lbs, to all of our dismay.
2. Valentina Shevchenko: Bullet needed this one. Despite all her promise, she need a a signature win she could hang her hat on and make a statement with. A killer Russian kickboxing-bot can only keep her aura with so many decisions. And boy, did she ever do that.
3. Oscar Valdez: Jason Sanchez was game, and I still don’t know the need to rush a 14-0 fighter into this spot, but Valdez was too much, as everyone expected, and retained his WBO featherweight title in the main event on ESPN.
4. Christina Linardatou: Very few boxing world titles were on the line this weekend, and only one female world title, the WBO junior welterweight held by Linardatou, being the one. She defended it in Athens with a unanimous decision in the main event over undefeated Deanha Hobbs.
5. Brandon Moreno: The Assassin Baby, whom I think got a raw deal in the UFC, won the LFA flyweight title from Maikel Perez in the main event of Legacy Fighting Alliance 69.
6. Endy Semeleer: Defended his Enfusion 75kg title with a decision win over Morocco’s Marouan Toutouh in the main event of Enfusuion 85 in front of his home Netherlands crowd.
7. Artur Kyshenko: Is the Arena Fight 80kg champion after a main event victory over Yohan Lidon.
8. Chip Moraza-Pollard: It was his toughest defense yet, but CMP is still the Lion Fight cruiserweight champion, surviving Kongjak Po Baoin by split-decision, and improving to 11-0 in his sixth defense of his strap in the main event of Lion Fight 56 from Masantucket, Connecticut on CBS Sports.
9. Karina Rodriguez: Is the new #1 contender for the Invicta flyweight championship after defeating DeAnna Bennett in the main event of Invicta 35, winning the Invicta Flyweight tournament.
10. Gabi Garcia: The Brazilian behemoth is the new Fight To Win Female Black Belt Heavyweight champion after a Collar choke in the main event of Fight To Win 114.
11. Catherine Perret: Defeated possibly the fastest-rising grappler in the world in Ffion Davies by guillotine to become the Fight To Win Female Black Belt Bantamweight No-Gi champion after a guillotine, and took a nice Fight of the Night bonus home with her.
12. Bazigit Atajev/Maxim Grishin/Rashid Yusupov/Viktor Nemkov/Emiliano Sordi/Ante Delija/Francimar Barroso/Ali Isayev/Denis Goltsov/Satoshi Ishii/Kelvin Tiller: With the exception of Ronny Markes, who missed weight by a sack of potatoes, these are the winners that earned points at PFL 14 (or Season 2 PFL 3 if you, insist), as the heavies and light heavies did battle.
13. Gennady Golovkin: Fast fact: This was GGG’s first non-title fight since 2009. You can only defeat who’s across the ring from you, and in Gennady’s case, it was Steve Rolls, who had no business in there with Golovkin in the first place. Now hopefully GGG has his long-awaited tune-up fight, so we can put together Canelo or at least a somewhat interesting bout now.
14. Calvin Kattar: He isn’t what he was, but a starching of Ricardo Lamas, UFC title challenger, is great for his resume, which is now 4-1 in the UFC.
15. Cletus Seldon: Stopped Zab Judah in brutal fashion, winning a vacant NABA strap, earning a world title shot at some point, and maybe retiring the potential Hall-of-Famer.
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