1. Emanuel Navarrete: Now a two-division world champion after putting Ruben Villa on his wallet twice en route to claiming the WBO world featherweight championship in a spirited contest.
2. Cory Sandhagen: Enter Sandman. I was curious as to how Sandhagen would react would to his first career loss, especially after being finished by Aljamain Sterling, but he rebounded dynamically and made me picking Moraes look a fool after yet another knockout on a day that was full of them!
3. Robin Krasniqi: Came in to his title fight with Dominic Boesel as a +350 underdog and walked out with both his IBO and more important, his interim WBA World Light Heavyweight title.
4. Mamed Khalidov: The king returns! Mamed Khalidov was not only king of KSW, for my money, the best promotion in Europe, for years. In my opinion, he’s the best MMA fighter to never sign to a major promotion. In the last couple years, time caught up with him, dropped his title, retired, came out of retirement, and lost again. Finally, this Saturday, what could have been his swan song and a shot at regaining his middleweight championship, he could’ve tarnished his legacy for good…and went out and did this…
5. Sam-A Gaiyanghadao: Still the king of ONE’s strawweight division in both muay thai and kickboxing, defending his muay thai crown with a trio of knockdowns against Josh Tonna in the main event of ONE: Reign of Dynasties on Friday.
6. Edson Barboza: There’s a lot of miles on the gunslinger, but he’s still doing what he does, defeating a dangerous grappler in Makwan Amirkhani in the co-main of UFC Fight Night.
7. Joey Beltran: Made his first defense of his Bare Knuckle heavyweight championship with an emphatic win over Marcel Stamps in the main event of BKFC 13.
8. Lucas Pinheiro/Joshua Cisneros/Thiago Augusto/Johnatha Alves/Ronaldo Pereira/Otavio de Sousa/Gustavo Espindola Batista/Guilherme Augusto Soares Santos/Max dos Santos/Felipe Leandro/Mayssa Bastos/Gabrielle Lima/Luiza Monteiro Moura da Costa/Rafaela Ribeiro Guedes/Andressa Mezari/Kendall Reusing: Congrats to your 2020 IBJJF Pan-American Jiu-Jitsu champions. Extra kudos to Silva and Guedes for winning their Openweight class.
9. Alfred Walker: Won the one-night, eight-man XFN kickboxing tournament, taking home ten-large for his troubles.
10. Maxi Hughes: As the underdog on the main event of Friday’s ESPN+ card, Hughes handed Viktor Kotochigov his first professional loss and took his WBC International lightweight title from him.
11. Joaquin Buckley: I MEAN, COME THE WHA WHA?!?!
12. Timothy Johnson: Avenged his previous loss to Cheick Kongo in the main event of Bellator’s debut in France.
13. Marcin Tybura: In a battle of two heavyweights on winning streaks, Tybura pulled a mild upset on longtime veteran Ben Rothwell.
14. Kevin Hessling/Youssef El Haji/Kevin van Heeckeren/Milan Pales: All four are new champions for ECE, or Enfusion’s Cage Events.
15. Michael Page: That’s right pal, you’re getting as much MVP as you can stand, especially with Bellator changing networks, get ready to have him shoved down your throats. Nevertheless, he picked up a win, giving Ross Houston his first professional loss, narrowly missing the shutout.
Honorable Mention:
Kento Haraguchi
Zhanibek Alimkhanuly
Nico Hernandez
Elvis Rodriguez
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