1. Deiveson Figueiredo: The woefully outmatched Alex Perez had nothing for Figueiredo, and he made short work Perez via a guillotine in the main event of UFC 255, and to thank him for his hard work, Dana White has booked him in three weeks to defend against Brandon Moreno, who also barely broke a sweat in his bout.
2. Valentina Shevchenko: To the surprise of no one, least of all the Vegas bookmakers who had her as a whopping -1400 favorite, Shevchenko dominated Jennifer Maia over five rounds to retain her UFC flyweight championship.
3. AJ McKee: Is it AJ McKee’s time? He pulled off an unbelievable from-bottom submission on Darrion Caldwell in barely past the first-minute in the main event of Bellator 253, advancing to the finals against kingpin Patricio Freire. He is now 17-0, has defeated two former Bellator champions, and is now facing his toughest test, the greatest fighter in Bellator history. Is this going to be McKee’s crowning, after seventeen fights and five and a half years? We shall see. Read the excellent ESPN article about the halt of combat sports’ pipeline and how Scott Coker and McKee came together.
4. Conor Benn: Retained his WBA Continental Welterweight title in Matchroom’s main event on Saturday from London.
5. Aslanbek Zikreev: In the main event of ONE’s fourth Inside The Matrix show, in a catchweight kickboxing bout, Zikreev escaped with a split-decision win over Wang Junguang.
6. Alex Pereira: In his LFA debut, his high kick got checked, but that left hook did not. The Glory middleweight champion is climbing the ranks in his fourth professional MMA fight. Will he end up taking on Israel Adesanya for UFC gold soon?
7. Yutaka Saito: Is the inaugural RIZIN featherweight champion after a main event UD over the red-hot Mikuru Asakura.
8. Javier Fortuna: PBC’s offering in this below-average weekend of boxing pitted Fortuna against Antonio Lozada Torres. Two hard-nosed vets tangled in the main event on FS1, with Fortuna putting Lozada on the canvas in the first en route to a sixth-round KO.
9. Tim Means: Did anyone want to see Mike Perry win that fight, politics aside, of just his disrespectful bullshit binge-food posts two weeks out from his fight, then missing weight by five pounds? Means did everyone a favor by beating the burger out of Perry over three dominant rounds.
10. Willis da Mota/Lucas Pinheiro/Kennedy Leonardo Maciel/Alexandre Carlson/Jonnatas Gracie/Andrew Wiltse/Lucas Barbosa/Kaynan Duarte/Max dos Santos/Gabrielle McComb Lima/Nathalie Ribeiro/Vannessa Griffin/Rafaela Ribeiro/Tara Giovanna: The gold medal winners of the 2020 IBJJF No-Gi Pan Championships. Extra kudos to Duarte and Ribeiro for winning their absolute divisions.
11. Bassil Hafez: The new CFFC welterweight champion after a triangle choke brought down previously undefeated Christien Savoie in the main event of Thursday’s CFFC 89.
12. Kayla Harrison: Thrust into the main event of Invicta 43, Harrison had a very successful Invicta debut, the gold-medalist judoka giving Courtney King a crimson mask en route to a TKO win.
13. Sasha Palatnikov: Kicked off the UFC 255 card with the biggest upset of the night, as a +425 underdog, defeating Louis Cosce.
14. Stephanie Geltmacher: In the makeshift co-main event of Invicta 43, Geltmacher landed a filthy right hand that you seldom see in Invicta to put Caitlin Sammons out.
15. JP Buys/Gloria de Paula/Tucker Lutz/Victoria Leonardo: It was another four-contract night for the Contender’s Series fighters in the last DWCS of 2020.
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