1. Saul Alvarez: Canelo won a world title in his fourth division, absolutely having his way with Callum Smith. Despite Smith’s huge size advantage, Canelo walked through him, with Smith barely mustering a round or two going his way.
2. Benjamin Adegbuyi: Had a MONSTER comeback after dropping the first two rounds to Badr Hari, before putting him down for the ten-count with a nasty body shot. He’s now the #1 contender for the Glory Heavyweight Championship.
3. Roman Kryklia: Made his biggest defense of his ONE Light Heavyweight Kickboxing championship to date, besting Andrei Stoica by unanimous decision in the main event of ONE: Collision Course.
4. Gennadiy Golovkin: Took care of business, defeating his IBF mandatory challenger, Kamil Szeremeta with extreme prejudice, knocking him down four times before he was mercifully stopped. Now it’s time for another money fight while we still can.
5. Stephen Thompson: Wonderboy halted the Geoff Neal hype train, pitching a five-round shutout and keeping himself in contention at 170lbs.
6. Nong-O Gaiyanghadao: Made his fourth defense of his ONE Bantamweight Muay Thai championship with a third-round knockout of Rodlek P.K. Saenchaimuaythaigym. Now there’s potential talk of a huge fight between Nong-O and The Doctor himself, Giorgio Petrosyan.
7. Cedric Doumbe: It wasn’t the matchup with Murthel Groenhart that we wanted, but you can only fight who’s across the ring from you, and Doumbe took care of business against Karim Ghajji.
8. Ilunga Junior Makabu: The WBC World Cruiserweight champion knocked out Olanrewaju Durodola in the seventh round, defending his title in his native Congo.
9. Levi Rigters: Two body-shot KOs and Rigters is the victor of the Glory Heavyweight tournament, flattening Marciano Bhagwandass and Nordine Mahieddine.
10. Reymart Gaballo: Gaballo claimed the interim WBC World Bantamweight title in the co-main of the final Showtime card of 2020.
11. Jose Aldo: After dropping three straight fights, Aldo needed a win to salvage his career, and he bit down on his mouthpiece and got one, turning away the hard-charging Marlon Vera in the co-main event of the UFC’s final card of 2020.
12. Carlos Gongora: Owner of the biggest upset of the weekend, handing Ali Akhmedov his first career loss in the co-main of Friday’s GGG card.
13. Hyun Mi Choi: And that makes ten (10!) successful title defenses of Choi’s WBA World Women’s Junior Lightweight title after a UD win over Calista Silgado on Friday’s Matchroom card.
14. Begin Yoshioka: Won the Krush bantamweight championship tournament to claim the throne.
15. Floyd Mayweather/Wladimir Klitschko/Andre Ward/Laila Ali/Ann Wolfe/Marian Trimiar/Dr. Margaret Goodman/Davey Moore/Jackie Tonawanda/Freddie Brown/Jackie McCoy/George Kimball/Jay Larkin: Your 2021 International Boxing Hall of Fame class.
Honorable Mention:
Mason Fowler
Brianna Ste-Marie
Bajrang Punia: FloWrestling’s 8-man 150lb cash tournament for the $25,000 grand prize was claimed by India’s Punia, topping James Green 8-4 in the finals.
Tim Tszyu: Strengthened his argument to face Patrick Teixeira for his world championship at junior middleweight with a thundering knockout of Bowyn Morgan on Wednesday. By the way, how jarring and refreshing is it to see a full crowd maskless??
Elise Reed: The only defending champion on Cage Fury’s back-to-back events, she successfully defended her strawweight title against Jillian DeCoursey by unanimous decision.
Debora Anahi Lopez
Collin Huckbody: Huckbody, great name by the way, is the new CFFC middleweight champion after knocking out Aaron Phillips on Thursday on UFC Fight Pass.
Pat Sabatini: On the second of CFFC’s back-to-back shows, Sabatini is the new featherweight champion after an armbar submitted Jesse Stirn in the main event of CFFC 91.
Bruno Assis
Amanda Loewen
Donald Cerrone
William Tackett
Yuya
Si Woo Park
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