1. Tyson Fury: And that’s how you wrap that up. In their final encounter, Fury and Deontay Wilder put on a fight for the ages. Both men hit the canvas, both fought like their life depended on it, and both heavyweights left everything they had in the ring. Fury finished off the badly hurting Wilder in the eleventh round to retain his WBC title and move on to the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch.
2. Robert Helenius: Did it again! Looked even better in his rematch against Adam Kownacki, coming in as the underdog for the second time. Stopped Kownacki on a “disqualification” after a clearly defeated and hurting Kownacki couldn’t stop throwing low, but he might as well have waved the white flag.
3. Jamie Mitchell: The only world title to change hands this weekw as the WBA Women’s Bantamweight championship, which was won by Mitchell, staying undefeated after a majority decision over defending champion Shannon Courtenay.
4. Mason Fowler: Made yet another defense of his Submission Underground Absolute champion. I’ll go so far as to say Fowler is the most fighting champion in combat sports, taking on all comers at just about every SUG event.
5. Marina Rodriguez: Apparently, despite being one of the best female jiu-jitsu practitioners in history, Mackenzie Dern, in her first UFC main event, felt like standing and trading shots weakly for twenty-five minutes. She got blown out by Marina Rodriguez and seldom made any attempt at not only her biggest strength, but one of THE biggest strengths of any fighter in MMA. Credit to Marina for playing this one very smartly and utilizing her gameplan.
6. Troy Williamson: Ted Cheeseman is allergic to a boring fight, and Troy Williamson was more than happy to join him, finishing him with a thunderous knockout in the tenth round to claim The Big Cheese’s British title at 154lbs.
7. Frank Sanchez: Put a lid on Efe Ajagba’s dangerous offense like no fighter since, handing him his first career loss and defending both of his secondary heavyweight champions to get in the mix in the world title picture.
8. Estevan G Martinez-Garcia/Carlos Alberto Oliveira da Silva/Diego Oliveira/Gianni Grippo/Hugo Doerzapff Marques/Jeferson Guaresi/Pedro Fillipe Serra Marinho/Devhonte Johnson/Roberto Abreu/Mayssa Bastos/Ana Talita Alencar/Ffion Davies/Raquel Paaluhi/Elisabeth Clay/Rafaela Ribeiro/Mayara Monteiro: Your black belt winners of the IBJJF World No-Gi Championships. Extra kudos to Marinho and Ribeiro for winning their open classes.
9. Dechsakda: The inaugural Lion Fight World Featherweight champion after being victorious in the main event of Lion Fight 70.
10. Craig Jones: Still the top dog in Polaris, successfully defending his openweight championship, besting Davi Ramos.
11. Kendall Reusing: Now the Polaris Women’s Openweight champion after topping Venla Luukkonen to claim the inaugural title.
12. Jason Cunningham: Now the holder of three British titles at junior featherweight after liberating two from Brad Foster in Birmingham.
13. Lorawnt Nelson: Prevailed in a four-man tournament, besting Ariel Juarez and Devin White to become XFN welterweight champion.
14. Selina Flores: The new Lion Fight North American Women’s Super Bantamweight champion.
15. Randy Brown: The co-main event victor over Drew Gooden from the Apex.
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