1. Shakur Stevenson: The Olympic silver medalist is now a world champion in his second weight class, besting an overmatched Jamel Herring with his speed and athleticism.
2. Rico Verhoeven: It wasn’t against Overeem, but Jamal Ben Saddik is a Glory Heavyweight Grand Prix winner and title challenger. It didn’t matter, Saddik took Rico into the championship rounds before finishing him in the fourth, retaining his Glory heavyweight championship.
3. Yesica Yolanda Bopp: Defended her WBA Super world title at junior flyweight after she “Bopped” (sorry) Johana Zuniga repeatedly, sending her to the canvas in the second, third, and fourth round, earning a TKO.
4. Thi Thu Nhi Nguyen: Is a world champion after only five professional fights, besting Etsuko Tada by unanimous decision.
5. Marvin Vettori: And now we’re finally rid of Paulo Costa’s weight nonsense, coming to fight camp grossly overweight, and then asking the fight be a 195lb-catchweight THEN a true light heavyweight bout was absolutely insane, and did him no good at all, as he got soundly defeated by Marvin Vettori. Thankfully, he’s at 205 going forward and none of us have to be a party to this foolishness going forward.
6. Fedor Emelianenko: “The Last Emperor” made his return to the cage after nearly two years, and in front of a rabid home crowd, dispatched Timothy Johnson from consciousness with a one-two in the main event of Bellator 269 to claim his first victory in Moscow since that shady business with Fabio Maldonado.
7. Gokhan Saki: Made his kickboxing return after six and a half years away, returning to Glory Collision 3, working his low kick game to finish James McSweeney in the co-main event.
8. Oscar Rivas: Well, we officially have our new WBC “Bridgerweight” champion, which is their absurd 224-lb weight class that nobody is really taking seriously, after besting Ryan Rozicki.
9. Sebastian Przybysz: A fantastic inverted triangle choke was slapped on by the champ in the main event of KSW 64 to retain his KSW bantamweight championship.
10. Dennis Buzukja: Successfully defended his Ring of Combat featherweight title in just 66 seconds, besting Michael Lawrence by knockout in the main event of ROC 74.
11. Armen Petrosyan/Caio Borralho/Piera Rodriguez/Jonny Parsons: Earners of new UFC contracts in the latest installment of Dana White’s Contender Series.
12. Josh Fremd: Pitched a three-round shutout over Renato Valente in the main event of LFA 116.
13. Mohammed Boutasaa: Your main event victor over Youssel El Haji at Enfusion 103 in Wuppertal.
14. Evan Holyfield: The son of the The Real Deal remained undefeated after a second-round knockout of Charles Stanford in front of a hometown Atlanta crowd on the Herring-Stevenson card.
15. Mariusz Pudzianowski: BOOM!
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