The championship fight. The pinnacle of achievement across combat sports for centuries. A premiere attraction that draws millions every year. But not all title bouts are created equally.
So which title bouts every week are the ones to watch? We’ll look over every title fight from across the combat sports landscape and give you the five best based on five criteria:
- Competitiveness: Is this an even matchup? Or just a warm body to throw at a champion? It’s a title fight, so we want the best possible at that division in that promotion.
- Excitement: How exciting will this fight be? A clash of two elite talents throwing everything they have at each other in an attempt to win the gold? Or a half-dead plod-fest devoid of action or risk?
- Juice: A sort of catch-all term for all the factors behind the matchup. Is there a story leading up to the match? A true rivalry? Anticipated rematch? Do the fighters dislike each other? Were the circumstances leading to the fight extraordinary, or was it just a promoter putting two names against each other? Is there a lot of excitement or hype going into it?
- Prestige: Applies to the belt itself, but also to the fighter wearing it. Is this a long-tenured champion defending? Is this an interim title or one that was vacated? Has the champion increased the prestige of the title or is this a fight that will increase the prestige of it?
- Viewing Ease: We all don’t mind suffering for our art (or hobbies), but sometimes paying twenty dollars for a choppy stream, or searching your cable plan for a channel you’re pretty sure was just invented three days ago in the 6000s isn’t the best of times. How easy, affordable, and stress-free is this bout to watch?
5. Fight To Win Pro Female Black Belt Flyweight Championship: Talita Alencar (c) vs. Karen Antunes
When/Where: Saturday, 5:00pm, FloGrappling
Competitiveness: 3: Antunes is a fine grappler, an accredited black belt, and probably a little underrated, but Alencar is one of the ten best female grapplers in the world.
Excitement: 2
Juice: 2
Prestige: 4: Sure, Fight To Win has a metric shitload of titles, but they’re a fantastic promotion still improving, and Alencar is an actual defending champion as a world-class grappler. That’s how you build prestige.
Viewing Ease: 4
Total: 15
4. WBC World Light Heavyweight Championship: Oleksandr Gvozdyk (c) (16-0) vs. Doudou Ngumbu (38-8)
When/Where: Saturday, 9:00pm, ESPN
Competitiveness: 2: Ngumbu isn’t a total can, his last win over Yoann Kongolo is a quality win over a fast-riser, but even in the shallow division that is light heavyweight, he’s still not close to what Gvozdyk is, and might be ground into a paste.
Excitement: 4: This has to be handled delicately. Thankfully, Adonis Stevenson is doing much better and seemingly on the road to recovery after their bout. You never want to use another fighter’s injury or worse as a marketing tool for the opposing fighter. It’s cheap, shitty, heartless, and makes the sport and its fans/media look terrible. However, to paraphrase, ring don’t lie. Facts are just that. Facts. Nothing more, nothing less. And the fact is that Adonis Stevenson was a tough, tough motherfucker and was top of the food chain at Light Heavyweight for a long while, and Gvozdyk put a beating on him that required serious, serious, medical attention. It shouldn’t be celebrated, I hope it never comes to that with ANY fighter, but if you want a representation of Gvozdyk’s power, those are the facts. Hopefully, if he’s swinging and landing, it ends sooner than later.
Juice: 1
Prestige: 5
Viewing Ease: 4
Total: 16
3. OneFC World Lightweight Championship: Eduard Folayang (c) (21-6) vs. Shinya Aoki (42-8)
When/Where: Sunday, 5:30am, OneFC App
Competitiveness: 3: This isn’t Top-5 lightweight Aoki, not even best lightweight outside of the UFC Aoki, this isn’t even especially good Aoki, but he’s in the main event because he’s still an enormous name in JMMA, and they’re running Sumo Hall.
Excitement: 3
Juice: 3: Folayang already has a stoppage win over Aoki, but I doubt they’re going to push that fact a lot. They’re bringing Shinya in for the name value to run their biggest show ever for the main event.
Prestige: 3
Viewing Ease: 5
Total: 17
2. OneFC Women’s Strawweight Championship: Xiong Jing Nan (c) (13-1) vs. Angela Lee (9-0)
When/Where: Sunday, 5:30am, OneFC App
Competitiveness: 5: Nan is a dominant champion, is a devastating puncher at that weight. It’s striker vs. grappler, but they’re both well-rounded enough to make it damned interesting. Champion vs. Champion done right.
Excitement: 4
Juice: 4: OneFC isn’t afraid of spending money on big-name fighters, but something they desperately, desperately need more of are exciting, marketable, home-grown fighters. Angela Lee might be their best bet. She checks all of the boxes. Young (22), attractive, exciting (7 out of 9 wins by submission), and dominant (9-0, atomweight champion). All of her fights have come under the ONE umbrella, and now she’s vying to be a two-division champion.
Prestige: 2
Viewing Ease: 5
Total: 20
1. OneFC Bantamweight Championship: Kevin Belingon (c) (20-5) vs. Bibiano Fernandes (22-4)
When/Where: Sunday, 5:30am, OneFC App
Competitiveness: 5
Excitement: 4
Juice: 4: Rubber match for the title that Bibi made great, in the biggest card in ONE history at Sumo Hall in Tokyo. Big damned deal. Should be the main event, honestly.
Prestige: 4: Bibi made this title almost as prestigous as the UFC’s for many, many years. For many years, he was the best bantamweight outside of the UFC.
Viewing Ease: 5
Total: 22
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