mma / Columns

411’s 2025 MMA Year End Awards

January 24, 2026 | Posted by Robert Winfree
UFC 314 Image Credit: UFC

Hello everyone and welcome to my 2025 Year End MMA Awards. I’m Robert Winfree, and since once again this seems like a good idea I’m handing out mostly non-existent awards in the world of MMA. These are the best, and worst, of the year as I see it. Usual disclaimer here: I can only rank what I have seen and I haven’t seen everything.

Ian McCall Memorial Worst Luck Award

Tom Aspinall

This was an easy call this year. Tom Aspinall won the interim heavyweight title in November 2023 and was theoretically on a collision course with Jon Jones. Then the UFC delayed the Jones and Stipe Miocic fight a full year for nebulous reasons and Aspinall defended the interim title in July of 2024. In November of 2024 Jones defeated the reanimated corpse of Stipe Miocic and the path should have been clear for Jones and Aspinall to fight. We entered 2025 more or less assuming that fight was coming. Then hurdles, roadblocks, personality clashes, and ultimately Jones “retires” in June of 2025 and Aspinall gets promoted to full champion. By the way that was announced at the post fight press conference for the UFC’s debut in Azerbijan and no one saw it. So now you’re Aspinally, full champion but didn’t beat the last man to hold the belt. Of course Jones isn’t the lineal champion either, meaning Aspinall wound up with the full title despite not being either the previous champion, Jones, or the lineal champion, Francis Ngannou. Less than ideal, but now he was champion and ready to actually begin his reign. After over a year on the shelf he stepped into Abu Dhabi to defend the title against Ciryl Gane, a man who both Jones and Ngannou had beaten, in the main event. Overall UFC 321 had been a disappointment to this point, in fact there were only 3 finishes on the card before the main event and a couple of those fights had been quite poor. Then the fight goes not exactly Aspinall’s way, he wasn’t getting blown out but he was definitely losing the round before a foul. At the 4:35 mark Gane pokes Aspinall in the eye and he can’t continue. To make things worse the actual diagnosis has Aspinall’s fighting future in doubt. So he entered 2025 with a lot of the fans clamoring for Aspinall vs. Jones, he actually gained some momentum with fans by pointing out Jones ducking him, but ends it with some pundits questioning his fighting heart and his fighting future something of a question mark. Oh, and pretty much none of this was his fault. I might wind up renaming this award after him depending on how 2026 goes for him.

Worst Fight of 2023

Honorable Mentions
Karol Rosa vs. Ailin Perez from UFC 311
Michael Chiesa vs. Court McGee from UFC on ESPN 69

5. Torrez Finney vs. Robert Valentin from UFC on ESPN 65

Finney landed just 4 significant strikes in three rounds but still got the decision. That singular statistical line should tell you everything you need to know about this dull, frustrating, abysmal affair. The fact that there are fights ranked above this one in this category is damning on so many levels.

4. Montserrat Rendon vs. Alice Pereira from Noche UFC 3
Man did this fight suck. A lot of circling and shadow boxing, a bit of clinching, and basically a lot of nothing actually happening. Pereira looked awkward and almost inept, despite height and reach advantages she couldn’t actually use them and Rendon just shouldn’t be in the UFC at all.

3. Billy Elekana vs. Ibo Aslan from UFC on ABC 9

Good grief was this bad. Bill Elekana circled and sort of probed with kicks while Aslan looked totally lost against someone who wasn’t going to just stand there and get punched. Once Aslan started gassing out Elekana kept doing the same things he’d been doing instead of even remotely trying to capitalize on the openings provided. Terrible fight.

2. Hamdy Abdelwahab’s 3 fights vs. Jamal Pouges (UFC on ESPN+ 108), Mohammad Usman (UFC on ABC 8), and Chris Barnett (UFC 321)

Were it not for the overall disappointment that came out of the top spot in this category I would have just given Abdelwahab the top spot and called it a day. Abdelwahab went 2-1 this year but his fights were so boring, so dull, so low interest and low activity that it’s impossible to say anything positive about it. The last fight, against Chris Barnett, featured fouls galore, Barnett getting his shorts yanked down, and a metric ton of stalling from Abdelwahab. That fight was so bad that afterwards the UFC cut both of them. At this point if you get 3 fights on my “worst fight” nominees I’m just giving you your own spot. But there was the utterly disappointing top spot this year though.

1. Dricus du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev from UFC 319

I was really excited for this fight during the build up to it. Du Plessis is the kind of weird fighter that I almost always have a bit of a soft spot for and Chimaev had looked like a serious force to try and overcome. Then the fight actually happened. Chimaev had almost 22 minutes of control time over the 25 minute fight but landed just 37 significant strikes, and frankly a few of those were generous attributions. Chimaev mustered just a single round where he landed double digit significant strikes while du Plessis looked borderline remedial off of his back for long stretches. Oh, Chimaev also was credited with 0 submission attempts despite his massive advantage in grappling. You know, just in case you needed another indicator of how dismal this was to watch. For a fight that felt like a big deal coming into it the actual bout was an enormous disappointment on pretty much every level.

Breakout Fighter of the Year

Breakout or breakthrough categories are tricky because there’s a variety of criteria to be weighted. For me the big one is distance covered, who went the farthest over the time frame, with level attained being essentially a tie breaker. With that in mind, here’s the fighters I felt made the most headway.

Honorable Mentions
Fatima Kline

5. Jack Della Maddalena

Jack Della Maddalena had an OK year, mostly his place here is carried by his first fight in 2025 being his claiming of the welterweight title. Not a lot of us were picking him to beat Belal Muhammad but he did so in pretty comprehensive fashion, he was well prepared against the fence, clinch broke well, never let Muhammad settle on top, and pretty handling out struck him to win the belt. Not even 30 yet and welterweight champion, then he closed the year with a one sided loss to Islam Makhachev (more on him later) which deflated his stock. Still he entered the year as a rising contender but one that still felt a little raw only to become champion. Had his loss to Makhachev been more competitive I’d have put him higher even with that loss. Alas he’ll have to settle for this spot.

4. Melquizael Costa

It’s hard to make headway in the featherweight division and that’s part of the reason Costa only ranks fourth. Costa went 4-0 this year, he started by choking out Andre Fili then ended the year with a lovely head kick knockout over Morgan Charriere. Now Costa enters 2026 poised to make a real push through the division.

3. Reiner de Ridder

Reiner de Ridder entered the UFC with a bit of talk from the more hardcore fans, but he’d also lost twice in a row to Anatoly Malykhin at what amounts to light heavyweight and heavyweight. But the move to middleweight seemed to do him good and in 20225 he submitted Kevin Holland, stopped Bo Nickal with knees in the clinch, and got what I thought was a fairly clear decision over former champion Robert Whittaker. Had he stopped there he’d be higher, but he signed to fight Anthony Hernandez in October only to have Hernandez replaced by Brendan Allen. The multiple weight cuts proved too much for de Ridder and he lost his winning streak but he still went from a fairly unknown fighter to a guy beating upper level middleweights.

2. Michael Morales

Welterweight seems on the verge of some serious turnover and Michael Morales gained a ton of ground in 2025. Morales is still young, just 26, but this year he really seems to have broken through. His early UFC fights were mostly against veterans who seem on the other side of their peaks, guys like Neil Magny or Jake Matthews. This year that trend initially continued when he stopped Gilbert Burns in the first round, but he closed it by taking on a fellow top contender in Sean Brady. . . and absolutely demolished him in less than 4 minutes. Morales enters 2026 very close to the title picture, and he used 2025 to become the young boogeyman of the weight class.

1. Joshua Van

The top spot was pretty easy to hand out this year when it was all said and done. Joshua Van debuted for the UFC in 2023, made his professional debut in 2021, went 4-0 in 2025 and closed the year by claiming the flyweight title from Alexandre Pantoja. Now the circumstances of that win do knock things a bit, but overall he entered 2025 as an entertaining young fighter but ends it as champion. Hard to argue anyone went further in that time frame than he did.

Submission of the Year

Honorable Mentions
Jean Silva’s ninja choke vs. Bryce Mitchell from UFC 314
Uran Satybaldiev’s Ezekiel choke vs. Diyar Nurgozhay from UFC on ESPN+ 115 – I have to put a bit of a rant here. You have to be a special kind of bad to get Ezekiel choked from full guard and that’s exactly what happened here. Look, I don’t begrudge anyone still learning but if you’re still figuring out that kind of stuff you absolutely should NOT be in the UFC.

5. Valter Walker’s collection of heel hooks

Valter Walker went 3-0 in 2025 and all of those wins were heel hooks in the first round. Factoring in that he ended his last fight of 2024 via heel hook and he’s on one of the odder streaks the UFC has seen. A couple of the entries into the attack were pretty solid too. This might be a little gimmicky but it’s heavyweight so who cares.

4. Jimmy Crute’s reverse can opener/Camel Clutch vs. Ivan Erslan from UFC on ESPN+ 118

This one is here for sheer oddity as well, you almost never see the good old Camel Clutch for shoot and yet here it is. Crute likely saved a bit of his time with the UFC with this one.

3. Costello van Stennis’ rear naked choke vs. Johnny Eblen from PFL Champion Series 2

More gimmicky stuff will be forthcoming but this one gets this placement for the circumstance as well as well executed technique. Costello van Stennin was a notable dog to wrestling standout Johnny Eblen, and was down pretty much every round going into the fifth. Then he pulls off this kind of incredible comeback. Heck of a comeback and a heck of a submission.

2. Merab Dvalishvili’s north-south choke vs. Sean O’Malley from UFC 316

I’m a bit of a sucker for a north-south choke and they’re pretty rare at the elite level. So when Merab Dvalishvili hit one on Sean O’Malley it definitely got my attention, especially given that Merab has a less than stellar finishing rate. It started as a ninja choke then as O’Malley tried to roll to his back Merab adjusted his grip just a bit and sank his weight down to force the tap in a title fight. Solid stuff from Merab here.

1. Henrique Madureira’s inverted triangle choke vs. Eriglent Prizreni from Oktagon 80

OK, this one is here just because it’s kind of bonkers. People try to threaten this one a lot but it’s really rare to see pulled off. So here’s a rare submission in the top spot, mostly because it made me smile.

Knockout of the Year

There was a surprisingly high amount of high quality knockouts this year. More notably there were a ton of spinning back elbows. In fact there’s a 10 minute highlight of them that you can find it HERE if you’d like.

Honorable Mentions
Byron Walker’s punches vs. Glen Norman from AKA 48 – look this one up if you haven’t seen it, it’s funny
Bo Nickal’s head kick vs. Rodolfo Vieira from UFC 322
Carlos Prates’ punch vs. Leon Edwards from UFC 322
Carlos Prates’ spinning back elbow vs. Geoff Neal from UFC 319

5. Quillan Salkilld’s head kick vs. Nasrat Haqparast from UFC 321

There were only three real finishes at UFC 321, the overall event was a pretty serious dud, but one of the highlights was this one. A really well lined up head kick from Salkilld capped off by an accidentally great set up line from Jon Anik as he was relaying that Haqparast started training as a kid because he was overweight. Anik noted that Haqparast’s parents owned a bakery and that might have contributed to his weight issues just before Salkilld landed this beauty of a head kick.

4. Jaron Lathrop’s jump spinning back kick vs. Yevgeni Shinkarevsky from XFC 52

MMA is a bit of a copycat sport, once someone does something or figures out a technique everyone tries to replicate it. For a bad example everyone tried to do the Max Holloway point and slug in the wake of UFC 300. If you’re not Max Holloway please just stop doing that. But the fact that it took us a couple of years to get a genuine recreation of the great knockout that Joaquin Buckley laid on Impa Kasanganay is surprising. But we did get another example of it here and it’s a good one.

3. Lerone Murphy’s spinning back elbow vs. Aaron Pico from UFC 319

I kind of limited my selection of spinning elbow finishes to just one, a couple are listed as Honorable Mentions and you’ll see almost all of these in the compilation linked above. But I had to give one a real spot and this one stood out to me. Aaron Pico was hyped when he debuted in Bellator but struggled, then built himself up, and finally made it to the UFC. His debut opponent was a top contender in Lerone Murphy. Pico looked good early, but became a bit predictable and Murphy was able to catch his aggressive motion with a lovely spinning back elbow that absolutely CRUSHED Pico.

2. Elijah Smith’s Powerbomb vs. Toshiomi Kazama from UFC on ESPN 72

I mean, what can you say about this one? You could give it the top spot really, but I had to drop it a bit because of the relative level of opposition. Both men are still trying to make their way in the UFC and Kazama had just one win the UFC while Smith was just in his second UFC outing. That said, man these are always a treat when they happen.

1. Mauricio Ruffy’s wheel kick vs. King Green from UFC 313

This was pretty much locked up as the knockout of the year when it happened, the fact that so many finishes gave it a run for it’s money is a good thing overall. But Ruffy lining up a wheel kick and slumping King Green like this was a thing of beauty.

Fighter of the Year

Honorable Mentions
Alexander Volkanovski
Kayla Harrison

5. Petr Yan

I debated between Yan and Alexander Volkanovski for this spot and you really could go either way. Ultimately I went with Yan because he not only regained the title, he did so after the second longest gap between losing the title and regaining it in UFC history. Well, sort of second depending on how you want to count Randy Couture. Carla Esparza has the top spot in that category but Couture gets the second spot if you only look at his heavyweight title loss to regaining it, but that means you have to ignore two reigns as light heavyweight champion while Yan has been at at the same weight class. Yan also overcame a man who blanked him the last time they fought and turned in one of the better single performances this year. All of that combined to Yan getting this spot over Volk.

4. Alex Pereira

Alex Pereira went 1-1 this year but still gets in above Yan because he’s one of the more valuable fighters the UFC has. Pereira did lose the light heavyweight title in March in a very lackluster fight over 5 rounds, a fight that frankly had the general MMA fanbase looking at things wondering about entering the era of boring champions. That was slightly overblown but it was a talking point. Then in October Pereira returned and bulldozed Magomed Anakalaev in less than 90 seconds. Pereira was another one I debated his position on but he single handedly changed a narrative that the fanbase was spinning up and that’s a heck of a thing to pull off.

3. Valentina Shevchenko

Let’s be honest, the era of Valentina Shevchenko is starting to wind down. She’s been around for a while and age is starting to catch up to her. But she’s still going to be stubborn and hold her spot until someone takes it from her. This year she turned back a tough challenge in Manon Fiorot then fellow pound for pound fighter Zhang Weili. The Zhang fight in particular wasn’t close, and her continued success means she keeps a high spot.

2. Merab Dvalishvili

There was a point last year when my notes for this category had a line by Merab that said “seems to have locked this one up” after his third title defense. Had he stopped there he would have had it. 3-0, three title defenses, and his goofy personality turning him into a fan favorite, almost everything was going his way. Then Merab decided to fly too close to the sun, and he tried for a record fourth title fight in a calendar year. That’s not a thing people in modern MMA do for a good reason, and he lost the title to Petr Yan. Merab still rates highly because going 3-1 in four title fights in a single year is a pretty crazy thing to do. But if you’re a top pound for pound guy and you lose 5-0 to a guy not ranked pound for pound that’s got to cost you in this kind of an award.

1. Islam Makhachev

With Merab dropping his title the top spot goes to Islam Makhachev. Makhachev went 2-0 this year, both of them title fights. First he submitted Renato Moicano in the first round to set the new record for most consecutive lightweight title defenses at 4, then he moved up to welterweight and dominated Jack Della Maddalena to become a two weight world champion. He also tied Anderson Silva’s record for longest UFC winning streak at 16 fights. This was a pretty momentous year for Makhachev overall and ultimately I think he edged out Merab overall.

Fight of the Year

Honorable Mentions
Jamahal Hill vs. Jiri Prochazka from UFC 311
Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev from UFC 313
Jiri Prochazka vs. Khalil Rountree from UFC 320
Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili from UFC 323

5. Merab Dvalishvili vs. Umar Nurmagomedov from UFC 311

I’ve got a soft spot for this fight, it was contested at a high pace and demonstrated high skill from both guys. Umar had a fair amount of success early with good kicks and counter wrestling. But Merab just keeps going and Merab began slowly overwhelming and outworking Umar down the stretch. I scored this fight for Umar live and I still think that’s not out of line, but Merab getting the win is far from out of line.

4. Alexander Volkanovski vs. Diego Lopes from UFC 314

This particular fight was a big highlight for me this year. There were a lot of questions about Volkanovski, he was coming off of back to back knockout losses and age was starting to catch up to him. Then there was Diego Lopes, young, fiery, hard charging strikes with a ground game that prioritized aggression and attack over everything else. As for the fight itself it exposed a glaring deficiency in Lopes’ game when it comes to footwork and cage cutting while Volkanovski turned the clock back just a bit and gave us a fairly classic display of his movement, feinting, striking, and overall skills. Seeing Volk reclaim the belt warmed my heart a bit during a year that the sport seemed determined to crush my enjoyment of it.

3. Usman Nurmagomedov vs. Paul Hughes 1 from PFL Champion Series 1

This can’t go higher because of the fouls, and frankly the fouling as well as officiating related to them kept the rematch from ranking even as an Honorable Mention. That said this was a darn good fight, Paul Hughes used a lot of body work to try and slow down Usman Nurmagomedov while Nurmagomedov’s determination and crushing style ultimately edged the decision his direction. I know the PFL took a lot of crap last year, most of it deserved, but this was a good fight.

2. Joshua Van vs. Brandon Royval from UFC 317

Man this was a fun fight. Three rounds of high pace and good strategy. Brandon Royval looked to keep his dynamic offense going and use his experience to wear down the younger Van. Van countered with his slick boxing, body work to slow Royval just enough to bring the rest of his game to life, and a late rally in the third to take that round and ultimately the fight.

1. Adrian Luna Martinetti vs. Mark Vologdin from Contender Series S9 E9

I don’t agree with the claim that this is the greatest fight ever. It’s not. But it is, easily, the best fight the Contender Series has produced. It’s wall to wall action, momentum swings, and two guys trying to kill each other. It’s hard to imagine a scrappier bout, and the fact that both men kept the pace consistent through three rounds despite the exertion and damage was remarkable. This was a pretty special bout and if you don’t believe me just watch it for yourself.

Do you disagree? Please leave a comment, just please be civil about it.

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