MMA Awards 2024 - Nominations

[Frankie Crisp]

Give us your highlights - you can have up to 5 nominations per award:

MMA Fight of the Year

Best MMA Fighter

MMA Rising Star

MMA Event of the Year

Best Knockout

Please note – most nominations tend to land before the calendar year is up, so if you edit your post for whatever reason once January comes, please @ me and flag the changes so I can update things at my end.

Nominations will be locked on Weds, 8th Jan.

[wandshogun09]

This’ll be a long ramble but I’ve bolded the important bits. 

MMA FIGHT OF THE YEAR:

We didn’t have a lot of obvious FOTY contenders in 2024 but these 5 stood out to me…

1) Esteban Ribovics vs Daniel Zellhuber (UFC 306: O’Malley vs Dvalishvili - Sep 14th) ?? 

This is my #1. From the big card at the Sphere. This was absolutely bonkers. Usually the FOTY ends up being a big name main event or title fight most years but these two came in with little fanfare in the middle of the card and blew the roof of with 3 rounds of madness. If you’d seen either fight before, you knew it was gonna be at least good. I wasn’t ready for what we actually got though. Ribovics came out with the points win but really, they should both be rewarded with another main card spot against a decent name next time out. There was a lot of moaning about the Sphere card, before and after, but these two absolutely delivered. If you didn’t watch it for some reason, get it watched.

2) Alexandre Pantoja vs Steve Erceg (UFC 301: Pantoja vs Erceg - May 4th) ?? 

A 5 round war in Brazil. This fight didn’t really get the love it deserved, in my opinion. I remember a lot of people were down on it going in because Erceg was a fresh face and still relatively unknown in the division but he fought his arse off and gave Pantoja all he could handle in a really close fight that went right to the wire. In the end, Pantoja’s experience shone through and he made Erceg pay for a costly takedown attempt in the last round. Fantastic fight. Pantoja’s been awesome to watch over the years but he’s really been firing on all cylinders as champ over the last year or so. The question was would Erceg be able to hang with him? He did and the fight overdelivered as a result.

3) Mateusz Gamrot vs Dan Hooker (UFC 305: Du Plessis vs Adesanya - Aug 17th) ?? 

In going back through the cards this year, I had forgotten all about this barnburner from Perth but instantly remembered loving it. It got overshadowed going in because of the DDP vs Izzy headliner, plus Gamrot’s not exactly known for having exciting fights usually. Hooker dragged him into a wild scrap though and it was fantastic. Stole the show and, thinking back, I couldn’t think of 5 fights I enjoyed more than this in 2024 so I had to include it and here it is. If you missed it, it’s well worth going back to.

4) Lewis McGrillen vs Dean Garnett (PFL Europe - Sep 28th) ??????? 

It’s rare that I get around to watching much non-UFC stuff these days unfortunately. I’ve just about been keeping on top of the UFC and Boxing this year with the occasional bit of PFL, Oktagon or whatever thrown in. This got on my radar though. After the fact admittedly. Wasn’t really gonna bother with some random PFL card in Glasgow but I saw people raving about this after and saw clips on Twitter so I watched it and I didn’t regret it. 14 knockdowns (yes, FOURTEEN) in one fight! Has to be the record surely? Then a big KO in the last round. One of those barmy fights where you don’t know which way it’s gonna go all the way through but you’re scared to blink in case you miss something. The full thing is on YouTube. Watch it. 

5) Petr Yan vs Deiveson Figueiredo (UFC Macau: Yan vs Figueiredo - Nov 23rd) ?? 

Scores-wise, this was a bit one-sided but if you watched it you know why it’s here. I’d been banging on about wanting to see these two fight from pretty much the second Figgy moved up to Bantamweight, they never let me down. The time difference with it being in Macau and us getting to watch this over breakfast didn’t hurt either. But yeah, a clear Yan win on the cards but every round was a battle all the way. Just a 5 round dogfight. Loved it. Wouldn’t have it as the FOTY but it certainly deserves a place on this list.

BEST MMA FIGHTER:

Not even gonna bother with 5 nominations for this one. It’s clearly a two horse race this year. Only two fighters have a legit argument, I think there’s a clear winner though.

1) Ilia Topuria ??

2) Alex Pereira ?? 

Both great fighters who had a great year but Topuria gets my vote. All day. There was a lot of debate on social media about this after both their last wins in October but I don’t see how there’s a real argument. Pereira might’ve gone 3-0 this year to Topuria’s 2-0, but it’s very much a case of quality over quantity for me. Pereira stopped Jamahal Hill, Jiri Prochazka and Khalil Rountree in 2024. All good wins, all finishes and I’m not taking anything away from that. But Topuria’s scored back-to-back knockouts over Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway, for fuck’s sake! Two of the greatest Featherweights of all time and two of the best fighters in UFC history. He became champion this year, is still undefeated, ended Volk’s reign as champion and became the first man to knock out the notoriously iron chinned Holloway. How do you not have him as Fighter Of The Year? The arguments I’ve seen for Pereira all seem to centre around him ‘saving cards’ and taking fights on quick turnarounds. There’s something to be said for that, it’s not like it counts for nothing and he does deserve credit. It doesn’t cancel out what Topuria’s done this year though does it? Topuria iced fully prepared versions of Volk and Max when both had full training camps. Pereira beat mediocre Hill, short notice Jiri and #8 ranked Rountree. Honestly it seems like the people arguing for Pereira are doing it because a) they’re just Pereira fanboys, b) they’re Topuria haters or c) they’re a combination of both. 2024 was Topuria‘s year. It’s just a fact. Debate with a wall.

MMA RISING STAR:

1) Carlos Prates ?? 

Feels like no other fighter went from relative obscurity to a legit must see fighter this year quite like ‘The Nightmare’. Remains to be seen how far he can go but he started 2024 as pretty much an unknown, made his UFC debut in February and has gone 4-0 with 4 knockouts and 4 POTN bonuses for his efforts. He’s moving along quickly as well. He’s going into 2025 coming off back-to-back KOs over solid opponents in Jingliang and Magny. The UFC matchmakers obviously see big things coming for him. Very rare that an unheralded fighter like Prates makes their UFC debut and is already headlining a card the same year. I’m sure there were rumblings that he was offered to step in against Shavkat at UFC 310 as well but he was injured. They don’t offer you those opportunities unless they see something in you. Not convinced he goes too much higher but it’s gonna be interesting to see what his 2025 looks like.

2) Jean Silva ?? 

This nutcase burst on the scene this year and instantly became a fan favourite. He’s gone 3-0 in 2024 with all 3 wins coming inside the distance. Bashed up no hoper Westin Wilson in his UFC debut, a meaningless win really. But it did the job as an introduction and he still became a talking point just because he took about a month to walk to the cage, the weird sod. Since then he’s battered Charles Jourdain and Drew Dober. Like Prates, I’m not sure where his ceiling is in terms of potential but he’s stupidly entertaining to watch and I’m looking forward to seeing more of him in 2025, whether it’s at Featherweight or Lightweight. He can bounce between both so the possibilities for fun matchups are almost endless.

3) Dakota Ditcheva ??????? 

Gonna be one of the only non-UFC nominations here but I couldn’t not mention her for this award. One of the UK’s best up and comers currently and one of the fighters I’m gonna be most interested to watch outside the UFC in 2025. She’s 26 years old, a second generation fighter (her mum won a bunch of titles in Kickboxing in the 80s/90s), undefeated at 14-0, has a fair bit of Muay Thai experience going back to her childhood and she’s coming off a big stoppage win over Taila Santos to win the PFL Flyweight Tournament and title in November. With that win she became the first ever female British MMA world champion in a major promotion. Plus Santos arguably got robbed against current UFC Flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko in 2022 so that was a legitimately great win for Ditcheva. Especially in the manner she did it. Just battered her at range and put her away with brutal body shots.

? It’s a shame she’s in PFL in a way because she deserves the shine and hype of the UFC exposure but she’s young enough that she’ll probably get there eventually. I think she just signed a long term deal with PFL though so it’s not happening anytime soon.

4) Payton Talbott ?? 

Another prospect to keep an eye on in ‘25. He really put himself on the map this year as one to watch. 26 years old, 9-0 and has been looking a bit better with each performance since making his UFC debut at the end of 2023. He’s only fought twice in 2024 but they stuck in my memory for me. He stopped fellow prospect Cameron Saaiman in March, then blitzed Yanis Ghemmouri in just 19 seconds in June. Feels like big tests will be coming his way this year so we’ll see how he does.

5) Esteban Ribovics ?? 

Yep. Him again. I was actually struggling a bit to come up with a fifth nomination here but fuck it. Ribovics is still only 28, he’s 14-1 and his only loss was a decision against Loik Radzhabov in his UFC debut in a really fun fight. Since then he’s gone 3-0 in the UFC. And in 2024 he scored one of the best knockouts of the year (37 second headkick demolition job vs Terrance McKinney in May) and then had what I rated as the FOTY against Zellhuber on the Sphere show in September. Yeah, I’d say he warrants a mention on this list.

MMA EVENT OF THE YEAR: 

1) UFC 300: Pereira vs Hill - Apr 13th - Las Vegas ?? 

Yeah that bare bones lazy arse poster was an abomination but that’s where the negatives end. A milestone event and a lot of people were down on the card going in but I felt like it delivered in a big way. Alex Pereira making a meme out of Jamahal Hill in the main event was hilarious and certainly one of the best ‘moments’ of the year. Zhang Weili retained her gold in the co-main and you had an undercard loaded up with stuff like Tsarukyan vs Oliveira, Prochazka vs Rakic, Sterling vs Kattar, Kayla Harrison’s debut, Diego Lopes continuing to be awesome, Jim Miller creating history becoming the only fighter to fight at UFCs 100, 200 and 300, and Figgy starting the night off on a positive by throttling Cody Garbrandt in the curtain jerker. As good as all that was though, it all pales in comparison to Max Holloway’s absolutely mental KO over Justin Gaethje with one second to go in the fight. Forget ‘…of the year’ shit, easily one of the greatest and most insane moments in MMA history. More on that later.

2) UFC 308: Topuria vs Holloway - Oct 26th - Abu Dhabi ?? 

It wasn’t the greatest card top to bottom. This was very top heavy. But what a top of the card it was. Topuria vs Holloway is about as good as it’s possible to get in MMA at present. Seeing Holloway get knocked out for the first time was sad and jarring but it was a really exciting, high level fight before that and Topuria came out of it looking like an absolute don. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for him in 2025. Although to be honest, even though his title reign has just started it’s hard to see how he tops back-to-back KOs over Volk and Max, regardless of what he does next. Khamzat Chimaev crushing (literally) Robert Whittaker in the co-main was fucking terrifying and showed that when he’s on, Khamzat’s one of the scariest bastards to ever enter the Octagon. The rest of the card wasn’t mind blowing but it had its moments. Lerone Murphy vs Dan Ige was good, Shara Bullet’s mad double spinning backfist KO was a highlight and Mateusz Rebecki and Myktybek Orolbai beat the absolute dogshit out of each other on the prelims in a slobberknocker which just narrowly missed my FOTY list.

3) UFC 306: O’Malley vs Dvalishvili - Sep 14th - The Sphere in Las Vegas ?? 

There were a lot of mixed opinions on this. It wouldn’t be my #1 show of the year by any stretch and a lot of that’s to do with the main and co-main events not being much fun to watch. Merab ragged O’Malley about to a clear decision and Shevchenko vs Grasso 3 was the dullest fight of their trilogy with Shev just grappling the arse off Grasso to a boring points win. But I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the card. As I said already above, Ribovics vs Zellhuber was my FOTY. Then there was Diego Lopes vs Brian Ortega in a fun scrap, Joshua Van vs Edgar Chairez on the prelims was a banger as well, you had Ignacio Bahamondes with a peach of a KO, Ketlen Souza upsetting and subbing Yazmin Jauregui and Irene Aldana surviving THE most horrifying cut I’ve ever seen in 30-odd years of watching combat sports. And while I know a lot of people were unmoved by the whole Sphere thing, I liked it.

Yeah Dana went overboard with the hype but it was never gonna be anything more than just a cool visual experience. If nothing else it set the show apart from the usual cookie cutter feel of the UFC’s production.

4) UFC Fight Night: Yan vs Figueiredo - Nov 23rd - Macau, China ?? 

Best Fight Night of the year easy for me and one of my favourite cards of ‘24 full-stop. Mentioned it already in the FOTY list but Yan vs Figgy was ace. Loved every second of it. One of those fights I’d been waiting to see for a while and it lived up to my expectations. Beyond that you had old Muslim Salikhov rolling back the years to deliver a beautiful spinning kick KO, Gabriella Fernandes scoring the upset and derailing Wang Cong (who was heading for a Rising Star nomination before this loss), Zhang Mingyang with a sweet step-in elbow KO, Lone’er Kavanagh vs Jose Ochoa which wasn’t an amazing fight but it was both their UFC debut and they both looked like they could have bright futures, and then there was little, 5’3” innocent looking Shi Ming almost beheading her opponent with a headkick in one of the legit scariest knockouts in years. There was some lacklustre stuff on the card but, on the whole, for a Fight Night in China, it was a pretty enjoyable way to spend a Saturday morning.

5) UFC 298: Volkanovski vs Topuria - Feb 17th - Anaheim, California ??

Not the most stacked card or anything but that main event had my balls tingling going in. And in hindsight it ended up being the true arrival of Topuria as a top player in the sport. On top of that you had Robert Whittaker vs Paulo Costa in a fun co-main, Ian Garry vs Geoff Neal in a bit of a grudge match that didn’t really deliver and Merab Dvalishvili making himself undeniable for the title shot with his impressive win over Henry Cejudo. Really strong card in its own right that set up some huge fights for later in the year.

BEST KNOCKOUT:

1) Max Holloway ?? (vs Justin Gaethje - UFC 300 - Apr 13th)

Shouldn’t even have to make a case for this. There’s been a bunch of incredible knockouts this year but this was on another level. This might just have been the greatest KO in UFC history, much less just in 2024. If there’s anyone reading this who doesn’t really follow MMA and didn’t watch, some context. Holloway was moving up a weight class for this and Gaethje is well respected as both one of the toughest and most dangerous heavy hitters in the Lightweight division. It’s been retconned since but most of the fan and media discussion going in centred around Max basically being a lamb to the slaughter here and that Gaethje was gonna hurt him bad. On the night though, Max was looking great and winning handily. Going into the 5th round, pretty much everyone had Max 3-1 up in rounds. He could’ve quite easily just coasted to a points win. He definitely didn’t need to take any risks. Then with 10 seconds left in the fight, he looked at Gaethje, pointed down at the middle of the Octagon and threw the gauntlet down. They both threw caution to the wind with a final flurry and Max knocked him dead at 4:59 of the 5th round. Literally one second to go!

I’ve seen so many fights and knockouts at this point it takes a lot to get me to stand up and actually scream at the telly but this shit had me scaring the neighbours. Absolutely batshit stuff. And the margins for error were so small. Had Gaethje caught Max and knocked him out in that last exchange (a very real possibility), this would be remembered as one of the absolute dumbest mid-fight choices in MMA history. He’d have basically given the victory away. To pull off a KO like this would’ve been wild enough in its own right, to do it when he didn’t need to was just bonkers. One of the many reasons Max Holloway is pretty much universally beloved in a sport where probably 75% of the fanbase are miserable haters.

2) Ilia Topuria ?? (vs Max Holloway - UFC 308 - Oct 26th)

Poor Max. It’s a cruel, evil sport when a fighter can end up on the right and wrong side of the Knockout Of The Year nominations in the same year but here we are. Not a ton to say about this. Max certainly didn’t look bad in the fight and he was landing good shots himself. In the end though, Topuria got to him and finally cracked that previously unbreakable chin. Had to make the list just for being the first man to KO Holloway but it was a beautiful knockout in its own right. Just a shame it was Max on the receiving end.

3) Vinicius Oliveira ?? (vs Benardo Sopaj - UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs Gaziev - Mar 2nd)

Fuck me. This was a scary one. I’d never seen either man fight before, this was my first look at both and as I recall it was a really good, competitive back and forth fight before the finish. Then Oliveira wiped him the fuck out with a breathtaking flying knee in the last round. Sopaj was down for a while and he’s only just about to fight again in January after nearly a year out. Rough one but definitely stuck in my memory for this.

4) Fares Ziam ?? (vs Matt Frevola - UFC Paris: Moicano vs Saint Denis - Sep 28th)

Another brutal knee KO. The gif speaks for itself. Devastating knockout. Frevola dropped like a sack of shite like he’d been shot from the grassy knoll. Huge finish for Ziam, especially on home soil in France. I don’t expect much to come from it, beating Frevola doesn’t mean that much. But it was a hell of a KO, had to include it.

5) Shi Ming ?? (vs Feng Xiaocan - UFC Macau: Yan vs Figgy - Nov 23rd)

As I mentioned in the Event Of The Year bit, this was genuinely THE scariest knockout of the year. And from such an unassuming fighter in Shi Ming. I’d never seen or heard of either of these two going in and, just looking at these two tiny Chinese women, the last thing I expected was one of the nastiest KOs of the year. Thankfully Xiaocan was alright after because in real time she was down so long I started thinking we’d seen something tragic.

 

Get your nominations in @Egg Shen @Bus Surfer @WeeAl @Dai @Carbomb @Panhead @Zebra Kid Mark @Bruce85 @Kfogg1991 and anyone else. 

Edited December 28, 2024 by wandshogun09

[TildeGuy~!]

I’ll update when more come to mind.

Best MMA Fighter: Alex Pereira, 

MMA Rising Star: Payton Talbott, 

Best Knockout: Holloway Vs Gaethje UFC 300, Pereira Ko Vs Hill

Edited December 29, 2024 by TildeGuy~!

[Frankie Crisp]

8 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

This’ll be a long ramble but I’ve bolded the important bits. 

MMA FIGHT OF THE YEAR:

We didn’t have a lot of obvious FOTY contenders in 2024 but these 5 stood out to me…

1) Esteban Ribovics vs Daniel Zellhuber (UFC 306: O’Malley vs Dvalishvili - Sep 14th) ?? 

This is my #1. From the big card at the Sphere. This was absolutely bonkers. Usually the FOTY ends up being a big name main event or title fight most years but these two came in with little fanfare in the middle of the card and blew the roof of with 3 rounds of madness. If you’d seen either fight before, you knew it was gonna be at least good. I wasn’t ready for what we actually got though. Ribovics came out with the points win but really, they should both be rewarded with another main card spot against a decent name next time out. There was a lot of moaning about the Sphere card, before and after, but these two absolutely delivered. If you didn’t watch it for some reason, get it watched.

2) Alexandre Pantoja vs Steve Erceg (UFC 301: Pantoja vs Erceg - May 4th) ?? 

A 5 round war in Brazil. This fight didn’t really get the love it deserved, in my opinion. I remember a lot of people were down on it going in because Erceg was a fresh face and still relatively unknown in the division but he fought his arse off and gave Pantoja all he could handle in a really close fight that went right to the wire. In the end, Pantoja’s experience shone through and he made Erceg pay for a costly takedown attempt in the last round. Fantastic fight. Pantoja’s been awesome to watch over the years but he’s really been firing on all cylinders as champ over the last year or so. The question was would Erceg be able to hang with him? He did and the fight overdelivered as a result.

3) Mateusz Gamrot vs Dan Hooker (UFC 305: Du Plessis vs Adesanya - Aug 17th) ?? 

In going back through the cards this year, I had forgotten all about this barnburner from Perth but instantly remembered loving it. It got overshadowed going in because of the DDP vs Izzy headliner, plus Gamrot’s not exactly known for having exciting fights usually. Hooker dragged him into a wild scrap though and it was fantastic. Stole the show and, thinking back, I couldn’t think of 5 fights I enjoyed more than this in 2024 so I had to include it and here it is. If you missed it, it’s well worth going back to.

4) Lewis McGrillen vs Dean Garnett (PFL Europe - Sep 28th) ??????? 

It’s rare that I get around to watching much non-UFC stuff these days unfortunately. I’ve just about been keeping on top of the UFC and Boxing this year with the occasional bit of PFL, Oktagon or whatever thrown in. This got on my radar though. After the fact admittedly. Wasn’t really gonna bother with some random PFL card in Glasgow but I saw people raving about this after and saw clips on Twitter so I watched it and I didn’t regret it. 14 knockdowns (yes, FOURTEEN) in one fight! Has to be the record surely? Then a big KO in the last round. One of those barmy fights where you don’t know which way it’s gonna go all the way through but you’re scared to blink in case you miss something. The full thing is on YouTube. Watch it. 

5) Petr Yan vs Deiveson Figueiredo (UFC Macau: Yan vs Figueiredo - Nov 23rd) ?? 

Scores-wise, this was a bit one-sided but if you watched it you know why it’s here. I’d been banging on about wanting to see these two fight from pretty much the second Figgy moved up to Bantamweight, they never let me down. The time difference with it being in Macau and us getting to watch this over breakfast didn’t hurt either. But yeah, a clear Yan win on the cards but every round was a battle all the way. Just a 5 round dogfight. Loved it. Wouldn’t have it as the FOTY but it certainly deserves a place on this list.

BEST MMA FIGHTER:

Not even gonna bother with 5 nominations for this one. It’s clearly a two horse race this year. Only two fighters have a legit argument, I think there’s a clear winner though.

1) Ilia Topuria ??

2) Alex Pereira ?? 

Both great fighters who had a great year but Topuria gets my vote. All day. There was a lot of debate on social media about this after both their last wins in October but I don’t see how there’s a real argument. Pereira might’ve gone 3-0 this year to Topuria’s 2-0, but it’s very much a case of quality over quantity for me. Pereira stopped Jamahal Hill, Jiri Prochazka and Khalil Rountree in 2024. All good wins, all finishes and I’m not taking anything away from that. But Topuria’s scored back-to-back knockouts over Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway, for fuck’s sake! Two of the greatest Featherweights of all time and two of the best fighters in UFC history. He became champion this year, is still undefeated, ended Volk’s reign as champion and became the first man to knock out the notoriously iron chinned Holloway. How do you not have him as Fighter Of The Year? The arguments I’ve seen for Pereira all seem to centre around him ‘saving cards’ and taking fights on quick turnarounds. There’s something to be said for that, it’s not like it counts for nothing and he does deserve credit. It doesn’t cancel out what Topuria’s done this year though does it? Topuria iced fully prepared versions of Volk and Max when both had full training camps. Pereira beat mediocre Hill, short notice Jiri and #8 ranked Rountree. Honestly it seems like the people arguing for Pereira are doing it because a) they’re just Pereira fanboys, b) they’re Topuria haters or c) they’re a combination of both. 2024 was Topuria‘s year. It’s just a fact. Debate with a wall.

MMA RISING STAR:

1) Carlos Prates ?? 

Feels like no other fighter went from relative obscurity to a legit must see fighter this year quite like ‘The Nightmare’. Remains to be seen how far he can go but he started 2024 as pretty much an unknown, made his UFC debut in February and has gone 4-0 with 4 knockouts and 4 POTN bonuses for his efforts. He’s moving along quickly as well. He’s going into 2025 coming off back-to-back KOs over solid opponents in Jingliang and Magny. The UFC matchmakers obviously see big things coming for him. Very rare that an unheralded fighter like Prates makes their UFC debut and is already headlining a card the same year. I’m sure there were rumblings that he was offered to step in against Shavkat at UFC 310 as well but he was injured. They don’t offer you those opportunities unless they see something in you. Not convinced he goes too much higher but it’s gonna be interesting to see what his 2025 looks like.

2) Jean Silva ?? 

This nutcase burst on the scene this year and instantly became a fan favourite. He’s gone 3-0 in 2024 with all 3 wins coming inside the distance. Bashed up no hoper Westin Wilson in his UFC debut, a meaningless win really. But it did the job as an introduction and he still became a talking point just because he took about a month to walk to the cage, the weird sod. Since then he’s battered Charles Jourdain and Drew Dober. Like Prates, I’m not sure where his ceiling is in terms of potential but he’s stupidly entertaining to watch and I’m looking forward to seeing more of him in 2025, whether it’s at Featherweight or Lightweight. He can bounce between both so the possibilities for fun matchups are almost endless.

3) Dakota Ditcheva ??????? 

Gonna be one of the only non-UFC nominations here but I couldn’t not mention her for this award. One of the UK’s best up and comers currently and one of the fighters I’m gonna be most interested to watch outside the UFC in 2025. She’s 26 years old, a second generation fighter (her mum won a bunch of titles in Kickboxing in the 80s/90s), undefeated at 14-0, has a fair bit of Muay Thai experience going back to her childhood and she’s coming off a big stoppage win over Taila Santos to win the PFL Flyweight Tournament and title in November. With that win she became the first ever female British MMA world champion in a major promotion. Plus Santos arguably got robbed against current UFC Flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko in 2022 so that was a legitimately great win for Ditcheva. Especially in the manner she did it. Just battered her at range and put her away with brutal body shots.

? It’s a shame she’s in PFL in a way because she deserves the shine and hype of the UFC exposure but she’s young enough that she’ll probably get there eventually. I think she just signed a long term deal with PFL though so it’s not happening anytime soon.

4) Payton Talbott ?? 

Another prospect to keep an eye on in ‘25. He really put himself on the map this year as one to watch. 26 years old, 9-0 and has been looking a bit better with each performance since making his UFC debut at the end of 2023. He’s only fought twice in 2024 but they stuck in my memory for me. He stopped fellow prospect Cameron Saaiman in March, then blitzed Yanis Ghemmouri in just 19 seconds in June. Feels like big tests will be coming his way this year so we’ll see how he does.

5) Esteban Ribovics ?? 

Yep. Him again. I was actually struggling a bit to come up with a fifth nomination here but fuck it. Ribovics is still only 28, he’s 14-1 and his only loss was a decision against Loik Radzhabov in his UFC debut in a really fun fight. Since then he’s gone 3-0 in the UFC. And in 2024 he scored one of the best knockouts of the year (37 second headkick demolition job vs Terrance McKinney in May) and then had what I rated as the FOTY against Zellhuber on the Sphere show in September. Yeah, I’d say he warrants a mention on this list.

MMA EVENT OF THE YEAR: 

1) UFC 300: Pereira vs Hill - Apr 13th - Las Vegas ?? 

Yeah that bare bones lazy arse poster was an abomination but that’s where the negatives end. A milestone event and a lot of people were down on the card going in but I felt like it delivered in a big way. Alex Pereira making a meme out of Jamahal Hill in the main event was hilarious and certainly one of the best ‘moments’ of the year. Zhang Weili retained her gold in the co-main and you had an undercard loaded up with stuff like Tsarukyan vs Oliveira, Prochazka vs Rakic, Sterling vs Kattar, Kayla Harrison’s debut, Diego Lopes continuing to be awesome, Jim Miller creating history becoming the only fighter to fight at UFCs 100, 200 and 300, and Figgy starting the night off on a positive by throttling Cody Garbrandt in the curtain jerker. As good as all that was though, it all pales in comparison to Max Holloway’s absolutely mental KO over Justin Gaethje with one second to go in the fight. Forget ‘…of the year’ shit, easily one of the greatest and most insane moments in MMA history. More on that later.

2) UFC 308: Topuria vs Holloway - Oct 26th - Abu Dhabi ?? 

It wasn’t the greatest card top to bottom. This was very top heavy. But what a top of the card it was. Topuria vs Holloway is about as good as it’s possible to get in MMA at present. Seeing Holloway get knocked out for the first time was sad and jarring but it was a really exciting, high level fight before that and Topuria came out of it looking like an absolute don. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for him in 2025. Although to be honest, even though his title reign has just started it’s hard to see how he tops back-to-back KOs over Volk and Max, regardless of what he does next. Khamzat Chimaev crushing (literally) Robert Whittaker in the co-main was fucking terrifying and showed that when he’s on, Khamzat’s one of the scariest bastards to ever enter the Octagon. The rest of the card wasn’t mind blowing but it had its moments. Lerone Murphy vs Dan Ige was good, Shara Bullet’s mad double spinning backfist KO was a highlight and Mateusz Rebecki and Myktybek Orolbai beat the absolute dogshit out of each other on the prelims in a slobberknocker which just narrowly missed my FOTY list.

3) UFC 306: O’Malley vs Dvalishvili - Sep 14th - The Sphere in Las Vegas ?? 

There were a lot of mixed opinions on this. It wouldn’t be my #1 show of the year by any stretch and a lot of that’s to do with the main and co-main events not being much fun to watch. Merab ragged O’Malley about to a clear decision and Shevchenko vs Grasso 3 was the dullest fight of their trilogy with Shev just grappling the arse off Grasso to a boring points win. But I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the card. As I said already above, Ribovics vs Zellhuber was my FOTY. Then there was Diego Lopes vs Brian Ortega in a fun scrap, Joshua Van vs Edgar Chairez on the prelims was a banger as well, you had Ignacio Bahamondes with a peach of a KO, Ketlen Souza upsetting and subbing Yazmin Jauregui and Irene Aldana surviving THE most horrifying cut I’ve ever seen in 30-odd years of watching combat sports. And while I know a lot of people were unmoved by the whole Sphere thing, I liked it.

Yeah Dana went overboard with the hype but it was never gonna be anything more than just a cool visual experience. If nothing else it set the show apart from the usual cookie cutter feel of the UFC’s production.

4) UFC Fight Night: Yan vs Figueiredo - Nov 23rd - Macau, China ?? 

Best Fight Night of the year easy for me and one of my favourite cards of ‘24 full-stop. Mentioned it already in the FOTY list but Yan vs Figgy was ace. Loved every second of it. One of those fights I’d been waiting to see for a while and it lived up to my expectations. Beyond that you had old Muslim Salikhov rolling back the years to deliver a beautiful spinning kick KO, Gabriella Fernandes scoring the upset and derailing Wang Cong (who was heading for a Rising Star nomination before this loss), Zhang Mingyang with a sweet step-in elbow KO, Lone’er Kavanagh vs Jose Ochoa which wasn’t an amazing fight but it was both their UFC debut and they both looked like they could have bright futures, and then there was little, 5’3” innocent looking Shi Ming almost beheading her opponent with a headkick in one of the legit scariest knockouts in years. There was some lacklustre stuff on the card but, on the whole, for a Fight Night in China, it was a pretty enjoyable way to spend a Saturday morning.

5) UFC 298: Volkanovski vs Topuria - Feb 17th - Anaheim, California ??

Not the most stacked card or anything but that main event had my balls tingling going in. And in hindsight it ended up being the true arrival of Topuria as a top player in the sport. On top of that you had Robert Whittaker vs Paulo Costa in a fun co-main, Ian Garry vs Geoff Neal in a bit of a grudge match that didn’t really deliver and Merab Dvalishvili making himself undeniable for the title shot with his impressive win over Henry Cejudo. Really strong card in its own right that set up some huge fights for later in the year.

BEST KNOCKOUT:

1) Max Holloway ?? (vs Justin Gaethje - UFC 300 - Apr 13th)

Shouldn’t even have to make a case for this. There’s been a bunch of incredible knockouts this year but this was on another level. This might just have been the greatest KO in UFC history, much less just in 2024. If there’s anyone reading this who doesn’t really follow MMA and didn’t watch, some context. Holloway was moving up a weight class for this and Gaethje is well respected as both one of the toughest and most dangerous heavy hitters in the Lightweight division. It’s been retconned since but most of the fan and media discussion going in centred around Max basically being a lamb to the slaughter here and that Gaethje was gonna hurt him bad. On the night though, Max was looking great and winning handily. Going into the 5th round, pretty much everyone had Max 3-1 up in rounds. He could’ve quite easily just coasted to a points win. He definitely didn’t need to take any risks. Then with 10 seconds left in the fight, he looked at Gaethje, pointed down at the middle of the Octagon and threw the gauntlet down. They both threw caution to the wind with a final flurry and Max knocked him dead at 4:59 of the 5th round. Literally one second to go!

I’ve seen so many fights and knockouts at this point it takes a lot to get me to stand up and actually scream at the telly but this shit had me scaring the neighbours. Absolutely batshit stuff. And the margins for error were so small. Had Gaethje caught Max and knocked him out in that last exchange (a very real possibility), this would be remembered as one of the absolute dumbest mid-fight choices in MMA history. He’d have basically given the victory away. To pull off a KO like this would’ve been wild enough in its own right, to do it when he didn’t need to was just bonkers. One of the many reasons Max Holloway is pretty much universally beloved in a sport where probably 75% of the fanbase are miserable haters.

2) Ilia Topuria ?? (vs Max Holloway - UFC 308 - Oct 26th)

Poor Max. It’s a cruel, evil sport when a fighter can end up on the right and wrong side of the Knockout Of The Year nominations in the same year but here we are. Not a ton to say about this. Max certainly didn’t look bad in the fight and he was landing good shots himself. In the end though, Topuria got to him and finally cracked that previously unbreakable chin. Had to make the list just for being the first man to KO Holloway but it was a beautiful knockout in its own right. Just a shame it was Max on the receiving end.

3) Vinicius Oliveira ?? (vs Benardo Sopaj - UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs Gaziev - Mar 2nd)

Fuck me. This was a scary one. I’d never seen either man fight before, this was my first look at both and as I recall it was a really good, competitive back and forth fight before the finish. Then Oliveira wiped him the fuck out with a breathtaking flying knee in the last round. Sopaj was down for a while and he’s only just about to fight again in January after nearly a year out. Rough one but definitely stuck in my memory for this.

4) Fares Ziam ?? (vs Matt Frevola - UFC Paris: Moicano vs Saint Denis - Sep 28th)

Another brutal knee KO. The gif speaks for itself. Devastating knockout. Frevola dropped like a sack of shite like he’d been shot from the grassy knoll. Huge finish for Ziam, especially on home soil in France. I don’t expect much to come from it, beating Frevola doesn’t mean that much. But it was a hell of a KO, had to include it.

5) Shi Ming ?? (vs Feng Xiaocan - UFC Macau: Yan vs Figgy - Nov 23rd)

As I mentioned in the Event Of The Year bit, this was genuinely THE scariest knockout of the year. And from such an unassuming fighter in Shi Ming. I’d never seen or heard of either of these two going in and, just looking at these two tiny Chinese women, the last thing I expected was one of the nastiest KOs of the year. Thankfully Xiaocan was alright after because in real time she was down so long I started thinking we’d seen something tragic.

 

Get your nominations in @Egg Shen @Bus Surfer @WeeAl @Dai @Carbomb @Panhead @Zebra Kid Mark @Bruce85 @Kfogg1991 and anyone else. 

As always, thanks for doing my annual job for me, wands. 

[Egg Shen]

Tremendous post-Wand.

 

[Panhead]

Great stuff as always, Wand. 

I'll have to have more of a think about it, and a rewatch of some stuff, but Pereira's headkick to KO Jiri Prochazka is one of my favourites of the year. I get why the Jamal Hill one was more memorable, but that headkick was like something out of a video game. 

[wandshogun09]

4 hours ago, Panhead said:

Pereira's headkick to KO Jiri Prochazka is one of my favourites of the year. I get why the Jamal Hill one was more memorable, but that headkick was like something out of a video game. 

Yeah there were a few knockouts which just about didn’t make my list. That was one of them along with Shara Magomedov’s double spinning backfists from the Petrosyan fight at UFC 308. 

Edited December 29, 2024 by wandshogun09

[Dai]

Echo what others have said, an unbelievable post by @wandshogun09. Such a comprehensive list. Going to have a look around for what other sites are saying is the fight of the year, as nothing is jumping out at me from that list. I think for nearly every year there is always one or two fights which are head and shoulders above the rest, but not this year. Did the Max/Gaethje not hit the heights we all expected? It didnt make Wands top 5, so might have to go back and rewatch it.

Edited January 1, 2025 by Dai

[wandshogun09]

I enjoyed Holloway vs Gaethje but it was too one-sided for me to put it in my Top 5. I know I included Yan vs Figgy but while I had that 4-1 Yan, the rounds themselves were mostly very competitive and close, Yan just did enough to win most of them. With Holloway vs Gaethje, I felt like Max was winning clearly for all but one of the rounds. The KO has obviously elevated that fight but I felt like it was much more of a ‘great performance’ than a ‘great fight’. 

I’d have put Topuria vs Holloway on the list before the Gaethje fight. Also had Royval vs Taira narrowly missing the Top 5. I actually think Pereira vs Rountree has a stronger case than Holloway vs Gaethje for the FOTY list just because it was more competitive and Rountree had his moments before ultimately getting chinned. 

[Carbomb]

I have watched nowhere near enough MMA to be qualified to submit most nominations, but:

Best MMA Fighter

Ilia Topuria

 

Mainly because he's only been nominated once in this thread, and whilst Alex Pereira is a candidate, he shouldn't end up the only nomination. I agree with wand that Topuria edges it this year, based on what little I've been able to catch.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah there’s no debate really for me. I like Pereira as much as anyone but his 2024 doesn’t equal Topuria’s and definitely wasn’t better. I honestly think the people who argue for Pereira are just doing it because they like him and don’t like Topuria. Which is fine but that’s not what Fighter Of The Year is about.

Imagine if the roles were reversed, Pereira was coming off a year where he became champ and knocked out two absolute all time greats back-to-back and people were trying to put Topuria above him with 3 decent-good wins just because he ‘saved cards’? There’d be outrage ? Fighter Of The Year isn’t who’s more popular or who’s ‘cooler’ or more likeable. It’s what you actually got done in the ring/cage. Which is why it’s Fighter Of The Year and not MMA Personality Of The Year or MMA ‘Aura’ Of The Year or whatever. On that basis, what Topuria did in 2024 smokes what Pereira did.

Edit - sums it up perfectly…

 

Edited January 4, 2025 by wandshogun09

[Dai]

Just been looking into what others have been listing as the best fights of the year, and Bisping picked Poirier vs Saint Denis, and remembered that that was a phenominal fight. Poirier winning that one was only second to the Holloway KO of Gaethje from what I can remember, in terms of reaction by myself. This fight had everything I want for a fight of the year.

Ill also throw in Holloway/Gaethje in here as well, and will defnately give it a rewatch.

Bisping also had Pereira/Rountree at No 3, but thinking back to that I dont think it was THAT good or memorable.

Ill also throw in Poiriers other fight this year against Makhachev too, as I seem to recall that being great too.

[Frankie Crisp]

I'm going to lock the nomination threads at some point tomorrow (probably evening), so if you want to add to what's been posted then now's the time.