The 10: Previously In Perth…

Kennedy was unbeaten at the time, sporting a 10-0 record after three straight wins of his own since arriving in the promotion. In many ways, this was a “which one moves forward” fight and one many viewed as a coin-flip before things kicked off.

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It didn’t take long for it to be clear that it was going to be a one-sided affair, as Volkanovski leaned into his wrestling and top control, putting the Canadian on the canvas and ultimately smashing out a finish late in the second round. The win elevated the Aussie to the next tier in the featherweight ranks, setting up a clash with Darren Elkins that he dominated, and really paved the wave for his rise to the top of the division.

Whenever competitors reach that upper echelon, it’s always fun to go back and figure out where things really started to take off, and for “Alexander the Great,” his journey to being a two-time featherweight champion really started with this standout effort in Perth.

Introducing Israel Adesanya

People that follow kickboxing closely tried to tell us to pay close attention to before his debut against Rob Wilkinson began. Once it ended, everyone was transfixed.

“The Last Stylebender” arrived in the UFC with elite striking skills and an unparalleled amount of swagger, and he absolutely blew through Wilkinson, who was a much better fighter than his two-fight UFC tenure showed. But in this one, he just didn’t stand a chance.

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Adesanya used the first round to figure out his range and his timing, landing without issue, avoiding the majority of what came back his way and then ramped things up in the second, taking the fight to Wilkinson until he got him backed into the fence, where he unleashed knees and punches that brought the fight to a halt.

And then the professional wrestling fan cut a killer promo, declaring there was a “new dog in the yard” at middleweight. None of us could have known how absolutely prophetic that statement was, as a year later, Adesanya bested Anderson Silva to earn his fifth UFC win before going on to claim the interim title in an instant classic against Kelvin Gastelum and stopping Robert Whittaker to become the undisputed middleweight titleholder.

Yoel Romero swiftly turns the tables against former champ Luke Rockhold

In a sport filled with mercurial figures and absolute enigmas, Yoel Romero is definitely in the running for top spot on that list. Romero’s fights were never straightforward and rarely boring, and this one was no different.

Originally booked as an interim title bout, only Rockhold was eligible to win the title come fight night as Romero missed weight, coming in 2.7 pounds over the championship weight, which he would do again in his next bout, a rematch with then-champion Robert Whittaker.

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The Cuban wrestler was never a high output type of guy, and honestly, he didn’t always lean on his wrestling either, opting instead to bob and weave on the outside before exploding with ferocious bursts that could create havoc. Rockhold was the more active and effective of the two in the first round, and outside of a flurry along the fence early in the second, it was largely a slow-paced affair where both showed the other a ton of respect.

Rockhold actually looked to be settling into a groove — he was pumping the jab, commanding the center of the Octagon, fighting like the well-rounded, highly skilled standout we knew him to be — but the thing with Romero is that it only ever took one, and that’s how things played out here.

A little more than 90 seconds into the third round, Romero bashed Rockhold with a left hand that took his feet out from under him, and as he leaned up against the fence trying to gather himself, a sledgehammer instantly ended the fight.

UFC 284 (February 12, 2023)

Jack Della Maddalena makes a statement against Randy Brown

Much like the first trip to Perth served as a turning point in the ascent of Alexander Volkanovski to the top of the featherweight division, the second trip proved to be a moment where current welterweight titleholder Jack Della Maddalena earned an “okay, maybe this guy is for real” kind of win.

Della lost his first two professional fights and then just started stacking wins, claiming a spot on the UFC roster with his 10th straight victory, and showing he had promise by pushing his streak to 13 (same as Volk) with consecutive wins over Pete Rodriguez, Ramazan Emeev, and Danny Roberts to begin his UFC tenure. But Brown was a different tier of opponent — a seasoned veteran of the welterweight wars who had quietly won four straight and six of his previous seven. He’d really started to find his footing in the division, find himself as a fighter, and looked, on paper, to be a considerable test for the hometown hopeful.

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It took Della just over two minutes to do away with “Rudeboy,” cracking him with a right hand as Brown circled off the fence that made the divisional mainstay do a rubber-legged fall to the canvas, where the Aussie swiftly pounced and secured the fight-ending choke.

Brown had been having success up to the point where Della connected clean, but it’s that ability to constantly stay within himself, never get rattled and look to create finishing opportunities that stood out about the Dana White’s Contender Series grad on the way up, and remains one of his greatest strengths now that he sits atop the welterweight throne.

Yair Rodriguez claims interim gold against Josh Emmett

There have been moments throughout Rodriguez’ career where he has looked like an absolute superstar, fighting with flair and confidence, landing shots that few others could imagine, let alone connect on, and yes, I’m thinking of that upward elbow against ChanSung Jung that remains mesmerizing to me nearly seven years later.

If that individual moment is the one that stands out most, this is probably the single performance where “El Pantera” has looked his best, as he rolled through Emmett to claim the interim featherweight title.

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The taekwondo stylist was sharp with his movement and his kicks, hurting Emmett to the body early and keeping him from throwing for the first two minutes of the fight. While Emmett found some success in the later stages of the first, Rodriguez worked to settle into his guard game, landing elbows from the bottom at the horn.

Rodriguez came out attacking the body to start the second, and although Emmett did his best to wear it well and shift into the clinch, the former TUF Latin America winner started to take over and unload, mixing up his attacks and giving Emmett plenty to worry about. Even after an ill-conceived flying knee resulted in his getting taken down, Rodriguez stayed aggressive, landing elbows and punches off his back before shifting his hips and sinking in a triangle choke.

Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski deliver an instant classic

This is going to sound hyperbolic to some, but so be it: I honestly don’t think we’ll be able to fully appreciate the impact and legacy of this fight for another 7-10 years because it is one of those bouts that shifted the way people look at particular elements of the sport.

Volkanovski did so well in dealing with Makhachev’s suffocating wrestling that people immediately started to see what they could pull away from his approach, and his fifth-round rally to hurt the lightweight champion resulted in his stock climbing higher than Makhachev’s in the aftermath of the contest.

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But it takes two parties to create something special inside the Octagon and Makhachev deserved and still deserves plaudits for his performance as well, as he — in my opinion — clearly won the fight, cementing his standing as the best lightweight in the world and one of the very best fighters on the planet.

There are only a handful of fights that everyone I speak with agrees are “you have to show this to young, aspiring fighters” type of fights, and this is usually at the top of the list.

UFC 305 (August 18, 2024)

Valter Walker debuts his finishing move

I grew up loving professional wrestling and still partake to this day, so any time I get to draw back to that fandom in my current career is a moment of bliss for me, and Walker has become a constant source of those opportunities by unveiling a finishing move, which he debuted last year in Perth.

Late in the first round of his clash with Junior Tafa, “The Clean Monster” dropped back and attacked a heel hook, getting a good grip on the heel and torquing to the point that Tafa yelped in pain, which rightfully brought about the stoppage. Heel hooks are rare enough in the UFC these days, and a heavyweight catching one is even more infrequent, so this finish, coupled with Tafa’s arguing against the stoppage and the ensuing discussion about it online, made it one of those moments that stood out from last summer’s pay-per-view.

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What lands it on this list, however, is that Walker has subsequently earned two more victories with his signature finisher, altering the entry and setup each time, but still getting the finish, nonetheless. His heel hook has become the equivalent of Randy Orton’s RKO — he can seemingly hit it out of nowhere — and I am here to see how far he can take things.

Dan Hooker and Mateusz Gamrot battle it out in the RAC

Gamrot went into this fight wanting to show to people that he was more than just a technical wrestler, while Hooker is always up for a punch-up, which made him the perfect dance partner for the Polish standout.

For 15 minutes, these two got after it, each having moments through the first two rounds before continuing to trade shots and battle tooth-and-nail through to the final horn. Gamrot got the fight and performance he wanted, showing he could bang it out with one of the top all-action competitors in the division, while Hooker engaged in yet another memorable tussle where he came away bloody, beaten up, and absolutely beaming when it was all said and done.

“The Hangman” got the nod, but this was one of those fights where there was no loser in terms of standing within the division or what the result told us about either man. It re-affirmed Hooker as an elite brawler and solidified “Gamer” as a legitimate standout in the 155-pound ranks as well.

Kai Kara-France spoils Steve Erceg’s homecoming

UFC 305 was meant to be a “Welcome Home” moment for Erceg, who had given champion Alexandre Pantoja all he could handle in Rio de Janeiro just a few months earlier, establishing himself as a serious threat in the flyweight division in the process.

Kara-France was returning to action for the first time in more than a year, entering off a debated split decision loss to Amir Albazi and a fight with Manel Kape that was scuttled. He was an established name, but a guy that had come up short in the biggest moments of his career to date, and seemed to be positioned as the quality opponent the hometown fighter bested as he returned to the win column in front of a partisan crowd in Perth.

But Kara-France never got the memo.

Neither landed much of substance early, but Erceg started to find success with his jab two minutes in, keeping Kara-France on the outside, where he could avoid his power. But then the Maori standout landed a step-through left hand that caught Erceg flush and sent him crashing to the canvas, sending Kara-France into full-blown finish mode, never allowing the local flyweight to recover.

Dricus Du Plessis defends the middleweight title for the first time

It’s admittedly a little weird writing this final entry just a few short weeks after Du Plessis dropped the title to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319, but it’s also an acknowledgement of the ever-shifting nature of this sport and how we need to appreciate strong efforts and cool moments as they happen.

Du Plessis eked out a split decision win over Sean Strickland to claim the middleweight title at the start of the year in Toronto, winning the middle three rounds on two of the three scorecards to ascend to the top of the division by the narrowest of margins, setting up this showdown with Adesanya. The two were expected to meet the previous year after “DDP” stopped Robert Whittaker, but he wasn’t able to make the September trip to Sydney, opening the door for Strickland to shock the world and dethrone Adesanya, sending “The Last Stylebender” into this grudge match as the challenger, and not the champion.

The fight was competitive heading into the fourth round, with Du Plessis up 2-1 on a pair of scorecards, but Adesanya having seemingly started to garner momentum in the third, which makes the fact that the South African found a way to swing it back in his favor and finish the fight in the fourth all the more impressive.

A left hand hurt Adesanya and kicked off the finishing sequence, with Du Plessis landing a series of additional lefts before dragging the challenger to the canvas, taking his back and swiftly sinking in the fight-ending choke.

We do this thing in MMA all too often where we want to diminish performances based on a shifting idea about either the victor or the vanquished (or both, sometimes) and people were quick to do so here, but I tell you what: no one was questioning Adesanya’s standing as an all-time great in the middleweight division during his rise and reign, and Du Plessis submitting him was a tremendous effort that cemented “Stillknocks” as the new ruler of the 185-pound weight class.