Fight Coverage
The Fights | 2025 UFC.com Awards
Handing Out Hardware For The Contests That Captivated Us This Past Year
What constitutes a great fight is subjective, of course, but this year there was greater consensus amongst our voting panel when it came to selecting the three contests that claimed the podium positions in our look at the best fights of the year.
This was the category with the biggest gap between first place and second place, and our top pick ended up being the only contest that landed in the Top 3 on everyone’s ballot. In combing through the results from 2025 and thinking back on the matchups that really held out attention in the moment and over time, it feels like while there were a handful of bouts that really stood out — hence the clear gold, silver, and bronze medalists here — there were more fun, quality scraps overall this year than in recent memory.
2025 DOTCOM AWARDS: The Newcomers | The Submissions | The Knockouts
The level of talent in the UFC has never been greater, and the depth across several divisions is at an all-time high as well. That’s a recipe for more bangers, more riveting battles and more instant classics going forward.
Here’s a look at the fights that resonated the most in 2025.
1 – Joshua Van And Brandon Royval Throw Down At UFC 317
The summer flyweight showdown that elevated Joshua Van to No. 1 contender status earned four first-place votes and was no worse than third on any ballot, making it the runaway winner in this category.
What helped this fight standout is the narrative that carried it to International Fight Week, as Van made a three-week turnaround to replace Manel Kape and step in against Brandon Royval, a former title challenger on a two-fight winning streak who was looking to make his case for another championship opportunity. Would the kid from Houston who started the year outside the Top 15 close out the first half of 2025 as the No. 1 contender or would “Raw Dawg” show that he still had a little more growing to do before reaching the elite level?
READ: Wildest Final Seconds In UFC History
With that as the backdrop and a championship fight slated to follow, excitement levels heading into the contest were high, and then Royval and Van went out and delivered. The 23-year-old (at the time) showed he belonged by getting the better of things in the first, while Royval flashed his savvy by responding in the second, resulting in the outcome hinging on the final five minutes. After running level for much of the frame, Van dropped Rovyal in the closing moments of the third to shift the verdict in his favor and put a bow on his second win of the month.
At the start of June, Van was still trying to land a spot in the rankings. By the time the month ended, he was the No. 1 contender and a proven force in the flyweight ranks.
2 – Jiri Procházka Rallies Against Khalil Rountree Jr. At UFC 320
Mike Tyson has the famous quote that “everyone has a game plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
My colleague Zac Pacleb suggested that the version of that idiom that applies to Jiri Procházka is that he “gets punched in the face until he formulates a game plan” and I’m not sure you could ever sum up the Procházka experience better. For the first 10 minutes of the contest, Khalil Rountree Jr. was the quicker, more technical and more successful of the two, winning both rounds on all three scorecards and putting himself in a good position to collect a second straight win over a former champion.
READ: Greatest Short-Notice Wins Of 2025
But Procházka came out with a different level of relentlessness in the third and took the fight to the Las Vegas native, who simply couldn’t deal with nonstop pressure and punishment coming his way. It was honestly like the Czech standout tried to be calculated and tactical in the first two rounds, then found success once his back was against the wall and he started hunting for the finish.
This fight was a perfect encapsulation of what makes Procházka such a beloved figure and a perennial threat in the light heavyweight division.
3 – Nazim Sadykhov And Nikolas Motta Brawl In Baku
Midway through the first round of this lightweight contest, Nikolas Motta had Nazim Sadykhov back against the fence, covering up while he unloaded hooks to the head and body that prompted referee Lukasz Bosacki to step forward and take a closer look a couple of times. But as soon as he did, Sadykhov answered and backed Motta up, much to the delight of the partisan crowd in his hometown of Baku.
Over the back half of the round, “The Black Wolf” not only worked to equal footing, but drew ahead, taking the fight to his tiring Brazilian counterpart. The two men came out picking their spots but throwing heavy when they let their weapons loose to begin the second, with Sadykhov busting Motta open with an elbow in close that drew a smile from his fellow Dana White’s Contender Series grad.
FOLLOW @UFCNEWS: On Facebook | On Instagram | On X | On Threads
After trading big swings for roughly a minute, Sadykhov started to seize control, landing a variety of hard shots that backed Motta up. The local favorite continued to press forward, landing more telling blows, including a knee up the middle that staggered the Brazilian, who managed to quickly steady himself and continue returning fire. With Motta pressed against the cage in the final minute of the second, Sadykhov took a small step back and unloaded, connecting with a series of hard shots that provided the opportunity to punctuate the victory with one final blow.
“This is one of the best fights I’ve seen in a very long time,” Paul Felder said on the broadcast. “These guys are getting after it!”
We couldn’t agree more.
4 – Jack Della Maddalena And Belal Muhammad Battle For Gold At UFC 315
This is one of those fights that I believe will age extremely well, with people's appreciation for it continuing to grow as the years progress. It was a captivating battle that resulted in a new champion rising to the throne in the welterweight division.
Two of the three judges had this even at two rounds each heading into the final stanza and that’s exactly how it felt watching it live, as Muhammad was content to stand with the challenger, with Della Maddalena obliging as the two battered each other for the first 20 minutes. There are few things better in this sport than when both parties know the outcome of a high-stakes fight hangs in the balance heading into the final round, as was the case here, and over the final five minutes, these two gave everything they had to try and secure the victory.
WATCH: Charles Oliveira Discusses His UFC 326 Main Event vs Max Holloway
Della Maddalena was out well early, splitting Muhammad with a knee as he came forward, but the champion found success of his own, taking the challenger to the canvas and lumping him up with heavy blows from top position. It wasn’t until the waning moments of the round, when the Australian just had a little more left and a little more pop on his shots that the outcome became crystalized and it was clear a new champion was about to be crowned.
Some fights don’t get the love they deserve because of the parties involved — and it goes the other way too — and in the moment, that felt like the case with this one. But as we close out the year and reflect on 2025, it’s good to see that our panel and surely plenty of other people are highlighting this highly entertaining welterweight title fight as one of the year’s best.
5 – Iwo And Ibo Go Berserk At UFC 323
It was amusing to have Iwo Baraniewski and Ibo Aslan paired off together at UFC 323 simply for the Iwo/Ibo dynamic, which had a little David Letterman at the 1995 Oscars doing the “Oprah/Uma” bit feel to it. On paper, this looked like it was going to be a competitive, entertaining fight for as long as it lasted, but what ended up coming to pass was something absolutely bonkers.
Despite the fact that this fight only lasted 89 seconds, it felt like there were 47 shifts in moment and 2,487 significant strikes landed, with both men throwing caution to the wind and everything including the kitchen sink at one another in hopes of securing a victory. Right when one man seemed to have a slight advantage, the other countered with a bomb of their own, turning the tables again and again until Baraniewski was finally able to put Aslan down for good.
I’ve mentioned it a couple times now over the last two weeks, but watching this fight play out with the Xtreme Couture crew being in the back, hollering instructions at the television as Aslan had his Polish counterpart hurt, and then got hurt himself, only made the experience even more exhilarating.
This might have been the most thrilling 90-second fight in UFC history and was certainly deserving of a place in this year’s Top 5.
Others Receiving Votes: Merab Dvalishvili vs Umar Nurmagomedov, Alexander Volkanovski vs Diego Lopes, Chris Duncan vs Mateusz Rebecki, Petr Yan vs Merab Dvalishvili, Max Holloway v Dustin Poirier, Diego Lopes vs Jean Silva