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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The MMA world will never forget the insanity of 2023.

Join the MMA Fighting staff as we look back at the biggest highs, breakout stars, and most unbelievable moments of 2023 in a special year-end retrospective. We’re honoring all the nights that defined one of the craziest 12-month stretches this sport has ever seen — and handing out plenty of hardware in celebration of the knockouts, submissions, fights, fighters, and rookies who made sure 2023 was a year that will go down as one of the wildest ever.

Check out MMA Fighting’s 2023 year-end award show above, hosted by our own Mike Heck and featuring a panel of Shaun Al-Shatti, Eric Jackman, José Youngs, and E. Casey Leydon.

An audio-only version of the show can be listened to below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you find your favorite podcasts.

Have a happy new year!

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The MMA world is still waiting on the return of both Michael Chandler and Conor McGregor.

The Ultimate Fighter 31 (TUF) already feels like a lifetime ago despite happening earlier this year. That’s just the effect that the coaches not fighting each other will have on a season. Well, along with the long-running series being somewhat of a rinse-and-repeat model of middling prospects or veterans at this point, of course.

In the end, McGregor and Chandler broke even with winners as Team McGregor’s Brad Katona won the bantamweight bracket while Team Chandler’s Kurt Holobaugh got the job done at lightweight in August. Since then, the hold-up for the coach’s collision has been on McGregor’s side thanks to his exclusion from the USADA testing pool. With the partnership between USADA and the UFC officially ending next Monday, there will be nothing to stop McGregor from booking the Chandler fight as soon as possible. However, “Iron” believes the whole process has been a part of the plan for “The Notorious.”

“I think right now he’s trying to wait me out,” Chandler said on Steve-O’s Wild Ride! “I mean, because if you were him, would you want to wait as long as possible for the guy like me, who’s a real fighter, who wants to be in there, who wants to compete so that I say, ‘Screw it, I’m gonna go fight someone else’ and then he can go fight an easier fight: Nate Diaz.”

Ideally, McGregor would have undergone six months of USADA testing to become eligible to compete again as late as the start of TUF 31 in May. Instead, his delay has also kept Chandler sidelined with a third-round rear-naked choke loss to Dustin Poirier in November 2022 as his last fight. As for the mentioned Diaz, the veteran is still enjoying his free agency after departing the UFC in late 2022 for a boxing match against Jake Paul this past summer. Paul defeated Diaz via unanimous decision.

McGregor, 35, coincidentally had his last two fights against Poirier, who defeated him on both occasions via TKO. The latter of which just so happened to lead to the nasty leg break that has kept McGregor on the mend since that night of UFC 264 in July 2021. The Irishman is 1-3 in his last four bouts and hasn’t won since his 40-second welterweight TKO of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in January 2020.

“It looks really bad on everyone’s part if Conor comes back and doesn’t fight me,” Chandler said. “Conor can try to come back and act like he runs the show and say, ‘I want to fight this guy, I want to fight that guy,’ which if I was in his position, if I was his manager, I would be trying to do the same thing because fighting me is not the smartest fight.”

TOP STORIES

Awards. MMA Fighting’s 2023 Fighter of the Year: Sean Strickland

Redemption. MMA Fighting’s 2023 Knockout of the Year: Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira

Denied. Cody Garbrandt not interested in Dominick Cruz rematch: ‘It’s so hard to top that performance’

Assessment. Aljamain Sterling disappointed by Sean O’Malley PPV sales: ‘These are the numbers that this guy was trying to say he’s this big PPV star?’

Holidays. ‘The Bully who stole gold’: MMA community celebrates Christmas and the holidays

Upset. Conor McGregor erupts over UFC inactivity: ‘My patience is wearing thin’

Ending. Korean Zombie on decision to retire from MMA: ‘I felt that I don’t have that chin anymore’

Storytime. Willy Wonka (and Conor McGregor and Dana White and Jon Jones, and a few others) and the Chocolate Factory

Partnerships. RIZIN’s Nobuyuki Sakakibara discusses future of co-promotions after Bellator sale to PFL, doesn’t see ONE as threat in Japan

Bored. Alan Jouban laments Islam Makhachev, Leon Edwards calling for champ vs. champ fights: ‘I wish that talk would go away’

Aftermath. Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson thinks he may have injured foot in UFC 296 loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov

VIDEO STEW

UFC 297 Trailer.

Top UFC Finishes of 2023.

2023 UFC Honors KO Nominees.

UFC’s 2023 Year In Review – Part 1.

Bisping’s Greatest Year.

Weidman: The Return.

RIZIN Confessions 139.

Top 10 PFL KOs of 2023.

From the Archives.

Invicta’s Best KOs.

Champ Camp Finale.

MORNING MUSIC

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Nice.

No time for love!

Oh.

Lost a touch there, mate.

One final fight week.

Spammed it.

Desperation activated.

Einstein.

Rivalry continued.

Always playing jiu-jitsu.

Solid view.

Double dog?

Into the shop.

Family.

A kick-off.

A Stamp Christmas.

Champ.

Selfie time.

Clouds over the beach.

Brothers.

Work.

Let’s talk 10-7s.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Joshua Van (9-1) vs. Felipe Bunes (13-6); UFC Vegas 84, Jan. 13

AJ Dobson (7-2) vs. Tresean Gore (4-2); UFC 298, Feb. 17

Yazmin Jauregui (10-1) vs. Sam Hughes (8-5); UFC Mexico, Feb. 24

Jesús Santos Aguilar (9-2) vs. Mateus Mendonca (10-2); UFC Mexico, Feb. 24

Stephanie Luciano (5-1-1) vs. Shauna Bannon (5-1); UFC Vegas 88, March 23

Andre Petroski (10-2) vs. Jacob Malkoun (7-3); UFC Atlantic City, March 30

FINAL THOUGHTS

Hope everyone had a great and happy holiday season. Now we head towards the New Year celebrations. Share your plans and goals for 2024 in the comments below!

POLL POSITION

Last Week’s Results:

Friday: 61% of 413 total votes answered “Yes” when asked, “Will Belal Muhammad get the next UFC welterweight title shot?”

Thursday: 57% of 437 total votes answered “Yes” when asked, “Will Tony Ferguson ever fight in the UFC again?”

Wednesday: 30% of 714 total votes answered “Shavkat Rakhmonov” when asked, “Who should be next for Colby Covington?”

Tuesday: 57% of 675 total votes answered “About the same” when asked, “Are you more or less hyped for Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis after this past weekend?”

Monday: 43% of 453 total votes answered “Neither” when asked, “Who came out better after this past weekend?”

Today’s exit poll:

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @DrakeRiggs_ on Twitter and let him know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

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Henry’s honesty
| BJPenn.com

In a new statement, Garry apologized to his supporters for missing UFC 296 while also making an interesting observation about online haters.

Ian Garry has released another statement regarding his withdrawal from UFC 296 due to a bad case of pneumonia.

Garry was set to fight teammate Vicente Luque on the Las Vegas card, but UFC doctors pulled him off the card halfway through the week. Following the event, UFC CEO Dana White announced that Garry would be re-scheduled against Geoff Neal for UFC 298 on February 17th.

There’ll be time for Garry to get excited about that fight later. For now he still seems to be recovering from his illness. In a recent Instagram post he shared several images where he was curled up in a miserable ball (with adorable heart socks, though).

“Fight week didn’t go as planned,” he wrote in the caption. “Influenza developed into pneumonia as I dropped weight and for the first time in my career I was pulled by the UFC Doctor.”

“Flying home I met so many fans who flew out specifically to see me,” Garry continued. “F—. This is not how I wanted to meet you. I wanted to put on a show more than anything. Thank you for all your kind words, wonderful messages and to everyone who was there for me.”

“You might read hateful comments online but I’ve discovered they aren’t real. In real life you book flights, hotels, you drive miles, and you show up, in Vegas. I appreciate the hell out everyone and I promise I’ll make it up to you all in February.”

It had been a rollercoaster of a time for Garry, who came into Las Vegas with a lot of controversy surrounding his name. There were several tales about him getting beaten up by former teammates and kicked out of gyms. Everyone at his current gym Kill Cliff FC was siding with Vicente Luque. “The Future” was labeled a ‘me’ fighter, not a ‘we’ fighter. And then there was all that stuff about his wife.

We’ll see whether things settle down by February when he returns against Neal. If not, he’ll discover that sometimes those online haters can manifest in real life as well.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

MMA fans are no strangers to seeing champion vs. champion fights dangled in front of them for years before watching them cruelly fizzle out.

Georges St-Pierre vs. Anderson Silva.

Ronda Rousey vs. Cris Cyborg.

Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou (there’s still a chance!).

So there was much rejoicing when the UFC pulled the trigger on a superfight between arguably the two most skilled athletes in all of combat sports: Newly crowned lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and indomitable featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.

The timing was perfect. Makhachev had just demolished Charles Oliveira, and Volkanovski—conveniently cageside at UFC 280 for said demolishing to face off afterward with Makhachev—was coming off of a silence-any-doubts win over rival Max Holloway. The upcoming UFC 284 event just happened to be taking place in Volkanovski’s home country of Australia. We always talk about wanting to see the best fight the best and, on paper, Makhachev vs. Volkanovski was arguably the highest-level matchup in UFC history.

It lived up to the hype.

This was a fight where not just every moment, but every movement was filled with tension. The crowd ate up every second of this 25-minute chess match, the beauty of mixed martial arts on full display, with neither fighter willing to concede an inch in any facet of the game.

Makhachev goes for a takedown? Volkanovski shows his incredible balance and ability to reverse out of almost any situation. Volkanovski lands a big hook on Makhachev? Makhachev aggressively responds with power punches and brutal clinch knees. The back-and-forth in the first round alone left both men smiling as the buzzer sounded. Like two jazz greats sharing the stage for the first time, they sensed the opening five minutes were only the beginning of something special.

Volkanovski’s Australian supporters added plenty to the atmosphere, cheering loudly at every show of force their champion could muster. Even just standing up after a Makhachev takedown had them celebrating as if Volkanovski had connected with a spinning wheel kick. And justifiably so, as the smaller Volkanovski did everything in his power to show that size didn’t matter.

We saw Makhachev answer plenty of questions, too. Conventional wisdom suggested a prolonged battle would favor Volkanovski and his endless gas tank. But Makhachev showed little signs of fading, and he was relentless in working to bring the resilient Volkanovski to the mat. If there was a way to accurately gauge the energy these two exerted in the fight, my guess is it would have been enough to power the entire arena.

Amazingly, the most memorable image of the fight came when Volkanovski roared into the camera after surviving three minutes of Makhachev back control. Has there ever been a more exciting sequence in history revolving around one fighter defending against MMA’s most dominant position?

With a minute to go, Volkanovski scored the lone knockdown of the fight and ended on top, a snapshot that encapsulates how close he came to ending Makhachev’s lightweight reign just as it was getting started. Makhachev won a fair decision, but Volkanovski had done more than enough to support the argument that, pound-for-pound, there was no better fighter on the planet.

Their rematch eight months later at UFC 294 (necessitated by an Oliveira injury that forced him out of his own rematch with Makhachev) was thrilling in its own way, as Makhachev finished Volkanovski with a head kick. But it fell well short of the drama displayed in their first meeting. None of that should tarnish the legacy of their initial duel, though, which is, simply put, one of the finest martial arts contests we’ve ever had the privilege of witnessing.

MMA Fighting, Getty Images

2. Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Moreno 2

Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images

If Makhachev vs. Volkanovski was the ultimate test of technique, then Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Moreno was a classic war of attrition.

The second meeting (or third, if you count their exhibition bout on The Ultimate Fighter) between these elite flyweights was long overdue, with the stars never quite aligning for them to cross paths again. Moreno was embroiled in an unprecedented four-fight series with Deiveson Figueiredo, while Pantoja suffered a few key losses that kept him short of a guaranteed title shot.

But once Moreno definitively settled the score with Figueiredo in their final championship fight, there was nothing standing in the way of the Mexican star getting the chance to earn a win over his nemesis. Pantoja had defeated Moreno on TUF, and in their first proper UFC fight. If Moreno was to continue to make his case for all-time flyweight greatness, he’d have to vanquish his personal boogeyman.

Damn if he didn’t try.

Pantoja scored a knockdown in the opening round of their UFC 290 clash, and from there, it was a sprint to the finish. On the feet, everything they threw was with the intention of ending the fight; on the ground, their grappling exchanges were mesmerizing demonstrations of determination.

Were it not for Pantoja’s diamond chin, Moreno would likely be celebrating the new year with gold still around his waist. Instead, Pantoja matched Moreno blow for blow, refusing to let Moreno get on the board in their rivalry. Every time it looked like Pantoja was tiring, he’d answer with a damaging flurry, which consequently pushed Moreno to a performance that surpassed anything he showed in the Figueiredo tetralogy. It still wasn’t enough.

Pantoja won again and did so in style, making him the rightful ruler of the always-entertaining flyweight division.

3. Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa

Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

The women’s bantamweight division has become somewhat of a punchline over the past few years, having fallen far in terms of notoriety from the halcyon days of Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate and Holly Holm. Amanda Nunes did her best to bring glory to the division, but her dominance only served to shine an unflattering light on a shallow contender pool.

Nunes’ retirement this past summer has left the 135ers scrambling to regain relevancy, and women’s bantamweight bouts are rarely even scheduled, much less highly anticipated.

At UFC 296, Irene Aldana and Karol Rosa had something to say about that.

No one expected Aldana and Rosa to be anything but a standup battle. Even fewer people predicted the women would deliver the best preliminary bout of the year. Early on, it looked like it could be another disappointing night for Aldana after a listless performance against Nunes six months prior. Rosa smartly targeted Aldana’s leg, doing everything she could to turn Aldana into a one-legged fighter. Somehow, Aldana marched forward, becoming more aggressive with every passing second.

By Round 3, Rosa realized she was no longer in a martial arts contest. She was in a fight, and she responded accordingly, making sure to add plenty of face-punching to her repertoire, to the tune of a combined 106 head strikes between her and Aldana in the final round alone. The UFC built its name on having quality fights from the top to the bottom of the lineup, and while the promotion can’t consistently claim that anymore, Aldana and Rosa reminded us that there’s still plenty of magic to be found for those dedicated fans who never miss a scrap.

If you missed it, all you need to do is check out these two pictures from the aftermath to understand how incredible the action was.

4. Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Justin Gaethje has been the baddest m*********** for a minute, and he’s never needed a shiny belt to prove it.

Before officially becoming the “BMF” champion at UFC 291, Gaethje threw down with Rafael Fiziev in an instant classic that would have been a five-rounder in a better, more just world. Fiziev entered their UFC 286 clash on a run of five consecutive fight night bonuses, and his matchup with Gaethje was a striking fan’s dream.

Each punch and kick fired off in this fight was rife with meaning, neither man wasting an opportunity to capitalize on the other’s mistakes. Isolate any exchange from this fight, and you’ll marvel at their ability to not only dish out extraordinary punishment, but to take it. There’s only a handful of lightweights in the business who could have absorbed these shots and made it to the scorecards.

Did Gaethje do enough to maintain his reputation as MMA’s most dangerous standup fighter? The scoring raised a few eyebrows, with Fiziev somehow not winning Round 1 on all three judges’ cards, and Gaethje receiving a questionable 10-8 in Round 3, but Gaethje’s narrow decision win is secondary to what actually happened over the span of a breathtaking 15 minutes.

Let’s hope this one is run back someday, this time with five rounds on the contract.

5. Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Geoff Neal

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Some people go into fights wanting to win them. Others go into fights wanting to end them. Guess which category Shavkat Rakhmonov belongs to.

In what would prove to be the undefeated welterweight’s toughest test yet, Rakhmonov had to deal with the always-confident Geoff Neal at UFC 285. Neal was in the best form of his career after knocking out Vicente Luque and sure enough, Neal tagged Rakhmonov a few times in Round 1. It was a reminder that the path to the top of any division is fraught with peril.

How did Rakhmonov answer? He kicked Neal square in the head. He came forward with battering punches. He mixed in his wrestling. Neal withstood it all and kept finding Rakhmonov’s chin, which Rakhmonov actually seemed to enjoy.

Rakhmonov’s relentless offense had him well on his way to a decision win, but he had a reputation to maintain. Sixteen fights, sixteen finishes, a record he wouldn’t let anyone challenge. With a minute remaining in an exhilarating final round, Rakhmonov went back to basics and clamped an arm down on Neal’s neck as they grappled against the fence. No hand-fighting, no hooks, just a future champion pouring all of his strength into draining the last of his opponent’s health bar – and removing the judges from the equation.

There wasn’t a nastier exclamation point in 2023.

Here is how the voting for MMA Fighting’s 2023 Fight of the Year played out.

MMA Fighting

HONORABLE MENTIONS

• Dan Hooker vs. Jalin Turner, UFC 290
• Brandon Moreno vs. Deiveson Figueiredo 4, UFC 283
• Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko 2, UFC Las Vegas
• Nazim Sadykhov vs. Viacheslav Borshchev, UFC 295
• Sean Strickland vs. Israel Adesanya, UFC 293
• Clay Collard vs. Shane Burgos, PFL 9
• Kurt Holobaugh vs. Jason Knight, The Ultimate Fighter 31: Episode 11
• Jamahal Hill vs. Glover Teixeira, UFC 283
• Max Holloway vs. The Korean Zombie, UFC Singapore
• Chepe Mariscal vs. Trevor Peek, UFC Jacksonville

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Looking back on his UFC career, The Korean Zombie has no regrets about any of it.

In August, Zombie, real name Chan Sung Jung, walked away from the sport following a knockout loss against Max Holloway in the UFC Singapore headliner. Still considered to be one of the best featherweights in the world, the 36-year-old has plenty of gas left in the tank, but after his devastating loss, Zombie felt it was best to hang up his gloves before enduring further unnecessary damage.

“The funny thing about this fight is I remember every single second of the fight,” Zombie said recently on The MMA Hour. “From the moment I got dropped, every single punch I threw, every single punch that hit me. In the second round when I got dropped, I saw the punch coming, I thought I dodged it, but I was dropped. I was like, ‘What hit me?’ In the first round I was wobbled a little bit and in the third round everybody saw I got knocked down.

“After experiencing these moments, I felt that I don’t have that chin anymore. I’ve been having brain damage over the years, so I don’t have that chin anymore. I’m not going to say any names but there are fighter who, when they were young, used to have a really good chin, but then as they get older they get brain damage, their chin gets weaker, and they get frequently dropped. If the fighter fails to acknowledge the fact that they got old and their chin got weaker, the end isn’t as lovely. I didn’t want to become that fighter, so I decided to retire at that moment.”

Fight fans were first introduced to Korean Zombie at WEC 48 in 2010 when he went toe-to-toe with Leonard Garcia in a Fight of the Year contender. A year later, he would make his official UFC debut.

Zombie quickly became a favorite inside the Octagon thanks to his balls-to-the-wall style of fighting that saw him score wins over the likes of Dustin Poirier, Renato Moicano, Frankie Edgar, and Dan Ige. And though he never claimed UFC gold in his 16-year career, Zombie will always be remembered as a fighter who’s top priority was to put on a show.

“I definitely wanted to show the crowd the classic Zombie,” Jung said of his final fight against Holloway. “If the fans watched my first fight in the WEC, that’s how I fought originally. I kind of wanted to put on a show for the fans and go back to the old version of me and put on a show. I kind of went out the way I came in this organization. I’m happy the fight went as it did.”

Zombie walked into his scrap with Max Holloway treating it like any other fight. Once he laid down his gloves, he couldn’t help, but be overcome with emotion as he looked back on his 13-year run with the promotion.

“Before I put the gloves down, I didn’t really feel anything, but after I put the gloves down on the canvas and bowed down right besides the gloves, it was an emotion that I’ve never felt before,” Zombie said. “Being at the end of a chapter in your life is something that’s very unexplainable. At the same time, I felt gratitude towards the UFC and the UFC gloves because it gave me one heck of a life, so that’s what I was feeling.”

Korean Zombie leaves the door open for boxing

Had Korean Zombie left Singapore with a victory, he would have lobbied for the UFC’s return to South Korea in hopes of headlining against Yair Rodriguez or Brian Ortega.

Despite the missed opportunity, he has no regrets over the way his career came to a close.

“The Max Holloway fight, because everything was perfect, the timing, my opponent being Max Holloway, the audience, the crowd, the love that they showed me,” Zombie said. “I’ve had my share of fights in life but this fight is the only fight that I have zero regret after the fight is finished, even though I lost via knockout. This is the only fight that I have completely zero regrets, so I would choose my last fight as the most memorable one.”

Though his run in MMA is over, he left the door open for a potential debut inside the squared circle, following in the footsteps of fighters like Anderson Silva, Tyron Woodley, Nate Diaz, and Cris Cyborg.

“My heart and every part of my body says I could totally go and fight again, but I think it’s time for me to acknowledge that as far as MMA goes, I’ll probably not be able to fight again,” Zombie said. “I think it’s time for me to acknowledge that.

“If I get the opportunity, maybe boxing? A lot of MMA fighters try out boxing so why not me? Boxing would be fun for me” (h/t MMA Fighting).

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts