Early part of UFC's 2025 schedule has massive potential across all divisions

This week is Thanksgiving in the United States, coinciding with a rare bye week on the UFC schedule, which gives the mixed martial arts community some down time to reflect both on all the action that has occurred inside the Octagon this year and what there is to look forward to just around the corner and into the first part of next year.

With two events remaining on the 2024 slate, it feels fair to say this has been a strong year overall in terms of the fights themselves and witnessing the emergence of new and exciting names, including plenty in the championship tiers.

There have been six title changes so far this year, with one more title fight on tap at UFC 310 between Alexandre Pantoja and Kai Asakura. Of the six, four produced first-time champions, which helped further elevate Dricus Du Plessis, Belal Muhammad, Ilia Topuria, and Merab Dvalishvili to greater levels of stardom and recognition.

We’ve also witnessed the further emergence of contenders like Umar Nurmagomedov, Diego Lopes, Arman Tsarukyan, and Khamzat Chimaev, the levelling up of competitors like Tatsuro Taira, Caio Borralho, and Erin Blanchfield, plus impressive rookie campaigns from Kayla Harrison and a trio of Fighting Nerds — Jean Silva, Mauricio Ruffy, and Carlos Prates.

We’ve had absolutely bonkers knockouts (Max Holloway, Vinicius Oliveira, Ilia Topuria twice), slick submissions (Islam Makhachev, Fernando Padilla, Chimaev), and more than a handful of outstanding fights, and the final two cards of the year are both flush with quality contests and exciting names, meaning 2024 should wrap up on a high note.

There are also copious reasons to be optimistic heading into 2025 because it feels like next year has the potential to be truly special.

There have been 18 championship fights so far in 2024, with one still to come and one interim title bout mixed in there as well, which means the year will end with 19 or 20 such bouts, depending on how you feel about Tom Aspinall’s summer clash with Curtis Blaydes and whether you considered it a real championship fight.

While that’s only down one title fight from each of the past two years — and up from the 19 such bouts that took place in the Octagon from 2019-2022 — it also feels like that number is a little skewed by the fact Alex Pereira defended his light heavyweight title three times, stepping up on short notice to help prop up both UFC 300 and UFC 303 when those major events needed an infusion of talent.

Chama.

There were five divisions — strawweight and flyweight on the women’s side of the roster, as well as lightweight, welterweight, and heavyweight on the men’s side — where the reigning champion only defended their belt once, which means five marquee talents and their top rivals only stepped into the Octagon once over the past 11 months.

In theory, that should mean that we see Zhang Weili, Valentina Shevchenko, Islam Makhachev, and Belal Muhammad defend their titles multiple times in 2025, with first quarter assignments for each being real possibilities.

All four have at least one viable challenger at the ready, and even if the UFC 310 clash between unbeaten threats Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Machado Garry means Muhammad’s first welterweight title fight is pushed back a little as the victor rests and recovers before challenging for the title, there are still an abundance of ready-made fights and compelling options at the ready whenever the UFC wants to pull the trigger.

Topuria has a rematch with Alexander Volkanovski waiting to be made, a rematch between Du Plessis and Sean Strickland is apparently next up at middleweight, and the ever-active Pereira seems more than ready to jump in with Magomed Ankalaev whenever the UFC can get that one put together. Mix in an obvious clash between Pena and Harrison (with Amanda Nunes potentially watching intently) and you’ve got four more title fights that could theoretically take place in the first half of 2025.

A bantamweight title bout between Dvalishvili and Nurmagomedov should be a no-brainer as well, but the champion seems to want no part of the undefeated contender from Dagestan, and who can blame him, honestly?

Heavyweight is going to remain a bit of a mess until Jon Jones fully commits to a path forward (or out the door), and the winner of the Pantoja-Asakura fight won’t likely return until the spring, but just about every other division feels like it should have its championship belt defended inside the Octagon in the first half of next year, which creates a real opportunity to have them do the same in the back half of the calendar as well.

And even if a couple titleholders only end up defending their belts once because of injury or other reasons, having more of the championship set healthy and active should mean a greater number of intriguing title fights and therefore more robust pay-per-view lineups in 2025.

But it’s not just the title fight potential that has us feeling thankful as we start looking ahead to next year. There are several weight classes that are as deep and flush with talent as they have ever been.

Everyone already knows bantamweight and lightweight are absolute gold mines when it comes to competitive contests up and down the divisional ranks, and that it’s damn-near impossible to make an unentertaining fight between ranked competitors in those weight class, but there are others joining that mix as well.

Strawweight currently feels like where bantamweight was a couple years ago, when people were just starting to warm to the idea that it might be the best overall women's division in the UFC. There is a quality mix of experienced veterans and credentialed contenders, led by Yan Xiaonan, Jessica Andrade, and Amanda Lemos, as well as fresh title hopefuls Tatiana Suarez (if she can ever get or stay healthy) and Virna Jandriroba, while Iasmin Lucindo, Denise Gomes, Fatima Kline, and Jaqueline Amorim have all exhibited a tremendous amount of promise.

Both flyweight divisions are stocked as well, with the men having more established names and the women boasting the greater collection of ascending fighters that have yet to dip their toes in the championship waters.

Welterweight is experiencing a renaissance right now, with Rakhmonov and Machado Garry leading a cabal of new names looking to make waves in the 170-pound weight class that also includes fellow contenders Jack Della Maddalena and Sean Brady, top-15 talents Joaquin Buckley (who headlines the final event of the year opposite Colby Covington), Michael Morales, and Carlos Prates, and guys like Bryan Battle, Rinat Fakhretdinov, Gabriel Bonfim, and Oban Elliott all flashing upside in the last 12 months.

And don’t look now, but middleweight is getting exciting as well.

In addition to having a new champion atop the heap and Chimaev having earned the kind of dominating win over Robert Whittaker that now officially puts him in the title picture, there is intrigue surrounding the likes of Borralho, Nassourdine Imavov, and Anthony Hernandez as they continue to work forward in the divisional ranks.

Shara Magomedov remains an unbeaten enigma in the 185-pound weight class, same with Bo Nickal, while Joe Pyfer and Ikram Aliskerov are still fascinating prospects, and Reinier de Ridder mixes in as a compelling wild card edition to the division as well.

Hell, even light heavyweight finally has a few interesting up-and-coming names to track in Vitor Petrino, Zhang Mingyang, Ibo Aslan, Oumar Sy, Bogdan Guskov, and Navajo Stirling.

Combine all this goodness with the host of promising talent in those robust divisions that haven’t been mentioned by name, the competitors that will surprise at some point along the way, and the fact that it feels (fingers crossed) like the UFC is going to stick to its promise of taking more shows on the road in the year ahead (only four events at the UFC APEX on the Q1 slate compared to six this year), and it all adds up to feel like 2025 could be something special.

And for that, fight fans are thankful.