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Brett OkamotoOct 17, 2025, 07:48 AM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Brett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN since 2010. He has covered all of the biggest events in combat sports during that time, including in-depth interviews and features with names such as Dana White, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Georges St-Pierre. He was also a producer on the 30 for 30 film: “Chuck and Tito,” which looked back at the careers and rivalry of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. He lives in Las Vegas, and is an avid, below-average golfer in his spare time.<\/p>\n Eight events remain on the UFC calendar for the rest of 2025, and there are many unanswered questions left to be explored. For instance, pound-for-pound king Ilia Topuria<\/a> has fought only once this year, a first-round knockout of Charles Oliveira<\/a> that won him the lightweight championship in June. Topuria has yet to defend his title, the biggest holdup being who would make the most sense to challenge him.<\/p>\n Speaking of the pound-for-pound king, is Topuria really the most deserving of that moniker? Maybe for now, but hot on his tail are Islam Makhachev<\/a>, who will challenge Jack Della Maddalena<\/a> for welterweight supremacy at UFC 322 on Nov. 15, and Merab Dvalishvili<\/a>, who will make his fourth men’s bantamweight defense of the year on Dec. 6 against Petr Yan<\/a>. And then there are light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira<\/a>, middleweight champ Khamzat Chimaev<\/a> and featherweight titlist Alexander Volkanovski<\/a> — when will they fight again? And in the cases of Pereira and Chimaev, in what division?<\/p>\n Saturday’s meeting between Reinier de Ridder<\/a> and Brendan Allen<\/a> at UFC Fight Night in Vancouver, British Columbia (7 p.m. ET on ESPN+, prelims at 4 p.m.) will have some say in the middleweight equation. The winner might just find himself fighting for the title next.<\/p>\n Here’s a breakdown of these burning questions and their potential impact heading down the final stretch of 2025.<\/p>\n Who is Ilia Topuria fighting next? 1:02<\/p>\n Paddy Pimblett confronts Ilia Topuria in the cage<\/p>\n After knocking out Charles Oliveira in the UFC 317 title fight, Ilia Topuria calls out Paddy The Baddy and the two get into it inside the cage.<\/p>\n It would certainly seem to be either Justin Gaethje<\/a> or Paddy Pimblett<\/a>, but no one is saying definitively one way or another. There is — and has been — strong speculation behind the scenes that the UFC will kick off its new domestic broadcast deal with Paramount+ with a Topuria-headlined card in January in Los Angeles. The UFC, however, has yet to confirm Topuria’s involvement or the location of the first event in 2026, other than CEO Dana White saying it needs to be “massive.”<\/p>\n Pimblett has suggested Topuria is dragging his feet on a potential fight against him. Gaethje has more or less refrained from interviews, other than stating in the first half of this year that he would likely retire if the UFC didn’t book him as its next title challenger. The ESPN rankings favor Gaethje, as he is No. 5 compared to Pimblett’s No. 7.<\/p>\n The UFC tends to announce its main events at least eight weeks in advance. That time frame would place an announcement right around mid-November, when the UFC happens to be making its annual trek to Madison Square Garden in New York for UFC 322. Here’s a guess: The UFC and Paramount+ will take advantage of the New York media spotlight and announce Topuria’s first lightweight title defense for January against either Gaethje or Pimblett.<\/p>\n Where does Alex Pereira fit, if anywhere, at heavyweight?<\/p>\n Pereira wants to move to heavyweight. Many observers, myself included, advocated for him to move up after he lost his light heavyweight belt to Magomed Ankalaev<\/a> in March — but clearly the 38-year-old knew he could rewrite that losing chapter of his career once healthy. He did so in dynamic fashion by knocking out Ankalaev in 80 seconds in their rematch earlier this month.<\/p>\n With that quest fulfilled, Pereira has made it clear he is targeting a heavyweight appearance rather than a title defense against Carlos Ulberg<\/a> or JiY\u00ed Proch\u00e1zka<\/a>. The UFC seems lukewarm at best on the heavyweight idea. When asked about it at the UFC 320 postfight news conference, White said there “are still fights” for Pereira at 205 pounds.<\/p>\n How will it play out? A Jon Jones<\/a> fight is the one Pereira wants most. It’s impossible to say what the likelihood is of that right now, with Jones still semi-retired and dealing with the sudden death of his older brother, Arthur. Pereira revealed he fractured his left foot during his win against Ankalaev and isn’t targeting a return until June 2026. As of this week, he has no plans to attend Tom Aspinall<\/a>‘s heavyweight title defense against Ciryl Gane<\/a> at UFC 321 on Oct. 25.<\/p>\n We won’t know where Pereira is headed by the end of this year, but we should have a pretty good indication following UFC 321. The safest bet is to follow White’s lead, meaning I would predict Pereira’s next appearance will be at light heavyweight. But if Pereira can get the fans behind his desire to move up, that’s always the one thing that will sway UFC brass. Whether or not he’ll be able to generate momentum for a heavyweight move might be greatly impacted by how much his name is or isn’t mentioned in Abu Dhabi next week in conversations about the heavyweight title fight.<\/p>\n Who is Alexander Volkanovski fighting next? 1:27<\/p>\n Alexander Volkanovski wins featherweight title for second time<\/p>\n Alexander Volkanovski defeats Diego Lopes via unanimous decision to become a two-time featherweight champion in the UFC.<\/p>\n Originally, plans called for Volkanovski to headline the UFC’s final 2025 pay-per-view on Dec. 6 in Las Vegas — but those plans changed once the UFC began eyeing a February 2026 event in Sydney. While the timing of Volkanovski’s next fight feels pretty sure at the moment, there’s been endless speculation over who he’ll face.<\/p>\n Movsar Evloev<\/a> is undeniably the most deserving challenger, with his 19-0 record and No. 1 status in the UFC’s featherweight rankings. He hasn’t fought in 2025, though. Lerone Murphy<\/a> is the next obvious choice, and he did the UFC a solid in replacing Evloev on short notice in a bout against Aaron Pico<\/a> in August. Yair Rodriguez<\/a> was under consideration earlier this year for the UFC Noche card, but that fell through once the event was moved from Mexico to Texas.<\/p>\n This might come as a surprise, but there have been recent rumblings that Diego Lopes<\/a> has a lot of momentum to earn the next shot, even though Volkanovski defeated Lopes in his most recent appearance, fighting for the vacant belt in April. Volkanovski won that meeting pretty convincingly (judges’ scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47), but the UFC brass loved Lopes’ highlight win over Jean Silva<\/a> in September. So don’t count out the possibility of them elevating Lopes right back to the front of the line.<\/p>\n Who is the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world?<\/p>\n The pound-for-pound discussion is always alive and well, as there is rarely a 100% “right answer” on who is the best in the world. But even though the sport has three bona fide candidates at the moment in Topuria, Makhachev and Dvalishvili, I think the way things are stacked up, we’ll have a relatively strong answer as to who is No. 1 by the end of the year.<\/p>\n All of ESPN. All in one place.<\/p>\n Watch your favorite events in the newly enhanced ESPN App. Learn more about what plan is right for you. Sign Up Now<\/a><\/p>\n If Makhachev wins his second belt and looks good doing it, it’ll be nearly impossible to deny him the No. 1 spot. Under that circumstance, even if Dvalishvili becomes the first fighter in UFC history to win four title fights in a calendar year — by defeating Yan in a rematch with an opponent he dominated in 2023 — I would still rank Makhachev ahead of him. I’d be more impressed with Dvalishvili’s year, but still would have to give “best fighter” to Makhachev.<\/p>\n All of that depends on how each looks in his respective fight. There’s still a solid chance Topuria finishes the year with my vote for No. 1 fighter in the world, because of his dominance and finishing ability. It’s a neck-and-neck contest at the moment. But I believe there will be clarity come the end of the year and I’ll feel pretty good about whoever I’m proclaiming the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.<\/p>\n How will the middleweight division shake out?<\/p>\n It sounds a little strange considering he just won the middleweight belt in August, but Chimaev and his team are already keen on a superfight. Chimaev has been inactive, as we all know<\/a>, but dominant nevertheless — and right now his ideal scenario would be a move up to light heavyweight to challenge Pereira on next summer’s White House card.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n As with Pereira, Chimaev’s ability to move up will likely hinge in large part on what kind of buy-in he can get from the fan base. The UFC is unlikely to co-sign his desire to move up, as he has faced only one of the top seven contenders in its 185-pound rankings. But if Pereira doesn’t move to heavyweight and is seeking the biggest fight possible at light heavyweight, Chimaev could become that with the right fan support.<\/p>\n Still, the most likely outcome is that Chimaev will be tasked to defend his middleweight crown. And that means all of the 185-pound fights taking place in the final quarter of 2025 are critical. We need to see how De Ridder looks this weekend in his main event against Allen. We also need to see what matchups former champions Sean Strickland<\/a> and Israel Adesanya<\/a> draw in early 2026. Obviously, Nassourdine Imavov<\/a> and Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez<\/a> are also in the mix. The UFC won’t announce Chimaev’s next fight before the end of this year, but I have a feeling we’ll have an educated guess as to who it’ll be against before Jan. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brett OkamotoOct 17, 2025, 07:48 AM ET CloseBrett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-219697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}play<\/p>\n
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