{"id":380028,"date":"2025-12-31T19:50:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T19:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/380028\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T19:50:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T19:50:14","slug":"revisiting-our-outlandish-mma-predictions-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/380028\/","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting Our Outlandish MMA Predictions – 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

As has become somewhat of a tradition here at MMASucka, we like to throw out 10 outlandish MMA predictions every year and claim to be psychic when one of the 10 gets remotely close. Last year\u2019s article can be found here<\/a>, however, we will revisit our outlandish MMA predictions in this article.<\/p>\n

Be sure to check out the previous article to find our 2025 predictions in detail!<\/p>\n

Revisiting our Outlandish MMA Predictions for 2025
\n1 -Tom Aspinall Will End the Year as Undisputed Heavyweight Champion\u2026 After Beating Jon Jones in July<\/p>\n

Could we claim this one as a success? Half of it is true, Tom Aspinall<\/a> will end the year as the undisputed heavyweight champion\u2026 but not in the manner in which he would have wanted.<\/p>\n

Aspinall was upgraded to undisputed champion\u2026 after Jon Jones retired<\/a>. It\u2019s a fight that everyone wanted to see, Aspinall vs Jones, however, one person didn\u2019t \u2013 Jon Jones.<\/p>\n

Aspinall would make one defence of his title in October against Ciryl Gane, however, after an eye poke rendered the Brit unable to continue, the fight ended in a no contest. A year to forget for Aspinall.<\/p>\n

2 \u2013 Bellator Will Cease to Exist<\/p>\n

Our first success! On January 14th, the PFL confirmed that Bellator would cease to exist and would be completely engulfed by the PFL. The rosters would be consolidated and no Bellator belts would be contested anymore.<\/p>\n

It was always going to happen, however, it still came as a shock. The PFL grabbed the bull by the horns in 2025, kicking off the year with big news. This has lead to a number of former Bellator stars signing for the UFC, with limited success.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

3 \u2013 Valentina Shevchenko Will Make Two Defences of Her Title Before Retiring<\/p>\n

Similar to our first outlandish MMA prediction, this one is half right.\u00a0Valentina Shevchenko went 2-0, defeating Manon Fiorot and Zhang Weili, both in convincing fashion. At 37, however, she\u2019s not hinting at retirement just yet.<\/p>\n

We said: \u2018She will defeat Manon Fiorot in a boring, one-sided, wrestling-heavy decision\u2018 and we weren\u2019t totally wrong. It\u2019s a forgettable performance but it still adds a ruby to her belt.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>UFC 315, Centre Bell Sebastien Botella\/MAXPPP \u2013 MONTREAL 11\/05\/2025 UFC 315 Mixed Martial arts, Centre Bell, Montreal, 10th May 2025, Manon Fiorot lost against Valentina Shevchenko. MONTREAL QUEBEC PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxFRAxBELxSUIxUK Copyright: xMAXPPPxSebastienxBotellax SBO202505118439 SBO202505118439
\n4 \u2013 Kayla Harrison Finishes the Year as UFC Bantamweight Champion<\/p>\n

Another success! We claimed that Kayla Harrison would finish former champion, Juliana Pena within three rounds, something that happened at UFC 316, winning the UFC bantamweight title.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>UFC 316 NEWARK, NEW JERSEY \u2013 JUNE 07: Julianna Pena fights Kayla Harrison during the UFC 316 at Prudential Center on June 07, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey, United State. Photo by Matt Davies\/PxImages Newark Prudential Center New Jersey United State Copyright: xMattxDaviesx<\/p>\n

We did predict that she would be scheduled to face Norma Dumont in December, however, it appears her first title defence will occur in January\u2026 against the former champion, Amanda Nunes. Maybe one of our outlandish MMA predictions for 2026 will feature these women\u2026<\/p>\n

5 \u2013 Paddy Pimblett Headlines in London in March, Wins and goes on to Fight Michael Chandler<\/p>\n

Paddy Pimblett is set for a huge 2026 after just one outing in 2025. He didn\u2019t headline in London in March, however, he did get a huge fight. He did face Michael Chandler as we predicted, finishing the American in a five-round co-main event at UFC 314.<\/p>\n

The Baddy is scheduled for an interim title opportunity against Justin Gaethje<\/a> to kick off the UFCs Paramount Plus era.<\/p>\n

6 \u2013 Alex Pereira goes 2-0 in 2025 but still doesn\u2019t fight Magomed Ankalev<\/p>\n

Alex Pereira had his most inactive year since joining the UFC, only competing twice, both times he faced Magomed Ankalaev. On the first occasion, he lost a decision to the Russian, forcing many to ask questions about whether he was \u2018done\u2019 at the top level.<\/p>\n

In the rematch, however,\u00a0Poatan blasted Ankalaev away in just 1:20, proving to everyone that he is still the elite at 205lbs.<\/p>\n

7 \u2013 Ilia Topuria Retires a Legend and Makes a Further Defence of his Title<\/p>\n

Ilia Topuria\u2019s 2025 didn\u2019t play out as we predicted. We thought that he would stick around at 145lbs, however, he relinquished the featherweight belt at UFC 314 to pursue the vacant lightweight strap.<\/p>\n

He would go on to win the 155lbs title in devastating fashion, notching a first round knockout of Charles Oliveira, before being forced to sit out<\/a> for the remainder of 2025 and early 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>UFC 317 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA \u2013 JUNE 28: Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira fight in the 5-round Lightweight Title Main Event bout during the UFC 317 event at T-Mobile Arena on June 28, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo by Alejandro Salazar\/Pximages Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena Nevada USA Copyright: xAlejandroxSalazarx<\/p>\n

Alexander Volkanovski won the vacant belt at UFC 314 and is set to make his first title defence of his second reign at UFC 325 back home in Australia in early 2026.<\/p>\n

8 \u2013 Conor McGregor Competes in the UFC!<\/p>\n

One word \u2013 Wrong. 2026? Who knows these days, he\u2019s just so unpredictable.<\/p>\n

9 \u2013 The UFC Acquire some BIG names from ONE Championship<\/p>\n

This one didn\u2019t happen in any way, shape or form. The UFC concentrated on signing big names from Bellator as we mentioned earlier, focused on getting some solid competitors through the doors via the Contender Series and signed talent from around Europe, instead of Asia.<\/p>\n

10 \u2013 Dakota Ditcheva Continues to Dominate the PFL\u2019s Flyweight Division, Setting up a Fight with Shanelle Dyer<\/p>\n

Dakota Ditcheva\u2019s 2025 didn\u2019t quite go to plan. Whether this was due to contract disputes<\/a>, inappropriate competition<\/a> or injuries, she only competed once in 2025 in a decision win over Sumiko Inaba.<\/p>\n

She is scheduled to meet Denise Kielholtz in early 2026 in a fight that isn\u2019t going to be particularly competitive in favour of Ditcheva.<\/p>\n

She won\u2019t be facing Shanelle Dyer any time soon, however.\u00a0Nightmare\u00a0featured on the Contender Series this year and despite losing the fight, she fought so well that Dana White still offered her a contract.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the younger Dyer could be making a bigger splash than Ditcheva in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Keep an eye out for our outlandish MMA predictions \u2013 2026 edition \u2013 to see if we can be any more successful next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As has become somewhat of a tradition here at MMASucka, we like to throw out 10 outlandish MMA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-380028","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\/380028","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=380028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}