The MMA Fighter of the Year discussion was interesting in 2024, as we had two worthy candidates and only one spot available. Alex Pereira and Ilia Topuria each had extraordinary years, going a combined 5-0 in big-time title fights, all finishes. Topuria ended up getting crowned Fighter of the Year, officially.
When dealing in black-and-white statistics, the candidates here were neck-and-neck.
But arguments get heated when identifying and defending the right winner, and finer details are needed to paint the whole picture. Two of Uncrowned’s finest found themselves on opposite ends of the spectrum on who should be Fighter of the Year, and their scorecards reflected as much when the votes were tallied.
Ben Fowlkes saw it 29-28, Topuria. Chuck Mindenhall had it 29-28, Pereira.
Let’s let them defend their reasons for selecting their Fighter of the Year.
Let me set the table just a little bit here, as I’m not unsensible to what Ilia Topuria has accomplished. That’s a fine fighter over there. Kudos to Spain. But given the roundness of the number, people speculated as to what kind of headliner the UFC would book for UFC 300 for months. It had to be a matchup that would blow our minds, especially after UFC CEO Dana White declared that what his promotion had in store for its big event, “[we’d] never see coming.”
Would it be Conor McGregor? Bring back Nate Diaz? Dust off Brock Lesnar? Resurrect Ronda Rousey? Khabib Nurmagomedov? It couldn’t be … noooo … surely not Georges St-Pierre!
Turned out none of the above and, despite sky-high expectations, everybody was fine with it. That’s because Alex Pereira was already a kind of cult icon in the UFC, a modern-day Sanjuro who just rolls into towns and restores order. “Poatan” thanklessly stepped in and took out Jamahal Hill in the first round in what was his first light heavyweight title defense. Together with Max Holloway, Pereira made UFC 300 stand out as the epic affair it was meant to be.
I bring this up because context should matter when dealing in the witchcrafts of determining Fighter of the Year. That was the first in a three-act series in which Pereira returned in 2024 under greater and more absurd pressures. That same night, after Pereira took out Hill, White announced that Conor McGregor would fight Michael Chandler at UFC 303, which automatically made UFC 303 the highest-profile card of the year.
But keep the bottles chilling in the ice bucket for just a minute here, Ben.
Conor couldn’t make it. Broken toe, you see. So Hunter Campbell and Co. pinged Pereira, who was at some far-off outpost in the South Pacific to come save theyz azz again. He didn’t hesitate. He came back and made people forget all about the original headliner and stopped Jiri Prochazka in the second round. And he did so with his own broken toe. He had no business taking that risk, yet he did. Now people were walking into their workplaces on Monday morning doing the Pataxó strutter-strut, firing off imaginary arrows at bosses who’d just about had it up to here with their shenanigans.
Most champions fight twice a year if we’re lucky. But our hero? The Duke of Danbury? Alex freaking Pereira? Nah. He picked up another gig as soon as he could, this time against an unholy thumper in Khalil Rountree Jr., who headhunts with a brutal brand of hawkishness. Dude has muscles bulging out of his wrists. You’ve seen him. And he tried to take Pereira’s head off.
But then Pereira started to dial in. And find his mark. And dominate. He pieced Rountree apart. You know the sign of a dominant champion? It’s when the guy he’s facing is called a warrior for being able to withstand the inhumane punishment being dished out, against all sense of preservation. Great champions create warriors.
That’s what happened to Rountree. He was a warrior standing in there taking those shots. And Pereira skated off with a fourth-round knockout in what became an Fight of the Year candidate. A perfect 3-0 record, all title defenses, with a scale of escalation and expectation, and barely an emotion to be found in his stone face.
That’s a résumé that screams Fighter of the Year.
My case for Ilia Topuria as Fighter of the Year is a very simple one. Really, it all comes down to this concept: Quality of competition matters. It’s not just how many fights you win — it’s who you beat. It’s also how you beat them. Quality over quantity.
See? Simple.
That’s not me disrespecting any of the three fighters Alex Pereira beat in 2024. But take a close look at the hit lists side by side. Pereira beat two guys who each had a cup of coffee with the UFC light heavyweight belt (Jiri Prochazka and Jamahal Hill) but never successfully defended it themselves. Then he beat a guy who was nowhere near the top of the rankings (Khalil Rountree Jr.) but got a title shot anyway mostly due to the demands of the UFC calendar.
Again, that’s not me saying they’re bad fighters or beating them means nothing. But compare it with the year Topuria had. He may have only won two UFC title fights, but they were both against legends of the division.
Alexander Volkanovski? That’s a guy who flat out doesn’t lose at featherweight. And Max Holloway? That’s a guy who doesn’t lose at featherweight to anyone except Volkanovski. Both of them are basically impossible to knock out in the 145-pound weight class, or so went the prevailing wisdom on the subject.
Then along came Topuria.
He didn’t just beat two featherweight greats. He knocked out two featherweight greats. He also did it in one calendar year. The only thing Pereira has over him is one extra fight, and that was against an opponent who was nowhere near title contention when he was basically plucked off suspension and thrown in the cage.
Look, I know we’re all excited about Pereira. He’s easily one of the scariest fighters in the entire UFC. Even just standing there with a blank expression on his face, he’s terrifying. His journey up from middleweight to light heavyweight, with titles in both weight classes, has been incredible to watch. But he just didn’t beat the Hall of Fame-level opponents that Topuria did this year. It’s not his fault. He can only win the fights he’s given, and he won them all.
But Topuria went out there and, in one single year, beat everyone who has held the UFC featherweight title for the past seven years.
You hear what I’m saying to you? He laid waste to the champions of an entire era. And the whole endeavor took him just about 20 minutes. Tell me that’s not the work of the Fighter of the Year.
