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Top Five UFC Male Fighters of 2025
In the dog-eat-dog world of the UFC, these five gold-blooded fighters were the best of the best in 2025, writes Quintin van Jaarsveld.
5: Petr Yan
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After five long years, Yan (20-5) recaptured the bantamweight title with the single greatest performance of 2025 in December.
In the main event of UFC 323, the Russian did the unthinkable by solving the puzzle that was Merab Dvalishvili, a wrestling machine whose superhuman stamina saw him enter the bout on a divisional record 14-fight win streak, one of which was over Yan in 2023.
“No Mercy”, whose decision win over Marcus McGhee in July was his third in a row, produced a virtuoso performance as he stuffed almost all of Dvalishvili’s takedown attempts and battered him with his world-class boxing en route to an epic decision victory that no one saw coming.
4: Joshua Van
Van (16-2) went from ultimate underdog to the second-youngest champion in UFC history this year.
A blue-chipper who started his pro mixed martial arts career just four years ago, “The Fearless” continued his meteoric rise and showed his hunger for greatness by bagging four wins this year, more than any other fighter on our list.
Exciting and heavy-handed, he opened his stellar 2025 campaign with wins over Rei Tsuruya (decision) and Bruno Silva (knockout) in March and June, and scored a breakthrough victory over the vaunted Brandon Royval in a Fight of the Year candidate just three weeks after having bested Silva.
His upset win over the then-No. 1-ranked Royval earned him a shot at the flyweight title, a dream yet daunting December date with a champion in Alexandre Pantoja who had ruled the division with an iron fist.
When the time came for their UFC 323 co-headlining clash, his coronation proved shocking as Pantoja suffered a freak injury just 26 seconds into the fight. Van had caught a high kick and pushed Pantoja backward. In his attempt to post with his right hand, Pantoja suffered a gruesome elbow injury, and just like that, the Brazilian’s reign was over.
While not the way he would’ve liked to win the title, Van nevertheless became the second-youngest champion in promotional history at 24 years, one month and 27 days, behind only the consensus greatest of all time, Jon Jones, who won the light heavyweight title at 23 years, eight months and one day back in 2011.
3: Merab Dvalishvili
Dominant bantamweight champion Dvalishvili (21-5) had one hand on the Fighter of the Year award going into his December title defence against Petr Yan.
Known as “The Machine”, he hunted history in UFC 323’s headliner as he looked to become the first fighter ever to successfully defend a UFC title four times in a calendar year following wins over the previously undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov (decision), Sean O’Malley (submission) and Cory Sandhagen (decision) in January, June and October, respectively.
Unfortunately for the Georgian, however, Yan had other ideas and pulled off a stunning upset to leave him empty-handed.
2: Ilia Topuria
Our 2024 Fighter of the Year finds himself at No. 2 this year after adding more gold to his collection.
After viciously knocking out long-time ruler Alexander Volkanovski and fellow great Max Holloway to claim and retain the featherweight title last year, Topuria (17-0) sought to move on to bigger and better things in 2025.
“El Matador” relinquished his 145-pound belt and was booked to face the legendary Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight title in the marquee matchup of UFC 317 in June.
In a clash of a prodigious talent who’s never tasted defeat and the UFC’s apex predator, Topuria needed less than half a round to starch the former lightweight champion and become just the 10th fighter in UFC history to win titles in two different weight classes.
Joining the pantheon of greats is one thing, but doing so as the first undefeated champ champ is another. He may have only fought once this year, but his historic highlight-reel triumph, which shot him to the top of the pound-for-pound rankings, makes him full value for his spot on the list.
1: Islam Makhachev
The personification of domination, Makhachev (28-1) cemented his legacy as an all-time great in 2025 by not only winning a championship in a second weight class but also tying the legendary Anderson Silva’s record 16-fight win streak inside the Octagon in the process.
The Dagestani mauler decided to end his tour de force in which he separated himself from the rest as the lightweight GOAT by relinquishing his 155-pound title after making quick work of Renato Moicano in the main event of UFC 311 in January.
The 34-year-old forced “Money” to tap with his trademark D’Arce choke in the first round and shifted his focus to the welterweight crown after Jack Della Maddalena seized it with an upset win over Belal Muhammad in May.
The big question going into Makhachev’s shot at history in UFC 322’s headliner at the iconic Madison Square Garden in November was whether he’d be able to establish the same level of physical dominance with his wrestling up a weight class at 170 pounds as he did at lightweight.
The answer was an emphatic yes as he took the Australian boxer down at will and controlled him for the full 25 minutes to fulfill his destiny of becoming a two-division champion and reclaim his place as the pound-for-pound king from Topuria.