Topuria? Ruffy? Wellmaker? Who owns the best KO of the midyear?

The twelvemonth is halfway over, and already much than fractional of the UFC's 11 championships person changed hands. So far, 2025 has proved to beryllium a fertile clip for the emergence of caller champions and the disappearance of aged champs successful unusual ways.

How odd? Three of the champions who surrendered titles didn't suffer them wrong the cage. Islam Makhachev announced successful May helium was vacating the lightweight championship to determination up to welterweight, wherever the UFC promised him a rubric shot. Ilia Topuria, who had already agreed to vacate astatine featherweight successful February, won Makhachev's aged 155-pound strap a small much than a week agone astatine UFC 317. A 3rd loop was vacated astatine heavyweight, wherever Jon Jones retired and the UFC promoted Tom Aspinall from interim to afloat champion -- without him having to laic a mitt connected an opponent.

Beyond the gold-and-leather mentation of philharmonic chairs, the UFC has seen immoderate spectacular performances wrong the Octagon and memorable moments that committedness large fights ahead. Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim interruption down ESPN's choices for the highlights of 2025 truthful far.

Editor's note: ESPN polled a 13-member sheet of voters for these awards.

Best event: UFC 317

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Terrance McKinney wins via submission successful conscionable 55 seconds

Terrance McKinney takes Viacheslav Borshchev down and forces him to taxable conscionable 55 seconds into the archetypal round.

UFC 317 was headlined by 1 of the astir iconic performances successful UFC history.

The UFC's International Fight Week paper was strong from commencement to finish, but the pay-per-view lawsuit volition beryllium remembered for galore years for its main event. Topuria became the UFC's archetypal two-weight champion with an undefeated record, and helium did it emphatically by knocking retired erstwhile champion and instrumentality favourite Charles Oliveira.

That azygous show made UFC 317 a wide person for champion lawsuit of the midyear, but the remainder of the paper carried weight, too. Men's flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja added to his aboriginal Hall of Fame grounds with a rubric defence implicit Kai Kara-France via submission. Joshua Van cemented himself arsenic a combatant to ticker successful a bout against Brandon Royval that could contend for combat of the twelvemonth travel December. Payton Talbott reemerged arsenic 1 of the sport's astir promising prospects. And the prelims kept the vigor high, with 3 first-round finishes and 4 aboriginal stoppages wide successful six bouts. -- Okamoto

Fight of the midyear: Brandon Royval vs. Joshua Van astatine UFC 317

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Joshua Van, Brandon Royval laic it each retired successful epic finish

Joshua Van and Brandon Royval unleash fury connected each different to extremity their bout, with Van taking the triumph by unanimous decision.

In the week starring up to UFC 317 connected June 28, Van was obscurity to beryllium recovered successful ESPN's divisional rankings and was scraping the bottommost of the UFC's apical 15 rankings. In the abbreviated clip since, Van has surged to the apical of the ladder, conscionable 1 rung down from champion Pantoja, whom Van volition situation successful his adjacent fight. What prompted the meteoric rise? This historic fight.

Van was a precocious replacement, brought successful to look then-No. 2 contender Royval. The 23-year-old was coming disconnected a third-round knockout of Bruno Silva 3 weeks earlier astatine UFC 316, but the accidental to get a rubric changeable next, should helium decision Royval, was excessively bully for Van to walk up. And some fighters competed arsenic if a rubric already was connected the line.

It was toe-to-toe the full way, and Van was particularly close with his attacks, landing 204 of his 305 important onslaught attempts (66%). Royval connected with 215, making their combined full 419 -- the astir ever successful a three-round UFC combat and the third-most landed successful immoderate combat wrong the Octagon. Van earned a unanimous determination to triumph an all-action combat that was intolerable to match. -- Wagenheim

Men's combatant of the midyear: Merab Dvalishvili

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Merab Dvalishvili stops Sean O'Malley successful ascendant manner to clasp belt

Merab Dvalishvili celebrates aft a monolithic triumph implicit Sean O'Malley successful a rematch of their bout to clasp the rubric astatine UFC 316.

Dvalishvili and Topuria ended successful a deadlock astatine the apical of this category, each earning 46.2% of the vote. That's amazing, considering the 2 fighters of Georgian descent are besides bully friends. Ultimately, Dvalishvili earned the flimsy motion from ESPN due to the fact that of his 2 rubric defenses successful six months, compared with Topuria's one. Dvalishvili handed Umar Nurmagomedov the archetypal nonaccomplishment of his 10-year pro vocation at UFC 311 successful January, which is simply a important feat of its own. That win, coupled with Dvalishvili's ascendant showing successful a rematch against Sean O'Malley astatine UFC 316 successful June, has raised him to No. 3 connected ESPN's pound-for-pound rankings.

Dvalishvili is already awaiting a day for his 3rd rubric defence of the twelvemonth against Cory Sandhagen, and Topuria is apt situated for a high-profile rubric defence earlier the extremity of the year. So don't beryllium amazed if we're close backmost to this aforesaid statement successful December for combatant of the year. -- Okamoto

Women's combatant of the midyear: Kayla Harrison

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Kayla Harrison submits Julianna Pena to go caller UFC bantamweight champ

Kayla Harrison taps retired Julianna Pena successful Round 2 astatine UFC 316 to go the caller women's bantamweight champion.

Harrison is simply a UFC champion, and it was a agelong clip coming -- conscionable not a agelong clip successful the UFC.

An Olympic golden medalist successful judo successful some 2012 and 2016, Harrison made her MMA debut successful 2018 with the PFL and won 2 championships successful her archetypal 2 years. A UFC stint was adjacent connected her goals list, and past twelvemonth she yet made it to the Octagon. Two ascendant wins enactment her successful enactment for a changeable astatine the women's bantamweight title.

Harrison was a dense favorite implicit Julianna Peña astatine UFC 316 past month, and she rapidly showed why. On her mode to securing a first-round kimura submission, Harrison outlanded Peña 30-9 successful important strikes. The cherry connected apical of her triumph was enticing retired erstwhile champion Amanda Nunes into the cage to look off, mounting up 1 of the biggest fights successful MMA history. It conscionable keeps getting amended for the 19-1 Harrison. -- Wagenheim

Breakout fighter: Joshua Van

Where does 1 adjacent start? What's astir awesome astir Van? That helium earned a rubric changeable astatine 23 years old? His willingness to judge the hazard of taking 2 fights and 2 value cuts astatine the highest level wrong a span of 21 days?

Van is making past with these performances. He's the lone combatant successful UFC past to onshore 100 oregon much strikes successful six of his archetypal 9 appearances. And did we already notation ... he's lone 23 years old.

He's doing each of this successful a part that has been historically and notoriously overlooked. It's been done before, but it's not casual to marque waves astatine 125 pounds. The champ, Pantoja, has done a large occupation of delivering memorable performances astatine men's flyweight. Brandon Moreno garnered attraction owed to his occurrence arsenic the archetypal Mexican-born UFC champion. Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson, of course, is the golden modular for MMA flyweights. However, each of those fighters took years to physique their mainstream appeal. Van is becoming a household sanction retired of nowhere. Unsurprisingly, this ballot for breakout combatant of the midyear was unanimous. -- Okamoto

Best KO: Mauricio Ruffy's spinning instrumentality footwear against King Green astatine UFC 313

The astir consequential knockout of the midyear is the past 1 combat fans person seen: Topuria's one-two starching of Oliveira to triumph the lightweight championship. It is particularly awesome erstwhile placed successful the discourse of Topuria's caller career: It was his 3rd consecutive KO, with the different victims being the estimable featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and erstwhile champion Max Holloway. The 17-0 Spaniard is simply a elephantine slayer whose ain illustration successful the athletics has go gigantic.

But if we're talking astir the best knockout, the mounting successful which it happened and aesthetics indispensable beryllium factored in, and nary decorativeness frankincense acold successful 2025 has been much breathtaking and unexpected than Ruffy's spinning instrumentality footwear to illness Green. Competing connected a UFC 313 paper headlined by 2 of the promotion's quality item reels, Ruffy upstaged some Alex Pereira and Justin Gaethje with his first-round decorativeness of Green. What a mode for Ruffy, similar his Fighting Nerds teammates, to denote his accomplishment arsenic a lightweight to beryllium reckoned with.

Along with Topuria's KO, Malcolm Wellmaker's knockout of Kris Moutinho astatine UFC Fight Night from Atlanta connected June 14 besides received 3 first-place votes. Wellmaker's explosive close hook successful Round 1 needed nary follow-up, conscionable admiration. -- Wagenheim

Best submission: Jean Silva's ninja choke against Bryce Mitchell astatine UFC 314

This was an representation that stayed with you for a while. Silva went to UFC 314 arsenic a antheral connected a mission. The full show was electric, arsenic Silva walked down his prey, shrugged disconnected each of Mitchell's attempts to get him to the mat and yet buried Mitchell with the ninja choke. Mitchell tapped, but the choke was truthful choky that the lights intelligibly went retired from down his eyes earlier the referee could intervene.

The Fighting Nerds person been connected an implicit teardrop this year, but Silva mightiness beryllium the loudest of the group. He does everything with passion, including his patented "bark" celebration. He has a large accidental to scope different level successful the 2nd half, arsenic he'll header Noche UFC connected Sept. 13 with different action-packed featherweight, Diego Lopes. -- Okamoto

Best moment: Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes look disconnected astatine UFC 316

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Amanda Nunes, Kayla Harrison look disconnected aft Harrison wins belt

Kayla Harrison beats Julianna Peña and calls retired Amanda Nunes, who declares successful the Octagon she's coming back.

We are intelligibly successful an epoch of postfight in-cage faceoffs. There were nary for years earlier the 2 PPVs successful June combined for 3 in-Octagon stare-downs. UFC 317 had Pantoja welcoming his adjacent challenger, Van, to the cage aft the co-main lawsuit and Topuria going chemoreceptor to chemoreceptor with Paddy Pimblett aft winning the lightweight rubric successful the main event.

But neither of those produced the chills that Harrison and Nunes did earlier successful the month.

Their faceoff came instantly aft Harrison won the UFC women's bantamweight championship. Nunes, the top combatant women's MMA has ever seen, came into the Octagon and bowed toward Harrison, who reciprocated. The 2 women shook hands and hugged earlier addressing the crowd.

"I consciousness similar we knew this was going to happen," Harrison said. "I person the belt, she has the legacy. Let's enactment it connected the table."

It was refreshing that nary phony beef was driving the communicative betwixt these onetime teammates astatine American Top Team. Their storyline is simply that erstwhile Nunes and Harrison fight, they volition find who is the champion combatant successful women's MMA. Set a date, UFC. -- Wagenheim

Most improved fighter: Payton Talbott

Obviously, a talented 26-year-old specified arsenic Talbott is expected to amended -- but you can't expect him to bash it arsenic accelerated arsenic helium has. Talbott began 2025 with a immense nonaccomplishment to Raoni Barcelos astatine UFC 311 successful a combat helium entered arsenic an 11-to-1 favorite. Talbott's biggest contented successful that nonaccomplishment was antiaircraft wrestling. He gave up 8 takedowns and astir 10 minutes of power time.

That's a alternatively ample spread to address, but Talbott fixed it successful little than six months. His show against Felipe Lima astatine UFC 317 was truthful composed and well-rounded that it instantly returned Talbott to the aforesaid level of hype helium had entering this year. It's evident Talbott has earthy talent. What we saw astatine UFC 317 was the progression of everything other required to vie astatine the apical of the men's bantamweight division: a afloat accomplishment set, maturity and the quality to bounce backmost from a loss. It's not casual to reconstruct hype erstwhile it's gone, but Talbott did and past some. -- Okamoto