Top 5 male UFC fighters from 2024 feat. Alex Pereira
The UFC had a stellar year in 2024, with new stars rising to carry the torch for the foreseeable Conor McGregor-less future. Moreover, some fighters finally realized their potential, achieving what was always expected of them, leading to a change of the guard in some respects.
While heavyweight standouts like Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall had stellar years, finishing their foes in dominant fashion to retain their undisputed and interim titles respectively, it wasn't enough to knock this list's constituents off the ladder. The top five male fighters in the promotion will go to others.
So, with that being said, who are the five most praiseworthy male fighters on 2024?
#5. Khamzat Chimaev, UFC middleweight
Heading into 2024, Khamzat Chimaev faced more doubt than hype. He was coming off a competitive, even controversial, majority decision win over a smaller Kamaru Usman, who was coming off the couch, no less. Not only did he struggle against the smaller man, he also faded after just one round.
He maintained his unbeaten record, but only reinforced the questions fans have had of him ever since his close win over Gilbert Burns. So when he was set to face former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 308, the MMA fandom predicted 'Borz's' first professional loss.
After all, Whittaker is as good as they come, has only ever lost to champions at middleweight, and even an Olympic silver medalist freestyle wrestler and genetic freak in Yoel Romero couldn't outwrestle him. What chance did the questionable Chechen stand? As it turned out, every chance.
He ran through one of the best 185-pounders in the world, outwrestling him with supreme ease and crushing his jaw with a face crank, and all in just three minutes. With that win alone, he secured a middleweight title shot and repaired his image as the promotion's most fearsome boogeyman.
#4. Belal Muhammad, UFC welterweight champion
Few champions have been as disrespected as Belal Muhammad has. During his rise to title contention, no one wanted to fight him. Fighters like Colby Covington dismissed him and the fans took pleasure in his misfortune. But 'Remember the Name' remained undeterred.
After a 10-fight unbeaten streak, with a five-fight win streak to boot, he couldn't be denied. He was finally given a welterweight title shot and, in a lucky twist, it came against Leon Edwards, a rival who had poked him in the eye to cause a no-contest in their first bout and scoffed at him thereafter.
Edwards seemed to be trending toward an easy win in their first fight, so Muhammad became an after-thought. However, when they locked horns at UFC 304, 'Remember the Name' showcased his evolution as a fighter, outwrestling Edwards with shocking ease.
'Rocky' had previously held his own in the wrestling department with Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman. So to see him get literally slammed on his head was stunning. After surviving a scare in round five, Muhammad won and was finally crowned UFC champion, the first Palestinian-American to do so.
#3. Dricus du Plessis, UFC middleweight champion
In 2024, Dricus du Plessis became a hit with the fans. At the UFC 297 pre-fight press conference, he turned the tables on unhinged trash-talker Sean Strickland, ultimately causing him to burst into tears in a subsequent podcast and walk back on his no-holds barred trash talk by claiming that family was off limits.
Thereafter, he opened the year by dethroning Strickland to become the middleweight champion in a thrilling war. After becoming the first fighter to bring back UFC gold to South Africa, he took on former divisional kingpin Israel Adesanya in a deeply personal grudge-match over African bragging rights.
In the pre-fight press conference, he, like he had with Strickland, brought Adesanya to tears with his trash talk, enthroning himself as a dark horse in trash-talking. As for the fight itself? Du Plessis' style was disregarded as random and reckless. How could lunging in with his chin exposed work against one of this generation's greatest counter-strikers in Adesanya?
Yet, at UFC 305, he made it work, forcing a gritty fight out of Adesanya before submitting his worst stylistic matchup in round five to defend his title for the first time and officially ending Adesanya's stranglehold over the middleweight title scene.
#2. Ilia Topuria, UFC featherweight champion
For Ilia Topuria, 2024 was about silencing his doubters. Early in the year, he faced all-time great featherweight Alexander Volkanovski for the featherweight belt. In Conor McGregor-esque fashion, the Spaniard predicted a knockout win in his favor. For this, he was regarded as arrogant and even delusional.
Topuria, though, was unfazed. He preemptively updated his Instagram bio to include a win over Volkanovski that hadn't yet happened. This irked the Australian, who vowed to humble him. Instead, he was knocked out cold in round two, with Topuria becoming Spain's first-ever UFC champion.
For this, he was given a hero's welcome at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain. Yet, some still believed him to be untested, including former featherweight champion Max Holloway, who he next faced. Ahead of their bout, 'El Matador' promised to become the first fighter to knock Holloway unconscious.
Holloway had never so much as been dropped, so Topuria was, again, described as delusional. But come fight night, he made good on his promise, knocking Holloway out in round three, leaving the world awestruck, with the corpses of two all-time great heavyweights in his wake.
#1. Alex Pereira, UFC light heavyweight champion
This year, Alex Pereira emerged as the biggest star in MMA. When Dana White couldn't deliver on a jaw-dropping main event for UFC 300, he enlisted the services of Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill, who were initially supposed to fight at UFC 301.
Pereira braved Hill's relentless trash talk with cold-blooded confidence, affording his foe little more than icy staredowns for reactions. Come fight night, he made a fool out of Hill, shrugging off a groin kick in memorable fashion, stopping the referee from intervening, and knocking Hill out seconds later.
It marked the first defense of his light heavyweight title, and he wasn't done either. He stepped up on short-notice against Jiří Procházka in a rematch, demolishing him in round one before promptly knocking him out in the opening seconds of round two.
After brushing off two former champions, he fought for a third time, this time taking on dangerous power-puncher Khalil Rountree, with whom he had a brief war before taking over in rounds three and four, brutalizing and melting him against the fence for a vicious TKO.