MMA's biggest winners and losers of 2024: Alex Pereira's superhero turn, Colby Covington's never-ending excuses and more

Momentum was a fickle thing across MMA in 2024. Some fighters had it better than others, and with award season well underway, it's time to highlight those on each side of the coin

While wins and losses are a guarantee in the yearly cycle of any sport, MMA is unique in the sense that a positive stock swing is possible in defeat. The amount of times we've seen fighters get title shots off losses is more than I'd care to admit, but a lot goes into the business of prizefighting and promotion. Let's get the negative out of the way first and then we'll end on a very merry, positive note.

Biggest losers

Colby Covington

Covington enters 2025 on the first losing streak of his 22-fight career after defeats at the hands of Leon Edwards and Joaquin Buckley. The latter was the final UFC fight of the year and saw the once-dominant pressure wrestler stifled in nearly every exchange. It was the first time Covington looked like he had absolutely no answers.

That was Covington's lone fight of 2024, continuing his trend of fighting just once a year since 2019. Covington turns 37 in February and the division's new crop of dangerous welterweight contenders are rapidly passing him by. If the Buckley performance is anything to go by, things will only get worse for Covington at this stage if he keeps hanging around the 170-pound shark tank.

On top of it all, Covington continues to maintain his outspoken gimmick, trashing anyone and everyone he can while pleading that he's the best in the world. Chief among the names who caught shade this year were Ian Machado Garry, who Covington appeared to blatantly duck when he took the Irishman's original slot against Buckley. According to Covington, his TKO loss via doctor's stoppage to Buckley in Round 3 came right as he was getting warmed up. The "boy who cried wolf" can only cry for so long before it sounds like a never-ending excuse. It's been the same old story after every loss for Covington.

Not even his in-cage talent can support his hyperbolic claims anymore.

Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler

McGregor could have his own spot on this list for obvious reasons. We'll get to that, but his saga with Chandler intertwines in the overall 2024 picture, and on Chandler's side, it didn't end the greatest either.

The pair were linked as early as February 2023 when they began filming "The Ultimate Fighter 31" as opposing coaches. They went through the entire season, built up and hyped an impending clash, and finally scheduled it for UFC 303 in June 2024. Then McGregor withdrew with a broken pinky toe.

As a fighter, the withdrawal optics for such a seemingly minor injury couldn't have been worse for McGregor, who notoriously, repeatedly — and so proudly — spent an entire career boasting about how he'd never do such a thing. We all remember his comments towards Rafael dos Anjos when the Brazilian withdrew because of a broken foot, right? It didn't help McGregor's case that UFC 303's replacement headliner, Alex Pereira, stepped in to knock out Jiri Prochazka with multiple broken toes of his own.

McGregor vs. Chandler was never rebooked and McGregor was subsequently found liable for sexual assault. Brands once affiliated with McGregor have since distanced themselves and his fighting future remains up in the air. Despite that, Dana White claims a late 2025 return is still possible.

Chandler, on the other hand, wasted two years of his career waiting for a McGregor fight that never came and probably never will. He eventually rematched Charles Oliveira, and though he put up an extremely valiant effort in Round 5 to nearly pull off an epic comeback, he was still dominated thoroughly and lost a unanimous decision in the end. There's an argument that Chandler didn't lose much stock because of that fifth round, but he still lost plenty of time in his fast-closing window that he'll never get back.

Alexa Grasso and the UFC flyweight division

The handling of the UFC women's flyweight division in 2024 hurt my soul.

MMA's best female division was iced out and stalled at its peak for a full year thanks to the scoring blunder in Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko 2 at the first Noche UFC in September 2023. Because of that split draw and the UFC's desperation to keep a fitting title bout for its new annual UFC Mexican Independence Day celebration, the promotion sat on the trilogy bout for a full year until UFC 306.

That also meant Grasso and Shevchenko had to waste their time with a season of "The Ultimate Fighter."

Once they finally did meet again, Shevchenko won dominantly as she outwrestled her rival for five rounds for a lackluster decision, evening the series score at 1-1-1 with a bout that won't make any Fight of the Year lists. It made that stall even more upsetting as worthy contenders like Manon Fiorot and Erin Blanchfield were forced to wait around twiddling their thumbs — or in their case, fighting each other.

Even in terms of flyweight prospects getting the hype machine push, China's Wang Cong burst onto the scene through "Road to UFC" and had a stellar debut. UFC constantly informed the audience of her kickboxing win over Shevchenko and fast-track talks started circulating. Then Cong lost in a huge upset at UFC Macau against Gabriella Fernandes, instantly ending any of those plans. Womp womp.

Heading into 2025, Fiorot appears to be the clear next contender in line to challenge for gold, but talks have been quiet regarding when that could happen. The worst thing for flyweight would be turning Shevchenko vs. Grasso into the women's equivalent of Brandon Moreno vs. Deiveson Figueiredo.

Muhammad Mokaev

We're not necessarily ranking the entries on this list, but if we were, Mokaev has a strong case to be No. 1.

It's been a good while since we've seen a fighter continue to succeed inside the cage as much as Mokaev while simultaneously plummet their stock outside of it. Mokaev went 3-0 in 2024 with two big wins over his fellow top flyweights Alex Perez and Manel Kape. Unfortunately for Mokaev, the wins mattered little thanks to Mokaev's antics outside the cage with bitter rival Kape, which culminated with an ultra-dud of a fight.

Mokaev was wholly unapologetic for his actions and the win was the last on his UFC contract. Dana White announced that same night that Mokaev wouldn't be re-signed and that the PFL would have a good fighter on their hands. But Mokaev didn't even end up there — PFL has no flyweight division. Instead, he enters 2025 back in his pre-UFC home, Brave CF, where he recently scored an easy two-minute D'arce choke submission win.

The 24-year-old is as talented as they come. He's just not wanted.

PFL

This one also hurts my soul.

We want PFL to succeed. Competition is better for any sport and we've seen it throughout history. Going into 2024, PFL had every opportunity in the world to make incredible strides with its big acquisition of the longstanding Bellator MMA promotion in late 2023.

Instead, it was squandered and a majority of those champions are now begging to be released.

The promotion often compares itself to UFC and PFL founder memorably called it a "co-leader" in MMA without proof to support that. Things got off to a rocky start when its promising champions vs. champions launch event in February fell apart thanks to injuries — just two of the four originally expected title tilts survived, leaving Bellator's Ryan Bader to get starched by Renan Ferreira after PFL's other five standouts were all beaten by Bellator fighters beforehand.

A lack of transparency also didn't help the promotion when more pressing concerns surfaced — like Daiane Silva's coma. Events were canceled without explanation, and while the consistent pacing issues felt addressed, trips to Saudi Arabia feel lifeless from an atmospheric perspective.

Let's hope this snowball builds in a positive direction in 2025.

Honorable mentions: Officials and the rules, The Neffati Brothers

2024 was one of the worst years — if not the worst — I can remember in my 15 years watching this sport regarding rule enforcement. This would get more than an honorable mention if rules and judging were ever going to change or get the proper enforcement required, but who are we kidding? Rules are a suggestion in this silly sport. Cheat, fighters! There are no consequences!

Speaking of no rules, MMA got a little crazier than usual in England's World Freak Fight League when former World's Strongest Man Eddie Hall took on two dudes at once. Unfortunately for The Neffati Brothers, they were those dudes. Hall powerbombed his way to a knockout victory in just the wackiest scene of the year. Honestly, we need more of this type of fun in our MMA diets. May it be a strong reminder not to take on "The Beast" — even with a teammate.

Somewhere in between

Ilia Topuria

Alright, here's the weird territory.

The UFC featherweight champion Topuria is undeniably in the two-man race for 2024's Fighter of the Year and was as much of a winner inside the Octagon as it gets. Topuria's back-to-back knockouts of all-time great former champions Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway may legitimately be the greatest back-to-back wins ever. Outside of the Octagon though, Topuria has done an incredible job of losing fans.

As soon as he became a champion, Topuria threatened to go in a direction away from the obvious and much-desired Holloway fight that appeared on deck. It inevitably happened and we're here now, thankfully. But Topuria's head-scratching comments continue as he's now talking about a lightweight fight against Charles Oliveira and claiming he's cleaned out the division already. It feels like there's more to whatever is going on behind the scenes with Topuria, but it's just not a great look for a champion with one title defense.

The man is a potential megastar. Unfortunately, an insane homecoming fight in Spain has also remained nothing but fantasy as it currently stands. Topuria doesn't have to worry because of his supreme talent. There's just a better approach the champion could take with some of these ideas in mind.

Joaquin Buckley

Buckley is essentially in an identical spot to Topuria — the scale of his position is just lower.

A 4-0 record in any year is as good as an active fighter can reasonably dream of and Buckley looked great in all his efforts. "New Mansa" has turned things around greatly since the setbacks he suffered following the knockout to end all knockouts in 2020 (you know the one). As with Topuria, it was just his words that gave fans pause in 2024.

Buckley made some absurdly stupid callouts to start his 2024 campaign — McGregor specifically. He improved his mic work as the year went on, and at least tried to get the fans engaged in this latest post-fight interview after beating Covington. But speaking to the media afterward, he answered one question and just walked out. Unless he really had somewhere to be, that was the opposite of maximizing your airtime and calling your shots.

There are worse spots to be in as a budding contender, but Buckley could have verbally set himself up much better for 2025.

Biggest winners

Shara Magomedov

"Shara Bullet" was somewhat of an interestingly tough sell to start 2024 after his successful UFC debut in late 2023.

The hype was decent on the undefeated Dagestan native — especially overseas. However, he'd had some fights scrubbed from his record, and competition levels were questionable. But since his UFC arrival, he's been active and impressed with a flashy striking style not often seen by his countrymen.

In scoring his third victory of the year (15-0 overall), Magomedov proved the hype was real with a never-before-seen double spinning backfist knockout. His unlucky opponent, Armen Petrosyan, and every viewer around the world couldn't have predicted such levels of creativity, and Magomedov now finds himself in the Knockout of the Year talks before colliding with Michael "Venom" Page in February.

Fighting Nerds

Did any gym have as good of a year as Fighting Nerds?

Carlos Prates, Caio Borralho, Mauricio Ruffy and Jean Silva all absolutely killed it in 2024 and led their team to the forefront. Those first two names, in particular, have become major players at welterweight and middleweight, respectively. Ruffy and Silva are well on their way too. They're all must-see TV.

The Fighting Nerds are an awesome cast of characters and keep delivering in the Octagon. Don't be surprised if we get multiple No. 1 contender fights for these guys in 2025.

Jon Jones

Jon Jones got what he wanted in 2024 — and that wasn't a fight against Tom Aspinall.

UFC 309 saw Jones' long-awaited first heavyweight title defense finally unfold. Rather than coming against the interim heavyweight champion Aspinall, Jones defended against the returning former two-time champion Stipe Miocic — who hadn't fought since a knockout loss to Francis Ngannou in 2021.

Jones did Jones things, dominating Miocic every second of the bout en route to a devastating spinning back kick to the body in Round 3. Miocic crumpled for the TKO loss and retired on the spot as Jones continued to downplay Aspinall afterward.

"Bones" demands a massive payday for the obvious next title matchup at heavyweight, and if White wants that fight as badly as he promises, the champion will get it. Jones has beaten the game and trolled of us all in the process — especially if the Aspinall fight happens. If it doesn't, Jones still got what he wanted and made it look easy.

Oh, and if you hadn't heard, White also said he's undeniably the greatest combat sports athlete of all time.

Dakota Ditcheva

"Dangerous" Dakota is the real deal, ladies and gentlemen.

The potential of Ditcheva has been evident since she first entered MMA in 2021. She starched her competition in England and signed with the PFL, where she went on to do the same.

Ditcheva performed as she was expected to for her talent level and opposition level. With that success came detractors who claimed the competition wasn't good enough, but in 2024, PFL's Bellator acquisition provided Ditcheva with those necessary step-up tests. In four fights through the PFL flyweight season, Ditcheva dismantled the competition and finished everyone with vicious body-shot knockout. The cherry on top was her clear toughest opponent, the perennial top flyweight and one-time UFC title challenger Taila Santos.

Ditcheva was already somewhat of a star before her $1 million tournament victory. But now? She's arguably the face of the PFL and one of the very best flyweights on Earth.

Alex Pereira

I should have gotten the obvious out of the way early, huh? That's OK. We save the best for last.

Pereira was practically a real-life superhero in 2024. Three successful title defenses, all by stoppage for a champion in eight months, likely won't be soon replicated. When he was called upon, Pereira answered and did so like it was just another day in the office — probably because that's all it is for this guy.

The Brazilian striking sensation has unsurprisingly become a superstar while fighting frequently and delivering highlight-reel performances. Ahead of 2025, there's no fighter in any combat sport with as many high-profile options as "Poatan." He can keep defending his UFC title against light heavyweight contenders or have superfights at heavyweight or his old home of middleweight — or even have them in his own division.

It's Pereira's world right now, and we're all just living in it. Chama.

Honorable mentions: Jennifer Maia and Ian Machado Garry

Ireland's Ian Machado Garry was in a rough spot in the eyes of the community coming into 2024. He turned that ship around with wins over Geoff Neal and Page, but neither were his biggest moment. What boosted Garry's stock most was his first career loss — a short-notice decision defeat to Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310. The jury was still out on Garry heading into the fight, but he performed far beyond expectations and nearly finished the silent assassin Rakhmonov. At 27, the sky is the limit for "The Future."

Seemingly set to retire after parting ways with the UFC in 2023, one-time UFC title challenger and former Invicta FC flyweight champion Jennifer Maia returned to the latter promotion in 2024. The 36-year-old Maia found her way back to bantamweight to earn a decision win over Mayra Cantuária before winning the title against Talita Bernardo in recent weeks. The resurgent former champion Bernardo took her first loss in five fights thanks to Maia, who became the first fighter in Invicta history to hold titles in two weight classes. For a flyweight pioneer, it looks like some gas is still left in the tank.