The 2023 MMA calendar will get underway this weekend, and it intensifies subsequent week when UFC 283 is headlined by means of a couple of championship fights. However a actually game-changing second for the game arrives subsequent month in a collision of ESPN’s No. 1 and No. 2 pound-for-pound warring parties.
When UFC males’s featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski demanding situations Islam Makhachev for the light-weight name at UFC 284, it’ll be an extraordinary superfight between belt holders on the most sensible in their video games. It additionally shall be a gathering of the highest two warring parties in ESPN’s 2023 MMA Rank, an annual effort to venture which warring parties could have the most productive 12 months.
The highest 10 of this 12 months’s MMA Rank contains now not simply dominant longtime champions however some newly topped champs and two who have just lately been dethroned. There is additionally a fast-rising crowd favourite and name contender in addition to an all-time nice who is predicted to go back to the Octagon after a just about three-year absence. Their fresh resumes would possibly all learn in a different way, however each this kind of warring parties is in place to create a golden long term. This may well be their 12 months.
Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim be offering up what could also be in retailer for the highest warring parties within the recreation. Observe the hyperlink to every UFC outcome to observe a replay of that struggle on ESPN+.
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10. Alex Pereira (7-1), Middleweight champion
2022 report: 3-0 (UD over Bruno Silva; KO1 over Sean Strickland; TKO5 over Israel Adesanya)
2022 MMA Rank: Unranked
Subsequent struggle: TBD
2023 outlook: A 12 months in the past, Pereira was once slightly at the radar, with only one UFC win and 5 occupation MMA fights. However so much has modified for the previous kickboxing international champion. He now sits on the most sensible of the middleweight department after knocking out Israel Adesanya in November — his 3rd win over Adesanya, counting their time in kickboxing. Beating “The Ultimate Stylebender” within the Octagon shook up MMA, and now Pereira faces the check all new champs do: Can he protect his belt? Within the Brazilian’s case, will it contain some other matchup with Adesanya, or will this 12 months deliver new demanding situations — Robert Whittaker perhaps, or Khamzat Chimaev? — Wagenheim
9. Zhang Weili (23-3), Strawweight champion
2022 report: 2-0 (KO2 over Joanna Jedrzejczyk; SUB2 over Carla Esparza)
2022 MMA Rank: Unranked
Subsequent struggle: TBD
2023 outlook: Zhang is again on most sensible of the strawweight department, a place she gave the impression to have locked down when she dethroned Jessica Andrade in simply 42 seconds in 2019, then effectively defended in opposition to the face of the 115-pound department, Jedrzejczyk. However then, Zhang was once herself dethroned by means of Rose Namajunas and fell brief in a rematch. She in the end were given the belt again in November in a dominant submission win over Carla Esparza, and the street forward may well be paved in gold for Zhang in most likely the inner most department in girls’s MMA. — Wagenheim
8. Francis Ngannou (17-3), Heavyweight champion
2022 report: 1-0 (UD over Ciryl Gane)
2022 MMA Rank: No. 5
Subsequent struggle: TBD
2023 outlook: Who is aware of? Do even Ngannou and the UFC brass know what is in retailer at this level? Will the heavyweight champ re-sign with the UFC and protect his name in opposition to former mild heavyweight GOAT candidate Jon Jones within the greatest MMA struggle in years, if now not ever? Or will Ngannou make a decision the UFC’s contract phrases are too restrictive and transfer on from the Octagon? This 12 months may just swing in wildly alternative ways for Ngannou. If he does stay with the UFC, regardless that, Ngannou would seem to be ready to have his highest-profile 12 months but. — Wagenheim
7. Jon Jones (26-1), Heavyweight
2022 report: N/A
2022 MMA Rank: Unranked
Subsequent struggle: TBD
2023 outlook: As of the primary day of this 12 months, Jones have been out of motion for 1,058 days, which is simply in need of 3 years. And when he returns, he’ll achieve this in a brand new weight magnificence in a bulked-up frame he is but to take for a check power. In the event you suppose all that provides as much as a job too daunting for a fighter to conquer, you may need to watch some movies to remind your self of the way particular Jones has been. We have been looking forward to years to look how Jones would have a look at heavyweight, a department the place he would possibly not be the bigger man within the cage. If Jones’ debut is in opposition to Ngannou, it’ll be the largest struggle this recreation has noticed in a very long time, if ever. — Wagenheim
2022 report: 2-1 (UD over Robert Whittaker; UD over Jared Cannonier; misplaced by means of TKO5 vs. Alex Pereira)
2022 MMA Rank: No. 6
Subsequent struggle: TBD
2023 outlook: Adesanya is in a difficult place. Actually. After ruling the middleweight department for 3 years, he misplaced the belt in November to Pereira and now could be one step down the ladder — with a weighty chip on his shoulder. The knockout loss to Pereira was once Adesanya’s 3rd defeat in opposition to the explosive Brazilian, with the primary two coming in kickboxing. “The Ultimate Stylebender” is in a deep hollow in his contention with the brand new champ, and it will be attention-grabbing to look how Adesanya handles a possible fourth matchup, if that is the UFC’s subsequent transfer. — Wagenheim
2022 report: 0-1 (misplaced by means of KO5 to Leon Edwards)
2022 MMA Rank: No. 1
Subsequent struggle: TBD
2023 outlook: Usman enters 2023 in one of the crucial intriguing positions of any fighter on the earth. An insignificant 5 months in the past, Usman was once lower than one minute clear of beating Edwards, additional cementing himself as the most productive fighter on the earth and tying Anderson Silva’s ancient mark of 16 consecutive UFC wins. After all, everyone knows one kick from Edwards modified that. Now, he will pass into this 12 months anticipated to stand Edwards in a rematch in March in London. The variation between a win and a loss in that struggle is very large for Usman. Even in spite of everything he is accomplished, this 12 months will pass far in defining his occupation. — Okamoto
2022 report: 2-0 (UD over Gilbert Burns; SUB1 over Kevin Holland)
2022 MMA Rank: No. 13
Subsequent struggle: TBD
2023 outlook: There is a excellent likelihood that come December, we will be able to all glance again and say Chimaev was once the obvious candidate ever for Fighter of the 12 months. This may occasionally mark Chimaev’s fourth 12 months within the UFC, and it is blatantly glaring the time has come to look him in a championship bout and check the boundaries of his stardom. He is proven the weather of a UFC champion and an total celebrity. If he is energetic and does in 2023 what he is accomplished within the earlier 3 years, Chimaev shall be probably the most greatest names within the recreation by means of 12 months’s finish.— Okamoto
2022 report: 1-0 (SD over Taila Santos)
2022 MMA Rank: No. 2
Subsequent struggle: TBD
2023 outlook: If 2022 felt like industry as same old for Shevchenko, 2023 may well be a lot more. In many ways, Shevchenko is a sufferer of her luck. She’s been so dominant, it is tricky for the game to actually stand up for her fights, as they may be able to regularly really feel like foregone conclusions. That might alternate in 2023. Zhang has mentioned that she desires to transport up one day. A possible trilogy in opposition to double champ Amanda Nunes feels conceivable. Taila Santos has a case for a rematch after combating Shevchenko carefully remaining June. And France’s Manon Fiorot looks as if an actual downside for the remainder of the department. Shevchenko has demanding situations in 2023. — Okamoto
2022 report: 2-0 (TKO4 over Chan Sung Jung; UD over Max Holloway)
2022 MMA Rank: No. 11
Subsequent struggle: UFC 284 vs. Islam Makhachev (light-weight name struggle)
2023 outlook: For Volkanovski, 2023 is ready greatness. He is already a UFC champion and construction his case as the best featherweight of all time. Nobody requested Volkanovski to hunt a 2nd UFC name. The UFC and his group would were simply tremendous had he spent this 12 months concerned about protecting his 145-pound name. However Volkanovski desires a legacy, and he is approved that chance. Sure, transferring up a weight magnificence comes with nice rewards, however the light-weight he will have to undergo at UFC 284, Makhachev, represents a major chance. If Volkanovski pulls this off, it is not anything shy of ancient. — Okamoto
1. Islam Makhachev (23-1), Light-weight champion
2022 report: 2-0 (TKO1 over Bobby Inexperienced; SUB2 over Charles Oliveira)
2022 MMA Rank: No. 17
Subsequent struggle: UFC 284 vs. Alexander Volkanovski (light-weight name struggle)
2023 outlook: For the primary time in his UFC occupation, Makhachev would possibly not have to fret about discovering fighters in 2023. The dominant light-weight has been closely have shyed away from since he signed with the UFC in 2015, however maintaining a championship belt will alternate that. Alternative shall be no downside for Makhachev, so long as he continues to do what he is necessarily at all times accomplished: dominate. A win over Volkanovski at UFC 284 in February would make him the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter on the earth whilst environment the degree for a monster 12 months generally. — Okamoto
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