Top 5 fighters of 2019

Another year has come and gone, and with that tons of fights in the UFC, Bellator, and beyond.

Champions have risen and fallen. Stars have been born. Legacies have been created.

So, which fighters made the biggest mark in 2019? Here's a look at the top five fighters of the year.

5. Alexander Volkanovski

"The Great" went on a quiet, but historic run this year.

Jose Aldo and Max Holloway are undeniably the two best featherweights of all time, and Alexander Volkanovski beat them both in a seven-month span, ending 2019 as the UFC's undisputed 145-pound champ.

In May, the Australian went into enemy territory for a pivotal fight against Aldo, the former longtime champ. It was his biggest test to date, and he passed it with flying colors. Volkanovski defeated Aldo by a lopsided decision, handing the 33-year-old his first-ever loss in a UFC non-title fight.

That set up a meeting with then-featherweight champ Holloway on Dec. 14 at UFC 245, the promotion's final pay-per-view of the decade. Volkanovski used a variety of attacks on the feet to dethrone Holloway by unanimous decision.

4. Zhang Weili

Zhang Weili wasn't a ranked strawweight to begin the year. Now, she's the champion. That says something.

Zhang made her UFC debut in 2018, picking up two wins that year. When 2019 rolled around, she showed a lot of promise but was still only considered a prospect. That quickly changed when the Chinese fighter defeated Tecia Torres by unanimous decision at UFC 235 in March.

But that performance still didn't put her on the map as the next big thing or on other contenders' radars in the 115-pound division - or so we thought.

The UFC announced that Zhang would be challenging Jessica Andrade for the title in the main event of its debut in mainland China on Aug. 31. That seemed a bit too soon for Zhang, especially considering the likes of Tatiana Suarez, Rose Namajunas, and Joanna Jedrzejczyk were all in the mix.

But against all odds, the No. 6-ranked Zhang experienced quite the moment in only her fourth Octagon outing, finishing the Brazilian champion with a barrage of strikes 42 seconds into fight.

Suddenly, all eyes were on "Magnum."

3. Henry Cejudo

This is the second straight year that Henry Cejudo is one of the most accomplished fighters.

Cejudo made history by winning a second title and becoming the first headliner of the ESPN era, plus he adopted his "King of Cringe" persona to captivate his audience even further. He did all that in just the first half of 2019.

"The Messenger" somehow found a way to raise the bar after upsetting longtime flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson in 2018. He fought then-bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw in a January superfight in the main event of UFC Brooklyn, the promotion's first show on ESPN. Cejudo shut down Dillashaw's hopes of winning a second belt, stopping him in 32 seconds.

You can also make the argument that Cejudo saved the flyweight division. It was at risk of getting dissolved, and a Dillashaw win would've given the UFC even more reason to pursue that path.

Five months later, Cejudo moved to 135 pounds to fight Marlon Moraes for the vacant title after Dillashaw lost the belt following a positive drug test for EPO. Cejudo battled back to finish Moraes in the third following a rough first round, becoming the fourth fighter in UFC history to hold two titles simultaneously.

The year ended on a down note for Cejudo, who's been sidelined since the Moraes fight due to shoulder surgery. He was stripped of the 125-pound belt so he can focus on defending the bantamweight title.

2. Jorge Masvidal

UFC welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal produced a hell of a year and then some.

Things didn't look good for the 16-year MMA veteran when he returned against Darren Till at UFC London in March. He hadn't fought in 16 months and was on a two-bout losing skid with zero momentum. Oh, and he was fighting in enemy territory.

But "Gamebred" made up for lost time, knocking Liverpool's Till out cold in the second round. That would later prove to be only a fraction of Masvidal's success in 2019.

Four months later, Masvidal met Ben Askren in a highly anticipated welterweight clash at UFC 239 following a lead-up full of trash talk. There was obvious bad blood between Masvidal and Askren, but it was settled in record fashion when Masvidal finished the 35-year-old with a flying knee five seconds into the fight. The finish went viral, turning Masvidal - a deserving contender who had never made it into the public's eye - into a superstar.

Nate Diaz was clearly impressed, and he called Masvidal out after his own successful return in August. A one-off BMF title match was set for the UFC 244 main event at Madison Square Garden.

It was unprecedented for the UFC to create a new belt for a single fight, and rare for the promotion to headline a pay-per-view event with a non-title clash (the BMF title doesn't count in that sense).

Masvidal defeated Diaz by doctor's stoppage in one of the year's biggest fights.

1. Israel Adesanya

Israel Adesanya's UFC debut in early 2018 came with lofty expectations. After all, "The Last Stylebender" had been a standout in GLORY Kickboxing, and it seemed likely he'd be a nice addition to the UFC's middleweight division.

But to think he'd wear UFC gold before the end of his second year with the promotion was silly. Yet here we are, with Adesanya sporting the middleweight belt.

The Nigerian-born New Zealander started 2019 with a win over Anderson Silva, the former 185-pound champ and one of the greatest fighters ever. That bout was upgraded to the UFC 234 main event after the Robert Whittaker vs. Kelvin Gastelum title fight was canceled, marking Adesanya's first time as a pay-per-view headliner.

Two months later, Adesanya captured the interim title with a unanimous-decision win over Gastelum at UFC 236 in theScore's Fight of the Year.

At that point, fans were used to seeing Adesanya dominate his opponents to earn clear-cut victories. But that's not what happened against Gastelum, who hurt Adesanya multiple times throughout the back-and-forth war. However, Adesanya battled through the adversity to get the job done. He showed heart, which increased his stock following that fight.

The victory over Gastelum set up a showdown with Whittaker at UFC 243 in October. Adesanya went into enemy territory - Melbourne, Australia - and stopped "The Reaper" with a second-round knockout in one of the sport's best performances in recent memory.

Honorable mentions: Patricio Freire, Kamaru Usman, Douglas Lima, Valentina Shevchenko, Amanda Nunes