Top 5 MMA fighters of 2024

Another year has come and gone, and so have tons of fights in the UFC, PFL, and beyond.

Below, we rank the five mixed martial artists who made the biggest splash in 2024.

5. Diego Lopes

Lopes was arguably the newcomer of 2023, and he's now arguably the breakthrough fighter of 2024. The surging featherweight started this year unranked and will finish it as the No. 3 contender, no more than one victory away from a title shot. Lopes impressed with a first-round TKO of Sodiq Yusuff at UFC 300 and then earned decisions over Dan Ige and Brian Ortega, the latter of whom is a former title challenger, to cement himself as one of the best in the world at 145 pounds.

4. Merab Dvalishvili

Long considered the dark horse of the bantamweight division, Dvalishvili had to patiently wait for his turn to fight for the title as he knocked off contender after contender. He had to win 10 in a row and sit through Marlon Vera's disaster of a performance against Sean O'Malley before getting his hands on a title shot. But an opportunity eventually came, with the promotion unable to deny the Georgian any longer. After taking out Henry Cejudo in February, Dvalishvili dominated O'Malley in the UFC's debut at Sphere in September, flattening him with takedowns and ending the "Suga" era. It took a while, but Dvalishvili finally got to prove he was the best 135-pound fighter on the planet.

3. Dricus Du Plessis

Du Plessis didn't enter the UFC as a surefire future champion, but he's well on his way to becoming one of the greatest middleweights of this generation after two massive victories in 2024. Du Plessis took the 185-pound throne away from Sean Strickland at UFC 297 in January, eking out a split decision to remain undefeated in the Octagon at 7-0. The South African followed that up with a hard-fought submission win over former two-time champ Israel Adesanya in September, leaving no doubt he's the guy to beat at 185 pounds.

2. Alex Pereira

Fighter of the Year has been a two-man race since October - and it's Pereira who finishes just shy of the trophy at No. 2. However, the UFC light heavyweight champion's 2024 campaign will indeed be remembered for years to come - and he was the biggest story of the year by a mile. Pereira defended his title three times in seven months, knocking out Jamahal Hill, Jiri Prochazka, and Khalil Rountree Jr. Two of those wins were over former champions. "Poatan" also saved multiple cards, headlining UFC 300 on relatively short notice and stepping in on two weeks' notice for UFC 303. Pereira is one of the biggest stars in MMA, and that's largely thanks to these last 12 months.

1. Ilia Topuria

Topuria's wins over Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway is one of the most impressive one-two punches we've seen, and it'll go unmatched for a long time. Topuria not only beat two of the three greatest featherweights of all time, but he knocked them out in decisive fashion (while both were still in their prime or at least close). Topuria ended Volkanovski's four-year reign and became the new UFC featherweight champion in February, and then he became the first to knock out Holloway in October. Volkanovski and Holloway had been the two best fighters at 145 pounds since 2019, and Topuria beat them both in nine months. The magnitude of those victories is almost incomprehensible, making the Georgian-Spaniard the right choice for Fighter of the Year.

Honorable mentions: Joaquin Buckley, Dakota Ditcheva, Carlos Prates