-
Andreas Hale
The UFC plans on closing out 2025 with a bang. Six titles will be on the line over the final two months of the year. In the main event of UFC 321 from Abu Dhabi on Saturday (2 p.m. ET on ESPN PPV, prelims at 10 a.m. ET on ESPN+), Tom Aspinall will finally move on from the Jon Jones saga and defend his undisputed heavyweight championship for the first time against former interim titleholder Ciryl Gane. A new strawweight champion also will be determined in the co-main event, when Virna Jandiroba meets Mackenzie Dern for the 115-pound title that Zhang Weili vacated earlier this year to move up to flyweight.
New York’s Madison Square Garden will host former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev‘s attempt at capturing a second world title when he challenges welterweight titleholder Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 on Nov. 15 (ESPN PPV). The co-main event of that card also finds Zhang trying to become a champion in a second weight class against women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko.
The pay-per-view year closes in Las Vegas with men’s bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili pursuing a UFC-record fourth successful title defense within a calendar year. He will take on Petr Yan at UFC 323 in a rematch of their 2023 five-rounder. Alexandre Pantoja also will put his men’s flyweight championship on the line against surging 24-year-old Joshua Van.
ESPN ranks all six title bouts according to the quality and importance of each matchup.
6. Strawweight: Virna Jandiroba vs. Mackenzie Dern
The departure of Zhang to the flyweight division, coupled with the unsteadiness of the strawweight division, makes this second meeting between Jandiroba and Dern a less-than-intriguing title fight. Dern defeated Jandiroba just under five years ago in a surprising slugfest but has gone 5-4 since, making her spot in this title fight feel more gifted than deserved. Jandiroba has been on a roll as of late, with five consecutive wins that at least make her feel like a true title contender. But Dern hasn’t beaten a championship contender and has oscillated between talented grappler with title aspirations and one-dimensional fighter who hasn’t reached potential.
Neither fighter should be inclined to have another kickboxing match, but stranger things have happened when two grapplers have engaged in a fight. More than anything else, this fight is an indictment of a division that is struggling to find an identity without Zhang. Whoever wins will feel more like a consolation prize than the true champion of the division.
5. Heavyweight: Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane
This is not the heavyweight title fight that UFC fans or Aspinall wanted, but honestly, it’s good to see Aspinall back in action as the rightful undisputed heavyweight champion after he and fans had to sit through Jones’ nonsensical “will he or won’t he” act that ended in retirement. However, considering that Aspinall has annihilated every UFC opponent he has faced in under seven minutes combined — outside of his TKO loss by injury to Curtis Blaydes — forgive us for not being too enthralled by this matchup. Gane is the beneficiary of there being no other opponents for Aspinall to face, and although Gane is certainly a qualified striker, his two-minute submission loss to Jones in March 2023 doesn’t give us much hope for him against a stellar finishing machine such as Aspinall. Heavyweight fights always have that “puncher’s chance” going for them, but few think that Gane can stop the Aspinall train.
4. Men’s bantamweight: Merab Dvalishvili vs. Petr Yan 2
Yes, we’ve seen this before. As a matter of fact, it’s impossible to unsee the first meeting between Dvalishvili and Yan, because Dvalishvili’s absurd total of 49 takedown attempts has been cited as the moment people realized the Georgian was more machine than man. Since then, Dvalishvili has acquired the UFC bantamweight title and ripped through the opposition with three title defenses in 2025. As for Yan, he has quietly put the loss to Dvalishvili behind him with three dominant wins that had us questioning whether the loss to Dvalishvili was more of an aberration than the norm. He’ll have a chance to prove the theory when they meet again at UFC 323.
The stakes are different this time around, with a title on the line and Dvalishvili looking to become the first fighter to successfully defend a title four times in a calendar year. The reason this isn’t higher on the list is because we saw what happened the last time and, despite what Yan has said, it’s hard to believe the outcome will be much different. However, if Yan looks like the version who was champion five years ago, this could be a heck of a fight.
3. Men’s flyweight: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Joshua Van
The momentum that Van has picked up over the past year has been eye-opening, as he has gone from prospect to title contender in three fights that have gotten progressively more impressive with each performance. His outing against Brandon Royval in June is a fight of the year candidate that made people believe he is one of few contenders with a real chance to upend Pantoja, whose dominant flyweight championship run has put him into the conversation with Demetrious Johnson for the greatest men’s flyweight champion in UFC history. That conversation will come to a screeching halt if the surging Van is able to upset the apple cart. It’s an intriguing fight in terms of styles. Pantoja has no match on the ground, but Van’s proficient striking, elite cardio and improved takedown defense are the exact recipe needed to pull off the upset. This could be a wildly entertaining scrap or another outing in which Pantoja takes a promising fighter and strangles him into submission.
2. Welterweight: Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev
Makhachev had a stranglehold on the No. 1 spot in ESPN’s pound-for-pound rankings but fell behind Ilia Topuria in June, when “El Matador” became a two-division champion by knocking out Charles Oliveira to acquire the lightweight title Makhachev vacated. Makhachev has a chance to regain his top spot if he can peel the welterweight title off of freshly minted champion Della Maddalena. While some may see it as a foregone conclusion that Makhachev picks up a second world championship, Della Maddalena’s sublime skills as a striker and wrestler could provide more than enough resistance. Della Maddalena hasn’t lost a fight since starting his MMA career 0-2 in 2016, and his impressive Fight of the Night performance against Belal Muhammad at UFC 315 in May made him a champion. There’s a lot on the line as Della Maddalena aims to not be a transitional champion and blow up a potential megafight between Makhachev and Topuria. But he probably couldn’t have a tougher assignment for a first title defense than against one of the greatest lightweight champions in UFC history.
1. Women’s flyweight: Valentina Shevchenko vs. Zhang Weili
Although this is the co-main event of UFC 322, it is — by far — the most competitive and intriguing title fight of the bunch. Shevchenko already is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever in women’s mixed martial arts, and she was brilliant in retaining the championship against Manon Fiorot at UFC 315 in her second run as flyweight champion. But powerhouse fighter Zhang has carved out her own place as one of the greats with her blistering run as strawweight champion. Zhang’s only kryptonite during her UFC tenure has been kickboxing, as Rose Namajunas twice upended her. And if there’s anyone more qualified in the kickboxing department, it’s Shevchenko. However, Shevchenko has had her challenges with powerful strikers who can wrestle, as both Amanda Nunes and Alexa Grasso used similar fighting styles to beat her. This is absolutely perfect matchmaking and a true 50-50 fight that will have heavy implications on women’s MMA. It doesn’t get much better than this.
Leave a Reply