There’s a lot of luck involved with becoming Fighter of the Year.
If everything doesn’t align perfectly, there’s a solid chance you won’t get the award.
Have an injury that will sideline you for most of the year, or fight in a division where the biggest and best opportunities simply don’t come your way? To no fault of your own, you’re likely not being considered for the award.
Among the world’s top MMA promotions, more than 50 fighters hold world titles. Even looking beyond gold, there are countless talents in the sport showing excellence before even reaching a title opportunity. Yet, just one can be Fighter of the Year.
So, what does it mean to win the award?
The Fighter of the Year is someone who not only received big opportunities but shined in them like no other. It’s a person who was given the most but has shown they were the right person to receive those chances. It’s an award made for someone who, while definitely lucky, undoubtedly earned their way to the spot they’re in and are among the best of the best.
It’s time to celebrate the defining talents of 2024. Here are your nominees for the 2024 Knockdown News Fighter of the Year.
Note: Nominees have been sorted alphabetically by last name so as to not give away who has been selected as this year’s winner.
Dakota Ditcheva – PFL Flyweight Champion (14-0, 4-0 in 2024)
Heading into 2024, Dakota Ditcheva was a European prospect who had yet to be given a real chance on the world stage. But fast-forward 12 months, she has proven to be PFL’s next women’s MMA star in the making.
Ditcheva joined PFL’s main tour this year after having a successful run on the brand’s offshoot Europe brand in 2023, scoring three stoppages and extending her record to 10 wins. The flashy striking style of Ditcheva made it clear that she could become one of the promotion’s biggest names, but she was still a long way from attaining such a status.
If you doubted Ditcheva’s skill at the start of the year, you had fair reasons. She looked dominant in the past, albeit against relatively inexperienced regional talents who at best had decent records. But as the year went on, Ditcheva proved that she was the real deal.
Three first-round finish wins from April to August put Ditcheva in a real gut-check fight for her: Meeting former UFC title challenger Taila Santos in a five-round bout for PFL’s flyweight grand final. Ditcheva was no longer facing a talent with just as much or less experience than her, but instead, a fighter who had more than a decade in the game and a respectable UFC run under her belt.
But Ditcheva did Santos like nearly all of her past opponents: She used her brutal striking to end the fight in just the second round.
Over the years, PFL has struggled to create stars. Getting talent who can help elevate the brand, especially in an organic fashion, is especially hard when you operate under a rigid season and playoff schedule which can take some talents out of action for at times more than half a year. But if Ditcheva can continue her dominance, no doubt she will become one of the promotion’s top names.
Dricus Du Plessis – UFC Middleweight Champion (22-2, 2-0 in 2024)
Following the more than 1,000-day reign of Israel Adesanya, it was unclear who would emerge as the middleweight division’s next top name. The belt got passed around for a year, with Alex Pereira, Adesanya again, and then Sean Strickland all possessing the belt but each failing to defend it once.
Then came what could possibly be the division’s answer to the “next era” question: Dricus Du Plessis.
Du Plessis took out two of the division’s recent champs this year, first getting by Strickland in a tight split decision result then stopping the returning Adesanya via submission to defend his title for the first time.
Du Plessis was just one of three champions in 2024 to win in a pair of title fights. And among those, he was only one of two who faced a current or former champ in both appearances. The schedule of “StillKnocks” was tougher than most this year, and yet he is still standing.
We’re long from being able to consider Du Plessis an era-defining figure at 185 pounds like Adesanya in the early 2020s. However, he enters 2025 with the possibility of being the man who can bring consistency to a division that had installed a revolving door around the title picture throughout 2023.
Alex Pereira – UFC Light Heavyweight Champion (12-2, 3-0 in 2024)
There isn’t a single fighter who was more crucial to UFC’s 2024 business strategy than Alex Pereira. His ability to step up in crucial moments for the promotion and put on a memorable performance each time made him a highly valued asset, and a clear nominee for Fighter of the Year.
When a main event was needed for UFC 300, the promotion turned to Pereira. When Conor McGregor pulled out of his “International Fight Week” matchup and left UFC 303 without a main event, the promotion turned to Pereira. And despite him already fighting twice by the halfway point of the year, the promotion turned to Pereira once again for UFC 307 and got another shift out of the light heavyweight king.
But it wasn’t just the activity of Pereira in key moments that made him such a team player this year. His ability to put on consistent dominant performances at the top of the light heavyweight division – stopping Jamahal Hill, Jiri Prochazka and Khalil Rountree Jr. – has made him stand out from other winners.
Pereira has given his career a new lease on life at light heavyweight, proving that a move up one division from the 185-pound class was the right decision.
In 2024, Pereira was the full package: He was constantly in front of viewers, he was putting on highlight-reel performances, and he was at the top of his game. Whether he wins Fighter of the Year has yet to be seen, but one thing is for sure: Without Pereira, MMA would have had a much less exciting year.
Ilia Topuria – UFC Featherweight Champion (16-0, 2-0 in 2024)
In the one-and-a-half decade-long lifespan of UFC’s featherweight division, the weight limit could easily be defined by just three names: Jose Aldo, Max Holloway, and Alexander Volkanovski. However, the recent success of Ilia Topuria has shown that a fourth name could join the mix soon and form a Mount Rushmore of sorts for the class.
2024 saw Topuria arrive at the top of the 145-pound limit by taking out two of the aforementioned legends in dominant fashion. In February, he scored a second-round stoppage over Volkanovski to claim the featherweight title, making him the first fighter to stop the Australian in a 145-pound matchup. Then later in the year, he became the first fighter to ever finish Holloway with strikes, putting him away in the third round at UFC 308.
While the criteria for Fighter of the Year on this site skews heavily toward activity and consistency (hence why none of the nominees fought just once in 2024), there isn’t a one-two combo of better opponents in any division to beat than Volkanovski and Holloway. It is a clear and emphatic way to announce your arrival in a class that had gone long – 1,526 days to be exact – without a fresh name at the top.
Topuria has a long way to go before his reign can be considered among the best in the division’s past. However, by beating a pair of names who have long been considered greats, he’s off to an incredible start.
Honorable Mentions
UFC Flyweight Champion Alexandre Pantoja (29-5, 2-0 in 2024): The years of UFC’s flyweight title being a hot potato are finally over, thanks to Alexandre Pantoja. Dominant wins this year against Steve Erceg and Kai Asakura extended Pantoja’s run beyond three title defenses, making him the first 125-pound champ to do so since Demetrious Johnson’s historic 2,142-day reign. UFC has seemingly run out of ideas for Pantoja, so much that he has called for the legendary “DJ” to come back out of retirement. All signs point toward Pantoja’s incredible run carrying way beyond 2024.
PFL Heavyweight Champion Denis Goltsov (36-8, 4-0 in 2024): Persistence finally paid off for Denis Goltsov in 2024. After failing to capture PFL gold in the promotion’s 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons, the 34-year-old finally put together his best year yet just recently to earn their heavyweight belt. With four wins via stoppage, including a grand final victory against prospect Oleg Popov, Goltsov provided an inspiring story of never giving up in the PFL.
PFL Welterweight Champion Shamil Musaev (20-0-1, 4-0 in 2024): Russia’s Shamil Musaev had a tough road to a PFL title this year, but got through his welterweight gauntlet with stunning performances. After beating former Bellator title challenger Logan Storley and snapping the undefeated record of Murad Ramazanov with stoppage wins in the PFL regular season, he went on to end the hype train of Magomed Umalatov with a grand final victory. In the biggest year of his career thus far, Musaev lived up to the hype.
RIZIN Lightweight Champion Roberto Satoshi Souza (17-3, 2-0 in 2024): 2022 and 2023 didn’t treat Roberto Satoshi Souza too well, having gone just two-for-four in MMA matchups. However, this year the RIZIN champ finally turned things around. Despite being known for his grappling, Souza earned first-round finish wins against veteran K-Taro Nakamura and rising contender Luiz Gustavo, defending his title in the latter of the two appearances. A New Year’s Eve matchup this year against Vugar Karamov, a former RIZIN champ moving up a weight class, would only solidify how much of a comeback year it’s been for the Bonzai Jiu-Jitsu fighter.
We’ll be back tomorrow to reveal the Knockdown News 2024 Fighter of the Year winner.
The Knockdown News Fighter of the Year award follows a criteria which is meant to focus mainly (but not exclusively) on what an athlete accomplished in the cage within a 12-month period. In order from most to least important, the criteria weigh these factors: Quality of wins, quality of performances, activity, and cultural relevance within the sport.
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