MMA fans may be counting down to the first event of 2025, UFC Fight Night: Dern vs Ribas 2, but that doesn't mean we're done recapping what an insane 2024 was.
From world championship winning knockouts to crushing submissions; UFC CEO Dana White just revealed his personal top five performances of 2024 – but who deserves to win this coveted final prize?
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Dana White names his top five UFC performances of 2024
In 2024, a total of 174 post-fight bonuses were awarded to fighters across 42 unique events: approximately $9.9 million was awarded to the winners of 'Fight of the Night' or 'Performance of the Night'.
Of the entire 174 post-fight bonuses, a total of 22 fighters earned more than one $50,000 check. At the top of the pile were Shara “Bullet” Magomedov, who took home three bonuses, and Carlos “The Nightmare” Prates, who earned four large $50,000 checks in the past year.
But who had the best performance of 2024?
Well, UFC CEO Dana White just revealed his top five biggest octagonal performances from last year; and unsurprisingly, all five nominees earned themselves at least one post-fight bonus.
The first nomination goes to Ilia 'El Matador' Topuria for his sensational featherweight title-winning performance against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298, which took place all the way back in February.
Although the Spanish-Georgian sensation was only a slight underdog to 'The Great', not many fans predicted him to achieve such a vicious knockout, with only 33% of Tapology users choosing Topuria ahead of the PPV showdown .
The second nomination is Max Holloway's iconic BMF title-winning performance against Justin Gaethje from UFC 300 in April – which of course ended with 'Blessed' scoring a last-second KO in a final scene straight out of a Hollywood movie.
It shouldn't really be a surprise to see Holloway on this shortlist, especially since he left the arena with both the performance of the night and battle of the night bonuses – a total of $600,000.
The third nomination goes to Alex 'Poatan' Pereira and specifically his second of three world title victories in 2024 – his second-round KO of Jiri Prochazka at UFC 303 in June.
Pereira could have been nominated for any of his three wins in 2024, but considering he defeated the former champion 38-7 with significant strikes, this one was the best choice.
Dana White's next best performance of 2024 was Khamzat Chimaev's incredible victory over Robert Whittaker at UFC 308 in October.
The vast majority of UFC fans expected Whittaker to give Chimaev his toughest test yet in the octagon; Not many of us expected 'Borz' to literally crush the Australian's jaw in the very first round.
The fifth and final appearance of the year came just a few minutes after Chimaev's victory as Ilia Topuria shook the MMA world by knocking out Max Holloway and retaining his 145-pound title.
What makes this performance worthy of being on this shortlist is not only the fact that Holloway had never been finished before UFC 308, but also that Topuria had predicted such a finish in the months prior.
So Dana White's top five best UFC performances of 2024 are as follows.
- Ilia Topuria vs. Alexander Volkanovski – UFC 298, February 2024
- Max Holloway vs. Justin Gaethje – UFC 300, April 2024
- Alex Pereira vs. Jiri Prochazka – UFC 303, June 2024
- Khamzat Chimaev vs. Robert Whittaker – UFC 308, October 2024
- Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway – UFC 308, October 2024
Who do you think deserves the title of Performance of the Year?
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