The latest UFC pay-per-view of 2025 has featured two new champions who will usher in the new year with gold jewelry around their waists. Petr Yan And Joshua Wang reset Merab Dvalishvili And Alexander Pantojaaccordingly, they brought their divisions into confusion.
In the men's bantamweight division, it's hard to see Yan holding the title belt and not wonder how things might have turned out differently had the moment he lost it via disqualification not happened in 2021. And in the flyweight division, a new difficult-to-see moment that entails an injury and a changing of the guard can affect this weight category for quite some time.
Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim talk about how these moments changed the course of the UFC.
What if Ian didn't hit that knee?
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Petr Yan won a stunning victory over Merab Dvalishvili
Petr Yan somehow managed to pull off a stunning victory in the main event of UFC 323, defeating Merab Dvalishvili.
There is an alternative universe where Petr Yan did not exist throw an illegal knee strike against Aljamain Sterling and is considered the greatest of all time.
It's an illegal knee, man. I hate to go back and dwell on it, but what a career-changing moment. Remember, Yang was truly considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world at the time. His score was 15-0. Undefeated. Ideal. He was traveling to Stirling in 2021 when he was suspended for one of the most egregious and inexcusable illegal knees in the history of the sport. And this single moment stuck with him for two years.
He won the interim belt against Corey Sandhagen in my next fight, then lost a split decision to Sterling in 2022 – a fight in which I then scored against Yan. To be honest, it was a little hard for Yan to get up for this fight. He dominated Sterling in their first meeting. It was a bit of a trap, a title fight if there ever was such a thing. After that, he lost by split decision. Sean O'Malley seemed to rob him of part of his competitive soul. By the time he fought Merab Dvalishvili in 2023, he was 1-3 and, as he later admitted, he was injured. And he was shot down.
None of this is an excuse or creating a false story, but in my opinion, Ian was the victim of a perfect storm of terrible circumstances, the first of which, to be fair, he inflicted on himself with an illegal knee strike. But if he had never flipped his knee and never lost the momentum he had in 2021, who's to say he couldn't have made an all-time historic run? His fight against O'Malley would have lasted five rounds instead of three. He would never have had to face Sterling in a rematch, which would likely have been difficult to rise to. And the first time he would have fought Dvalishvili under a completely different scenario.
Tell me I'm making this up. Great. I support this. That one illegal knee changed the course of bantamweight history more than we'll ever know. Because the fighter I watched on Saturday is a true pound-for-pound talent. — Okamoto
The top of the men's flyweight division has changed in an instant
Tatsuro Taira was on a rocket ship to the top of the MMA world and won the first 16 fights of his career, including six victories in the UFC. But then he lost by split decision To Brandon Royval in October 2024 and appears to have disappeared from the men's flyweight division. Tyra certainly made a big impression on Saturday with a knockout Brandon Morenoformer champion. This will undoubtedly propel the 25-year-old from Japan to the top of the rankings.
It is difficult to say, however, how long Tyra will have to wait for a title fight, because Alexander Pantoja was injured in his next fight at UFC 323. Brutal injury seconds after defending flyweight title and lost the championship to Joshua Wang. Defeating Pantoja any other way would likely have resulted in an immediate rematch, as he entered the fight with more title defenses than any current UFC champion. However, Pantoja could be sidelined for some time due to a shoulder injury. And some of the other top 10 flyweights who lost to Pantoja could suddenly return to challenge Wang.
Tyra has perhaps the most compelling argument. Saturday's win was his sixth in the UFC. Perhaps even more impressive, it was the first time Moreno had finished a fight in 20 UFC fights. Pantoja didn't do that in his two fights with Moreno. Former champion Deiveson Figueiredo I couldn't do it after four attempts. Tyra's opportunity to rise to number one seems inevitable. — Wagenheim
