UFC 323 is in the books, and we have two new champions.
In the co-main event, Alexandre Pantoja’s flyweight title reign came to an end after he injured himself in the opening minutes of his fight with Joshua Van. Then, in the main event, Petr Yan shocked the MMA world, avenging his previous loss to Merab Dvalishvili with a surprisingly dominant performance to reclaim the bantamweight title.
Both were completely unexpected outcomes, plus there were a bunch of other fights, so let’s dive into all the biggest storylines coming out of UFC 323.
1. What is your blurb review of UFC 323?
Heck: One of the best events of the year, and ended the PPV era in a great way — twists and turns all the way around.
Martin: A fitting end to the pay-per-view era with a few surprises, two new champions crowned, one legend retired, plus some truly tremendous prelims.
Meshew: A strange reminder of why we love this sport — because you never know what’s going to happen.
2. Did Petr Yan just put on the best performance of the year?
Lee: Call it recency bias, but I just don’t see how anyone beats Denzel Freeman beating Marek Bujlo. But if we must, let’s look at what Yan accomplished here.
Even getting back to a title shot seemed unlikely two years ago, with Petr Yan suffering a third straight loss in his first meeting with Merab Dvalishvili. But he repeatedly reminded us of his excellence, winning convincing decisions over Song Yadong, Deiveson Figueiredo, and Marcus McGhee to keep himself on Dvalishvili’s radar, and to the champion’s credit, he actually campaigned for Yan to get another shot.
Then all Yan had to do was go another 25 minutes with a guy who’d already sent him to a grueling loss, and not just win convincingly, but dominate to prove he’s all the way back. Well, folks, Yan is all the way back and more, putting together the kind of performance that not only made him a two-time champion but also disrupted the bantamweight GOAT conversation in a major way.
So yeah, this is the best showing of 2025.
Heck: He sure did, and I actually don’t think it’s close.
There’s obviously some memorable performances this year: Islam Makhachev dominating Jack Della Maddalena, and Anthony Hernandez straight turning Roman Dolidze into a pile of rubble, topped the list. But the difference between what they did and what Yan did was that they were expected to dominate (Hernandez’s showing was still so insane), while many didn’t see any sort of a real path to victory after Dvalishvili steamrolled him not that long ago.
But Yan went out there and not only put the best overall performance of the year, but an all-timer. There are certain championship performances I hold in extremely high regard — Conor McGregor’s win over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205, Alexander Volkanovski completely shutting down Max Holloway in their third fight at UFC 276, and what Valentina Shevchenko did to Jessica Andrade. Those were straight-up perfect games. Yan may have walked a batter or given up an infield single, but he shut down the freaking Jeter-era New York Yankees on Saturday night in the MMA world. He had a perfect game plan, stuck with it, and he did something very few have been able to do; he made Merab human, and actually hurt him, SEVERAL TIMES.
I can’t tip my cap enough to Yan. Unbelievable.
Martin: Petr Yan put on a stunning performance, but context matters when it comes to his first fight and the rematch against Merab Dvalishvili.
In the lead-up to the UFC 323 main event, Yan reiterated over and over again that he was injured heading into the first fight with Dvalishvili but still managed to shut down most of the Georgian’s takedown attempts. In fact, the pre-fight hype reel for the rematch was Dvalishvili going for 49 takedowns — but not so much a focus his 22 percent success rate, which is a credit to Yan.
Add to that, Dvalishvili was preparing for his fourth five-round fight in 2025. That level of activity was applauded beforehand, but it sure looked like “The Machine” was just a step slower than usual on Saturday night. That’s not meant in any way to diminish Yan’s spectacular win, but context matters.
Meanwhile, Islam Makhachev — yes, he was a heavy favorite to win — but absolutely shutting down and dominating Jack Della Maddalena over five rounds to claim a second UFC title still sits atop the mythical “best performance of the year” list. There’s no real right or wrong answer here. Makhachev’s level of dominance in his first fight at 170 pounds was unreal, but Yan certainly isn’t far behind with his win at UFC 323.
Meshew: Well, I guess that depends on how much credence you give to Merab when he said he came out looking to put on an exciting fight and not wrestle a bunch. Wait, what’s that I’m hearing? Merab shot 29 takedown attempts? And only landed two of them? Hmmm, seems like Merab did want to wrestle, and Yan didn’t let him.
I’m poking fun, obviously, because that will be the big talking point coming out of this fight: how much of it was Dvalishvili not being on form and how much was Yan being better than anticipated? And the answer is, it doesn’t matter. History is written by the winners, and Yan won. When Dvalishvili won the first fight, nobody gave much credence to Yan saying he was injured, and Merab even took offense to him making excuses. But now? Maybe he was, and this was peak Yan.
So while I’m open to the idea that context matters, and the possibility that Dvalishvili was burnt out from fighting too frequently, I ultimately don’t care about those things. The version of Dvalishvili that showed up may not have been his best form, but it’s the one we got, and all year long, people have been making the argument that Dvalishvili is the 135 GOAT (not me), so what we’ve got is pretty good. And Petr Yan slow-roasted that man for 25 minutes. If that’s not the most impressive performance of the year, I don’t know what is.
3. What do we make of the co-main event?
Lee: Joshua Van is the rightful UFC champion.
But that doesn’t mean he’s the best flyweight in the world.
It sucks to mark Van’s championship win as an Incomplete when it should be an A-plus, given his absurd ascent up the ranking and the fact that he now officially holds a win over arguably the second-best fighter ever to compete at 125 pounds. It’s not his fault that Pantoja suffered the freakiest of freak injuries and likely won’t be available for an immediate rematch anytime soon.
But until Van gets to run that back or at least defends his title against a worthy challenger (hi, Tatsuro!), there will be that dreaded asterisk next to his No. 1 ranking, and his championship triumph will be remembered for the wrong reasons.
Meshew: Yeah, this is just one of those things that’s completely legitimate but deeply unsatisfying. The point of fighting is to find out who the best guy is, and we didn’t really get that on Saturday in the co-main event. Yes, Van did something, and in his reaction to it, Pantoja got injured, which means Van rightfully won, but we all know the score. Hopefully, we’ll see them fight again next year and get some real clarity.
But my biggest takeaway, both from the co-main event and the main event as well, is that this card proved something I’ve been harping on for years: defending a title is the most difficult thing to do in MMA, and the true measure of greatness in this sport.
Think about it, many people already believe Merab to be the BW GOAT, and he put together three title defenses, and then lost to a guy he was a huge favorite against and had already beaten. Pantoja has firmly established himself as the second-greatest flyweight ever, and he just lost to a freak accident. The margins in MMA are so small, anything can happen in any fight, and so to consistently defy the chaos gods and rack up 5, 6, 7, 8 title defenses, that’s something special.
Heck: An absolute bummer, no doubt about it, and this may be a hot take, but I don’t care. Joshua Van’s title win is a legitimate victory.
Sure, it’s not ideal. Yes, it was unfortunate, and certainly creates a fairly justified, slight smattering of flukiness, but Van caught that high kick, he made Pantoja unbalanced, and that led to the awful injury. If he doesn’t catch that foot up top, who knows how the fight goes, but Pantoja didn’t slip on a banana peel. Van’s quick reaction led to the moment that ended the fight.
It sucks because this fight could’ve been a special one, and now — even though we may get it again — Pantoja may never be the same after suffering a separated shoulder, and a nasty one at that. I would still pick Pantoja in a rematch, but I would pick him to beat any flyweight.
And at this point, Pantoja may end up fighting somebody else for that title, someone I’ll highlight in a moment.
Martin: A truly unfortunate ending, but that’s the sport.
None of that falls on Joshua Van because all he did was block Alexandre Pantoja’s kick, catch his leg, and force the Brazilian to brace himself while falling to the ground, which is when the gruesome injury happened. Van’s celebration was probably a bit much, but then again, he’s 24 years old, he found himself in the unlikeliest of title shots after being unranked to start the year, and injuries are part of the sport, so he’s now a UFC champion.
It sucks when injuries determine the outcome of fights — especially title fights — but Dustin Poirier still holds a win over Conor McGregor when the Irish superstar’s leg snapped. The same goes for Chris Weidman in his rematch with Anderson Silva. The worst part for Van is that his fight with Pantoja only lasted 26 seconds, but the result is still the same.
4. Who stole the show at UFC 323?
Lee: OK, I’ll admit it. Iwo Baraniewski vs. Ibo Aslan was the right fight to make, not Ivan Erslan vs. Ibo Aslan (but there’s still time!)
This light heavyweight prelim had the potential to be wild, but I don’t know if anyone expected it to become completely unhinged within seconds of the bell being rang. I swear they packed 25 minutes of action into less than 90 seconds.
Call it survival instincts, call it going on autopilot, or just call it two hungry fighters looking to make a name for themselves in the most reckless way possible, Iwo vs. Ibo gave us the Round of the Year and a highlight that both fighters should be proud to have on their reels for years to come.
Heck: Obviously, it’s Petr Yan, but that’s too obvious. Tatsuro Taira is the second runner-up, which gives him the nod today.
Taira not only beat former, multi-time champ Brandon Moreno, but he also went out there and became the first to get Moreno out of there in a fight. With how highly I regard Moreno as a fighter, I was so incredibly impressed with Taira. Maybe he doesn’t win the belt in 2026. Maybe it’s not his time. But at some point, Taira is going to win the belt, and when he does, he is going to have a lengthy run as champion. He should be next while Pantoja heals up, and Van vs. Taira is a flippin’ awesome fight.
Martin: A lot can change over 12 months, and nobody knows that better than Payton Talbott.
A rising star called the future of the bantamweight division, Talbott suffered a shocking loss to Raoni Barcelos back in January, and just about everybody wondered if perhaps he was more hype than reality. He bounced back with an impressive showing against Felipe Lima and then got the chance to face a legend in Henry Cejudo on Saturday night.
Now, nobody in their right mind thought Cejudo was the same guy who beat Demetrious Johnson, T.J. Dillashaw, Marlon Moraes, and Dominick Cruz in consecutive fights between 2018 and 2020, but “Triple C” promised to leave everything in the cage, and he did exactly that. Cejudo battled from start to finish despite Talbott slicing and dicing him on the feet while also scoring a couple of takedowns on the 2008 Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler.
Talbott looked every bit like a guy who could one day hold UFC gold, and he’s definitely taken the right step in that direction with his win at UFC 323.
Meshew: I’m going to give a shoutout to my boy Jalin Turner. In March, Turner got run over by Ignacio Bahamondes and then unexpectedly retired from MMA, despite being just 29 years old. It’s never good when something like that happens, and then it’s even more concerning when that retirement only lasts a couple of months.
Was Turner coming back because he needed the money? He retired because of personal reasons; does he really want to do this? Well, it turns out, yes, he did! Turner was open about how he got to a better place after stepping away, and why he wanted to come back, and when he did, he put on a stellar performance. Sure, Edson Barboza probably should retire, but Turner looked every bit the offensive dynamo he was before his career started to falter. A re-motivated Jail Turner can still make a serious run at 155 (or 170) pounds, and I’m excited to see it.
5. Who was the biggest loser at UFC 323?
Lee: Merab Dvalishvili and Alexandre Pantoja GOAT truthers.
Yup, I was that cranky old man on Twitter after, getting up on my soapbox and shouting at the clouds that they don’t make today’s UFC champions like they used to.
This isn’t meant as a dig at Dvalishvil and Pantoja, who both had incredible runs and remain in the thick of title contention, but consistency and—just as importantly—luck are huge factors when it comes to building championship legacies. So I hope those newer fans who are so quick to discount the achievements of the past generation realize just how difficult it is to reign over a division for years on end and why we view the older guard with such reverence.
Heck: Grant Dawson has to be my answer, because the door has slammed shut on his UFC championship aspirations.
To be clear, Dawson is going to be a guy who is going to spend the rest of his career in the lightweight rankings, but that’s the problem with competing in the toughest division in the sport. The actual best fighter in the division, Arman Tsarukyan, can’t get a title shot when the entire community and fan base is calling for it. If he can’t get his crack, it’s going to take Dawson maybe a dozen wins to get his shot.
One of the more interesting questions asked of me ahead of the card was, “What is Grant Dawson’s ceiling?” I didn’t know how to answer it, but felt quite confident we’d find out with this matchup against Manuel Torres. If he can take a punch from a hitter like that and still implement his game over three rounds, the bar raises a bit. If he can’t, we’ll know we’ve probably reached it. As Jed and I discussed on the post-show, not only could he not take it, but we saw 10 seconds into the future before it happened. I like Dawson. I think he’s low-key one of the best personalities in the game, and a talented fighter. He’s just in an impossible division to run through, and just isn’t active enough, or over enough to cut the line at any point.
Martin: Merab Dvalishvili tried to become the first UFC champion in history to fight and defend his title four times in the same calendar year, but instead, he has to go home licking his wounds after Petr Yan put it on him for five rounds at UFC 323.
Obviously, Dvalishvili deserves a ton of credit for even trying to reach that level of greatness, but there’s probably a good reason why it’s never been attempted before. Putting your body through four training camps, all five-round title fights, in the same year is a grueling exercise for any athlete. All told, Dvalishvili not only went through four training camps, but he spent over 17 rounds and nearly 90 minutes total in fights during 2025.
That’s a lot for anybody — even a guy as wild as Dvalishvili, who prides himself on cardio, conditioning, and actually sparring several rounds on the night of his fights!
But the repercussions for that kind of schedule have now cost Dvalishvili his bantamweight title, and he got chewed up badly by Yan in their rematch. Because he was a three-time defending champion, Dvalishvili probably has every right to call for an immediate rematch, but here’s hoping he actually takes some time off to recover and get his body right again before trying to tackle that challenge.
Meshew: Y’all want to see the worst take of the year? Don’t worry, Dominick Cruz has you covered.
I could write a treatise on why this is so silly, but I don’t think I have to; it speaks for itself. “The Dominator” is ready for his spot on First Take.
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