UFC

After earning the UFC heavyweight title, Francis Ngannou wants to test himself in the boxing ring at some point in his career.

"It's always been down the line," Ngannou said of boxing, per TMZ Sports. "This is something I'm not taking my eyes off of. It's gonna happen, either way. Even if, when the UFC and I finalize a deal, the boxing part has to be into it because I can't see myself retire without boxing."

The 35-year-old is scheduled to face Ciryl Gane in an MMA bout, the final fight of his current UFC contract. If his next contract allows him to compete in a boxing match, he wants to take on the top competitors in his division.

"Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder. I would like to test myself to that level," Ngannou said.

Fury is the current WBC heavyweight champion with a 31-0-1 record, while Wilder is 41-2-1 in his career with his only losses coming to Fury. The two have been by far the best heavyweights in the world for about a decade.

Either opponent would be a major challenge for Ngannou, although he is no slouch himself.

The Cameroonian won the UFC heavyweight title with a knockout win over Stipe Miocic last March, his fifth straight knockout win. He is ranked the No. 4 pound-for-pound fighter in UFC.

Even with different rules, Ngannou believes he could succeed as a boxer.

"At the end of the day, it's just about like trained hands, trained punches, having a good delivery system to produce bombs and I'm sure that if I deliver my own punch, it's pretty good, I can make some damage," he told TMZ.   

There's no need to bury the lede. In MMA, 2021 was the year of Kamaru Usman. He is the fighter of the year from any conceivable non-trolling point of view.

Take a look at the evidence; the argument makes itself. And yet there's a lot more to it than what's captured in the proverbial box score.

But let's start with the hard numbers: three fights on the year, a busy one by any measure, all against the elites of the welterweight division, and three successful title defenses to show for it. It brought his overall record to 20-1 and 15-0 in the UFC. With the three W's, Usman leap-frogged Georges St-Pierre into second position on the list of longest UFC winning streaks. He's now just one behind the legend Anderson Silva for the longest streak ever.

The year Usman had placed him comfortably atop the MMA mountain, sitting No. 1 on every major pound-for-pound ranking, including Bleacher Report's.

But as we noted, the pure factual evidence doesn't do it justice. Usman made career highlights and exorcised nagging demons, both personal and professional. Each fight told its own story.

Who could forget his first fight of the year back in February? Usman kicked off his year by reducing Gilbert Burns to helpless tears. It was a little jarring to watch the mahogany-carved Burns, one of the best Brazilian jiu-jitsu players in the world, sobbing uncontrollably on the shoulder of his friend and former training partner.

Even after that impressive third-round TKO, Usman felt the need to do a little salesmanship on the mic.

"I'm the varsity guy," Usman said. "My fight IQ is different."

Usman had long fought with a chip on his shoulder, perpetually engaged in a Jordanesque feud with The Haters, those dastardly malcontents who wouldn't put respect on his name no matter what he did. To be fair, although his beef with the world sometimes felt a little forced, throughout his career plenty of people have labeled Usman "boring" thanks to his clinch-heavy style. With his destruction of Burns, Usman went a long way toward shaking that monkey off his back.

In April, he shook it all the way off.

Usman was widely expected to dispatch Jorge Masvidal in their rematch, which served as the main event of UFC 261. Usman won the first go-around, albeit with a lot of wrestling and control (i.e., "boring") time—more than half of each round, UFC data show. That's extremely impressive, but it's not going to land you on many highlight packages.

That made UFC 261 a natural opportunity for Usman to amend the record.

And amend he did, with extreme prejudice, burying the rivalry and Masvidal himself deep underground with a second-round overhand right from the outer solar system. You don't see the street-fighting legend Masvidal knocked clean out often—in fact, this was only the second time anyone's done it—but Usman got it done.

"With my fundamentals, I am the pound-for-pound best fighter on the planet right now," Usman said afterward.

He was stating a fact. At this point, any remaining haters were quietly exiting out the back, melting into the woodwork to await another, more vulnerable victim.

Even UFC President Dana White, who has publicly taken issue with Usman before, was quick to give the champ his flowers.

"[Usman is] one of the best ever, and he's on his way to probably being the greatest of all time," White said after the fight. "When you go in and you beat the guys who are looked at as the best in the world at that time and you beat them twice and you beat them convincingly, it's all part of cementing that legacy that this guy is going to have some day."

(Regarding White's best-ever comment, Usman is in the unfortunate position of competing in the same bracket as St-Pierre, who gets many votes in the MMA GOAT conversation. It could be that for all his greatness, Usman is not even the all-time best in his own weight class, at least not yet. But that's a topic for another day.)

Rivalries added yet another layer of intrigue to Usman's year. The crushing of Masvidal was just the first. The other, of course, was the grudge match with Colby Covington, whom Usman out-gutted in November for a close but clear unanimous-decision win.

This may have been the toughest fight of the three. Usman won the original with a fifth-round TKO, but not before Covington fought well enough to take rounds off the champ—probably the last person to do so unless you're a slightly toasted Masvidal fan watching their initial encounter.

Usman dropped Covington TWICE in Round 2 👀 #UFC268

🎥 @ufc pic.twitter.com/kB2gcBEDEl

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) November 7, 2021

Let the record be clear: there was genuine bad blood between these fighters. Whereas the Masvidal rivalry was renewed for the cameras and paychecks, Usman-Covington II rode a natural wave of mutual disdain.

Covington challenged Usman every step of the way, taking multiple rounds on two of the three judges' scorecards. Usman knocked down Covington early, but the challenger hung in there, showing toughness and endurance to outland the champ for long stretches, including a clear win in the fourth round. Usman did enough to get his hand raised, though, taking a 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 decision.

"I gotta give it up," Usman said when addressing Covington after the fight. "There's a lot of trash talk. There's a lot of bad blood here, and I'm sure there's still going to be some after tonight, but this guy's a tough son of a b---h. He's tough as s--t."

There was a little something for everyone in Usman's year, wasn't there? Two big knockouts, and near-misses in the other. A sky-high fight IQ that, if it still results in the deliberate at times, now has a demonstrated nose for blood when presented with even a faint whiff of opportunity.

For every hole in Usman's legacy, one of these wins was the perfect spackle. Victories came against friends and enemies alike. Not one but two rivalries ended with his hand in the air. And all of it occurred in UFC pay-per-view main events. The glare from those lights gets awfully bright, but in 2021 Usman kept his shades in place. That means staying power.

That's why Usman is an absolute lay-up for fighter of 2021. This was a wild year in MMA, with great fights and new fighters and memories at every turn. Usman and his greatness were the constant. You have to wonder who can stop him in 2022, or if he can somehow match or even exceed the remarkable year he's just had. It will be every fight fan's privilege to find out.

It's been a good year to be a fight fan.

Not only has 2021 been filled to the rafters with high-end main events that delivered on their positioning, but there have also been several cards whose lineups yielded an entire night's worth of competitive combative titillation.

Fight Night shows topped by Max Holloway's defeat of Yair Rodriguez and Jose Aldo's win over Rob Font were noteworthy on premium cable, not to mention particularly compelling pay-per-view extravaganzas labeled UFC 257, 264, 266, 267, 268 and 269, respectively.

But there's something special about being first.

Though the UFC 261 card on April 24 was already the promotion's fifth pay-per-view (and 14th overall show) of the year, it marked the first time in precisely 413 days—since UFC 248 in Las Vegas on March 7, 2020—that a capacity crowd was in attendance to witness the bouts firsthand.

After that long a pause, Dana White and Co. were ready to pull out all the stops.

Fans arriving to the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, were greeted by a pre-show hype video that ended with a simple "Welcome Back," and by the time the perpetually tuxedoed Bruce Buffer arrived in the center of the Octagon, removed his mask and barked his trademark "We are live!" at 6:20 p.m., it was a good thing the roof's integrity wasn't in question.

Even in a not-yet-full building, it was a chill-worthy moment.

But it wasn't just ambience that made it 2021's best event.

The 13-bout show featured three title fights atop a crowded bill, including a welterweight championship rematch between Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal that was a runback of a match on Fight Island that Masvidal famously took on less than a week's notice in July 2020.

In fact, the docket was so stacked that flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko's defense against No. 1 contender Jessica Andrade wasn't even the co-main event. That tag was saved for strawweight titleholder Zhang Weili, who was set to risk her belt against challenger Rose Namajunas.

Beforehand, the main card also had ex-middleweight champ Chris Weidman (against Uriah Hall) and former light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Smith (against Jimmy Crute) in the first two bouts, and the prelim portion featured the likes of Brendan Allen and Randy Brown.

Even Jake Paul, just a week after his dispatch of ex-UFC competitor Ben Askren, was in the building as the target of obscenity-laced chants from the crowd and a brief finger-pointing fly-by from Daniel Cormier. 

Turns out the fights were every bit as good as the names.

Usman's one-punch erasure of Masvidal in the second round of their encounter was the year's best KO in a pay-per-view spotlight setting, though it wasn't too far ahead of the leg-kick finish Namajunas laid on Weili to begin the second title run of her career after an 18-month reign from 2017 to 2019.

"Jacksonville, Florida, you all said you wanted violence. You're welcome," Usman said. "I told everyone I'm still getting better. The sky's the limit for me."

As for Shevchenko, she landed 32 significant strikes and completed seven takedowns in seven attempts in just more than eight minutes to make the fifth successful defense of her 125-pound belt.

"I like to surprise people. I can do everything," she said. "For anyone who's studying me and looking for a weakness, don't waste your time. There is none."

A positively ebullient Smith cruised to the cage to Mark Morrison's perpetually catchy "Return of the Mack," signing hats and mingling with fans before landing a late first-round kick behind Crute's left knee that prompted the Aussie to wobble back to his stool and ultimately rendered him unable to compete in the second.

It was the second in what's now a three-fight streak for Smith, who dropped a decision to Jon Jones at UFC 235 in March 2019.

"We're just building," he said. "Even at 32 years old and 51 fights in, I'm still out here getting better."

As for Weidman, his highlight was certainly memorable and undeniably painful.

He launched a right kick that Hall checked with his left knee, then screamed in pain as his lower leg appeared to cleanly break and sent him tumbling to the floor.

Medical personnel immediately entered and Weidman was taken away on a stretcher—giving Hall an anticlimactic TKO win after just 17 seconds over an opponent who had beaten him by knockout in 2010 before either made it to the UFC.

A replay was shown twice in the arena, and the crowd gasped at the gruesomeness of the injury, particularly as Weidman lurched forward and his leg flopped sickeningly under him.

"I got nothing but respect for Chris Weidman," Hall said. "It's crazy how we ended up here again. I wanted to put on a great performance. I hope he's OK. I wish the family well. I know they're watching.

"I hope he can come back."

Weidman's career status remains up in the air.

But by the time the arena lights dimmed in April, White himself suggested that Octagonal normalcy—at various points on the giddy/ghastly continuum—had already returned.

"I don't think it gets any better than tonight," he said.

"I mean, you couldn't have a better night than tonight. I mean, I don't know how you guys felt, but the whole night was a 'holy s--t' night.

"It was amazing. The crowd was amazing. The fights were amazing."

While YouTube sensation Jake Paul is eyeing bouts with UFC welterweight stars Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz after a sixth-round knockout of Tyron Woodley earlier this month, UFC president Dana White said it's not going to happen. 

“No [that’s not happening],” White said on The Fight with Teddy Atlas, per MMAFighting.com. “You notice he wants to f--king fight everybody that’s not in his weight class, guys that are older and all of this other bulls--t. Go find a boxer. Go hump somebody else’s leg, you goofball.”

White also had a challenge for Paul: 

“So this guy keeps saying that I’m a cokehead,” White said. “He can randomly cocaine test me for the next 10 years if I can randomly steroid test him for the next two.”

In addition to White, Woodley and Tommy Fury have questioned whether Paul has used performance-enhancing drugs. Per MMA Junkie, Woodley was upset about the lack of PED testing surrounding both of his fights against Paul. 

After defeating Woodley for the second time on Dec. 18 in Tampa, Florida, Paul made it known that he wanted to fight Masvidal and/or Diaz, who were both in attendance for his rematch with Woodley at Amalie Arena. He even mentioned that he'd fight Conor McGregor or Kamaru Usman, promising to embarrass anyone who steps into the ring with him next. 

Paul has offered Masvidal $5 million to fight him. Masvidal is 35-15 in his career as a professional MMA fighter. 

Jake Paul has publicly offered Jorge Masvidal $5million plus a percentage of PPV sales to fight him next: "Let's make it happen. That's the most you'll ever have gotten paid. Daddy Dana just has to let you out of your contract. You work for the UFC, you're a bitch." [IMPAULSIVE]

— Ring Magazine (@ringmagazine) December 21, 2021

Paul improved to 5-0 after his win over Woodley. He began his career by defeating YouTuber AnEsonGib via first-round TKO in January 2020, former NBA player Nate Robinson via second-round KO in November 2020 and former Bellator and ONE Welterweight Champion Ben Askren via first-round TKO in April 2021. 

The 24-year-old also beat Woodley via split decision in their first match in August 2021.  

Every long-term MMA fan knows to be wary of hype. History has shown us that for every fighter who lives up to their early hype—stars like Conor McGregor and Israel Adesanya are good examples—there are dozens who don't, such as Erick Silva, Sage Northcutt, Paige VanZant and Houston Alexander.

Yet heading into 2022, there is one fighter who seems to have even the most cynical of fans and pundits drinking the Kool-Aid: Khamzat Chimaev (10-0).

Chimaev, 27, made his UFC debut in July 2020, defeating John Phillips by second-round submission at middleweight. The Chechnya-born Swede returned to the Octagon 10 days later, defeating Rhys McKee by first-round TKO in a short-notice welterweight fight. His third fight came less than two months thereafter, when he flattened Gerald Meerschaert in just 17 seconds, once again at middleweight. 

After that jaw-dropping display of skill and killer instinct, Chimaev was the most hyped fighter in all of MMA. Bleacher Report named him the rising star to watch for 2020. UFC President Dana White oozed superlatives at the mere mention of the undefeated Swede's name.  

"The guy is special," White told the press after Chimaev knocked out Meerschaert. "I've been in this game my whole life. I've never seen anything like him. He's special, he's different." 

"I think when you're a fight fan, a guy like this is the type of guy that you love to watch and follow and hate and whatever it might be. This guy is one of the most special fighters I've ever seen, if not the most special guy that I've ever come across. And he kept telling me leading up to this fight, ‘You think I'm a wrestler. Wait until you see my hands.' Holy s--t, he wasn't lying."

Chimaev fought just once in 2021, which gave us some pause as we considered naming him Bleacher Report's rising star to watch for a second consecutive year. Yet his inactivity was hardly his fault, as he was sidelined by a long and complicated case of COVID-19.

His illness was so severe that he even briefly considered retirement—and contemplated much darker possibilities.   

"I jumped in grappling sparring, did three rounds," Chimaev told ESPN's Brett Okamoto in April. "[I] feel bad in my chest, I said, 'Coach, I go out.' I go home and start to [cough] blood. I was never scared about my life. I'm scared about what my mom is going to do after I die. My mom, my brothers—I was thinking, 'What are they gonna do after I die?' I start with this MMA s--t because of my family. I want to make some good life with them."

Chimaev made one hell of a statement in his lone fight of the year, though, thrashing Li Jingliang—a ranked welterweight contender—to an effortless-looking first-round submission victory. With that performance, he's now earned four UFC wins across two weight classes in just 12:54—and he's only been hit one time in that stretch.

Chimaev's ridiculous dominance has earned him the No. 11 spot in the UFC's welterweight rankings. From that enviable vantage point, he's called out a host of top fighters, from Nate Diaz to two-time title challenger Colby Covington to the reigning welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.

White told Okamoto that Chimaev is not in line for a title shot just yet, but he has also made it clear that he's willing to give the unbeaten welterweight special treatment. The kind of treatment not even the massively popular Sean O'Malley is afforded.

"You guys wanna throw [O'Malley] to the wolves," White told Barstool Sports' Robbie Fox. "You don't move somebody that fast [into big fights] unless they're Khamzat Chimaev. Khamzat is a guy you'll feel comfortable moving that fast."

There's no two ways about it. At the end of 2021, there's still no fighter in MMA whose stock is rising faster than Chimaev's, and no fighter on as many must-watch lists as he is. Calling anybody else the rising star to watch for the year, then, would be unjustifiable.

UFC welterweight Michel Prazeres has been suspended for four years after a second violation of anti-doping rules. 

Per an official statement from the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Prazeres accepted his discipline after four different urine samples collected between Aug. 27-Nov. 2 came back positive for multiple banned substances:

Michel Prazeres has accepted a four year sanction from USADA following a second violation.

He tested positive for clomiphene.

Details 👇 pic.twitter.com/tV9mLmyYN5

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) December 23, 2021

This marks the second time in two years that Prazeres has failed an out-of-competition drug test. He accepted a two-year ban from USADA in February 2020 stemming from samples collected in March of 2019. 

Since that original suspension was backdated to when the sample was originally taken, Prazeres was able to return to competition in March this year.

The Brazilian mixed martial artist fought Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC Fight Night on June 26. He lost in the second round via submission from a rear-naked choke. 

Prazeres's four-year suspension began on Aug. 27. He will be eligible to return to competition on that date in 2025. 

The 40-year-old has been a professional mixed martial artist since 2000. He began his career with 16 consecutive victories to earn a contract with UFC in 2013. 

Prazeres is 10-4 in 14 UFC bouts over the past eight years. Trator primarily competed in the lightweight division during his UFC tenure, but he missed weight three times in a four-fight span from 2016-18 that led to him being forced to move up and compete in the welterweight division. 

In four fights at welterweight since the move, Prazeres has a 2-2 record, with back-to-back losses to Ismail Naurdiev and Rakhmonov.    

Last year, it was easy.

As the world's combat sports writers convened at this time in 2020, there was only one fight in the discussion for which the result could have been deemed KO of the Year.

Not only was Joaquin Buckley's spinning leg kick erasure of Impa Kasanganay the top knockout of those 12 months, but it also remains one of the single best in mixed martial arts history.

Which means 2021, by definition, is a bit more challenging.

Not that there weren't spectacular, highlight-reel finishes. In fact, there were several.

Among them, a single Derrick Lewis uppercut that left Curtis Blaydes stiff as a board. A flying Cory Sandhagen knee that rendered Frankie Edgar similarly motionless. And a precise spinning elbow from Jiri Prochazka that sent Dominick Reyes tumbling face-first to the canvas.

All were both intensely violent and combatively beautiful at the same time.

But when it comes to breaking ties, there's something about significance.

To end a fight in dramatic fashion on the grandest of stages and under the brightest of spotlights is an ability left to the best of the best in the MMA world.

And given that criteria, there was none better in 2021 than Kamaru Usman's KO of Jorge Masvidal.

The UFC's reigning pound-for-pound kingpin defended his welterweight crown with a sudden, devastating impact atop a pay-per-view show against a high-profile opponent in the company's first fight card with a capacity crowd in more than 13 COVID-19-riddled months.

When it was over, Masvidal's left hand dangled limply in the air.

But it was the only part of his body still moving.

The perpetually chatty Miami-based welterweight was all but vaporized by a single right hand from Usman, cutting short their highly anticipated title rematch just 62 seconds into the second frame of a scheduled five-rounder in the UFC 261 main event.

"Wow," Masvidal mouthed to himself, shaking his head as Usman's hand was officially raised.

Upon further review, his exclamation was apt.

"Jacksonville, Florida, you all said you wanted violence. You're welcome," said Usman, who was defending his belt for the fourth times since winning it in March 2019. "I told everyone I'm still getting better. The sky's the limit for me."

It was a far cry from the mat-heavy first dance between the two, won by Usman via unanimous decision nine months before in Abu Dhabi. This time, Usman fared just as well with his hands, though he did get Masvidal hard to the mat about halfway through the opening round.

Masvidal, the crowd favorite in Florida, was a bit more active to begin the second round but was still taking the cleaner and more noticeable shots from Usman. When the decisive right landed, he fell to his back and took four more glancing ground strikes before Herb Dean could intervene.

The fighters embraced in the cage afterward, and Usman said the rivalry fueled him to work harder.

"You elevated me," he told Masvidal. "It's been a while since I've been extremely nervous for a fight.

He continued: "Coach kept yelling at me and telling me: 'Stay with the fundamentals. Stay with the fundamentals.' With my fundamentals, I am the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet."

Masvidal, who had never been finished in the UFC and not at all since 2009, was gracious in defeat.

"First time in my career I've been knocked out like that, and it's in front of all my friends, my family and my people," he said. "That's what happens when you get too overconfident.

"He won this fair and square."

Nothing stirs a fight fan's blood like a great upset.

Whether you're jumping on tables in elation or hurling your phone across the room, there's always emotion involved, the story of an underdog made good. Who can't get excited about that?

In looking back over the MMA year that was in 2021, pondering the sport's biggest upset doesn't actually require a lot of pondering at all. The choice is clear, and we don't have to look back that far to see it. This, of course, would be Julianna Pena's upset for the ages on then-two-division champ Amanda Nunes on Dec. 11 at UFC 269.

"I'm not surprised, motherf----rs," Pena told the crowd after capturing Nunes' bantamweight title.

That made one of us.

I can guarantee you a lot more people extolled Pena's chances after she'd done the thing than before, when Pena was a major +650 underdog (bet $100 to make $650) on DraftKings.

Not only was Pena's shocker the biggest upset of 2021, but it ranks among the biggest in MMA history. We'll get back to that momentarily.

Julianna Peña might have just pulled off the greatest upset in MMA history.

She became the first person to defeat Amanda Nunes in over 7 years.

— MMA History Today (@MMAHistoryToday) December 12, 2021

First, let's look back at the fight itself. What initially looked like another display of dominance for the incumbent changed dramatically as the fight took shape.

Nunes was an easy 10-9 winner in the first round. According to UFC stats, she landed 10 of 14 significant strikes, with Pena landing five of 20. Nunes also controlled ground sequences, at one point coming close to a rear-naked choke. However, Pena defended well, controlling Nunes' left arm for long stretches, which helped keep Nunes from achieving full dominance or sinking in the choke. That arm control may have paid dividends that carried into the second round.

In the second, the action picked up. Never short on confidence, Pena took the fight to the Lioness. Conventional wisdom would deem that to be lacking conventional wisdom, but as Pena charged forward to attack, it seemed a brilliant strategy to bully the bully, who hadn't been shaken in years. (Bear in mind that Nunes hadn't lost a fight since the Obama administration.)

Pena began to force the issue, getting inside and initiating a brawl. Of course, Nunes fought back, but Pena kept her head, faking the takedown to get inside the proverbial phone booth to exchange with the champ from close range. Pena took some to give some and got hit with some massive stuff, but her chin and wits never failed.

A big right hand rocked the champion. Nunes fired back behind a damaging jab, but Pena stayed with the strategy. 

Remember Pena's control of the left arm? In the second round, that appeared to take some starch out of Nunes' dangerous left hand. The champ has always been hittable, and now was even more so as she struggled to keep her hands up.

Just witnessed history. Amanda Nunes, the greatest female fighter in MMA history just got upset by Julianna Peña. Unbelievable! #UFC269 pic.twitter.com/0i3zQqOgQc

— ZeroPark30 (@ZeroPark30) December 12, 2021

Another Nunes weakness—cardio—began to rear its ugly head as well. Looking visibly tired, Nunes appeared to take her foot off the gas ever so slightly. Meanwhile, Pena never let up, pouring on the strikes at every turn. The second round's stats are decidedly different than those found in the opening stanza: 74 of 115 (64 percent) significant strikes landed for the challenger versus 36 of 85 (42 percent) for Nunes.

When a Pena right hand again found the mark, she followed up and clinched up with the champ along the fence. A beautiful throw followed, and suddenly Pena had the champ's back. It didn't seem like all of Nunes wanted to be there anymore.

Pena sank in the choke and Nunes quickly tapped—so quickly that Pena remarked on it after the fight.

"I thought she was going to fight longer, but she tapped," Pena told celebrity broadcaster and podcaster Joe Rogan after the fight. "I asked the [referee] if it was over, and he said, 'Yeah, you won.' And I said, 'Oh, great.'"

Looking back, it's easy to note that Pena exploited the weaknesses that were already there. Previous challengers had simply lacked the confidence or presence of mind to consistently attack those areas, because it included a risk of running afoul of Nunes' power. That may be true, but it undermines the truly shocking nature of this upset.

Speaking of which, where does it rank among all-time UFC upsets? That's not the world's easiest metric to apply, as it can mean different things to different people. That said, betting odds can provide a pretty strong sense of where Pena's stunner stands.

According to a Tapology ranking of the biggest oddsmaker upsets, Matt Serra was a +850 underdog when he shocked Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight title back in 2007. Holly Holm was +830 before her 2015 head kick heard around the world on Ronda Rousey—while this ranks an all-time upset for sure, in hindsight the Rousey train, fueled almost entirely by that famous armbar, was a bubble ripe for bursting. 

Other entrants include T.J. Dillashaw's (+650) knockout of bantamweight champ Renan Barao in 2014 and Frankie Edgar (+588) defeating a still-in-his-prime BJ Penn back in 2010. 

There are others that won despite longer odds, but these get my nod as the biggest big-fight upsets, which at the end of the day are the ones that garner the most weight and attention. 

Does Pena-Nunes top them all? Probably not, as Serra, Dillashaw and maybe Holm all have equal or longer odds. 

But if absolutely nothing else, it's solidly on the Mount Rushmore of biggest title-fight upsets. This is compounded by Pena's underdog status as an athlete, precipitated by years of serious injuries and inactivity. That's more than enough to earn her the distinction of the biggest upset of 2021.

                 

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YouTube star and boxer Jake Paul has issued a challenge to UFC welterweight Jorge Masvidal alongside a massive payday.

Michael Benson of TalkSport relayed the quotes from the Impaulsive podcast:

Jake Paul has publicly offered Jorge Masvidal $5million plus a percentage of PPV sales to fight him next: "Let's make it happen. That's the most you'll ever have gotten paid. Daddy Dana just has to let you out of your contract. You work for the UFC, you're a bitch." [IMPAULSIVE]

— Ring Magazine (@ringmagazine) December 21, 2021

Paul is coming off a sixth-round knockout of former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley on Saturday, which marked his second boxing victory over the 39-year-old.

He also beat former Bellator and ONE welterweight champion Ben Askren by first-round TKO in April.

Paul previously called out both Masvidal and fellow UFC fighter Nate Diaz, who were in attendance for Saturday's card from Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, but left before the main event finished.

Afterward, Paul had some choice words for the two of them.

"[Jorge] Masvidal and Nate Diaz, y'all are some b---hes for leaving this arena,” Paul screamed, per Damon Martin of MMA Fighting. "'Cause I know you don't want that s--t. I'll take out both of y'all next.

"Just get out of your contract with daddy Dana [White] and I'm going to f--k them up, too."

Masvidal responded to Paul on social media, telling the 24-year-old that he couldn't afford him in a boxing match:

https://twitter.com/GamebredFighter/status/1472466516356608004

Masvidal, who trained with Paul in the lead-up to the Askren fight, then challenged him to a one-fight deal in the UFC.

Neither a boxing match nor a UFC fight between Paul and Masvidal appears realistic at this time, as Martin noted.

"As unlikely as it was that Masvidal would ever get permission from the UFC to face Paul in a boxing match, the reverse seems utterly fanciful.

"Not only has Paul engaged in a very public battle with UFC President Dana White, but it seems highly unlikely that he’ll be signing to fight Masvidal in his mixed martial arts debut."

Masvidal is 35-15 lifetime as a professional MMA fighter. His career most notably includes a five-second knockout of Askren in July 2019.

Masvidal also fought for the welterweight title twice, losing to current champion Kamaru Usman in July 2020 and last April.

The man nicknamed "Gamebred" would undoubtedly be Paul's toughest test to date, but it doesn't appear that a fight will materialize any time soon, if at all.

2021 has been kind to fight fans. Despite the ongoing challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, the year gave us multiple fights that will stand the test of time. We'll probably still be talking about some of them long after the pandemic has finally and mercifully come to pass.   

Flip back through the MMA calendar and you'll see what we mean. By the end of March, we'd already seen Max Holloway vs. Calvin Kattar and Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor II. By the end of June, we'd enjoyed Jiri Prochazka vs. Dominick Reyes and Charles Oliveira vs. Michael Chandler. By September's end, we'd been treated to TJ Dillashaw vs. Cory Sandhagen and Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega.

Yet the fight that stands out as the best of 2021 didn't occur until the final quarter of the year. We're not talking about Petr Yan vs. Cory Sandhagen—though that was definitely an excellent fight. We're talking, as many readers undoubtedly guessed when they opened this article, about Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Chandler. 

Gaethje and Chandler, the former World Series of Fighting and Bellator lightweight champions, respectively, met on the main card of the stacked UFC 268 event on November 6, inside New York City's hallowed Madison Square Garden.

The bout was Gaethje's first since he was choked out by Khabib Nurmagomedov in a failed bid for the lightweight title in late 2020. Chandler, meanwhile, had recently been knocked out in a fight with Charles Oliveira, failing in the process to claim the throne Nurmagomedov vacated when he retired after beating Gaethje. Given the circumstances, victory was crucial for both men, as a loss would send the vanquished fighter skittering right out of title contention. 

Despite the ramifications of defeat, Gaethje and Chandler fought as if they'd never heard the word before, crashing into each other within moments of the opening bell. Cage-side commentator Joe Rogan was forecasting a finish before the first round was over—without specifying who he thought would win, which should give you a sense of the kind of fight that was unfolding in the Octagon.  

"This may not last," Rogan said. "Gaethje and Chandler are throwing bombs."

Gaethje and Chandler continued throwing bombs into Round 2. Gaethje, however, was becoming the increasingly successful party, thrashing his rival's legs with kicks and even scoring a big knockdown with an uppercut. Yet Chandler never went away. The former Bellator champion continued to throw everything he had at Gaethje—even in the face of widening odds—and took everything Gaethje had to offer in return. By the time the 15-minute fight was over, the pair had attempted over 400 significant strikes combined and landed over 100 apiece.

"Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler are now connected forever," play-by-play commentator Jon Anik said at the conclusion of the 15-minute fight, as the two lightweights both paraded around the Octagon with their hands held high in triumph.

In the end, as most readers will know, Gaethje was awarded a justified unanimous decision win. Chandler, however, can't fairly be called a loser. He seems to recognize as much, too. 

"It's definitely the first time in my career that I didn't care whether I won or lost, for some reason," Chandler told ESPN a little less than a month removed from the fight.

"I also didn't hear my coaches for the entire 15 minutes," he added. "Could not hear a thing, so I was out there by myself, unfortunately, and when I'm left to my own devices, a lot of ill-advised things happen. But they were entertaining. So the fans won that fight." 

Gaethje and Chandler's wild aggression and toughness alone were enough to earn their fight a place on pretty much everybody's Fight of the Year list. What helped push it to the top of our list, however, is that it exceeded pre-fight expectations—expectations that frankly seemed impossible to meet ahead of time.

Gaethje and Chandler were both regarded among the most exciting fighters in modern MMA long before they ever collided in the Octagon in New York City this past November. Both men had proven, fight-ending knockout power. Both had flaunted incredible durability and bottomless heart in multiple fights. Knowing all of that, we all expected something truly incredible from their fight—to the point that it could have been pretty good and still left fans disappointed. But that's not what happened. Instead, this booking that looked like it could result in the best fight of 2021 ultimately became exactly that.

There's no two ways about it. Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Chandler is Bleacher Report's 2021 Fight of the Year.