Predicting the Biggest UFC Title Fights of 2025

The UFC in 2024 was one to remember producing fourteen very entertaining pay-per-view cards including at least one title fight at every event. As a new year begins, let’s break down and discuss exciting title fights that I believe will happen in 2025. To start with, one title fight in the bantamweight division that will be made this year is future champion Umar Nurmagomedov making his first title defence against the popular and almighty Sean O’Malley. If you do not know, the undefeated sensation Umar Nurmagomedov will be fighting for the bantamweight title in just over two weeks against current and defending champion Merab Dvalishvili. As it currently stands, Umar is a -270 favourite against the champion Merab who is a +220 underdog per UFC odds. Vegas is leaning Umar’s way due to his impressive undefeated record in addition to his favourable stylistic matchup vs Merab. While Merab is an elite wrestler with forever-lasting cardio, Merab has a weak chin and will be at a disadvantage due to Umar’s wrestling ability to stop his takedowns and additionally can cause severe damage using his underrated striking. Assuming Nurmagomedov can win this title fight, former champion Sean O’Malley will be next up for the bantamweight title. Previously, O’Malley lost his title after just one successful defence after losing a decision to the current champion Merab via decision as O’Malley could not handle the wrestling ability of Dvalishvili. After getting surgery and having a long break to recover and improve from his last fight, O’Malley will be granted the next title shot due to his immense popularity amongst UFC fans and also being the next highest-ranked fighter in the bantamweight division. It is important to acknowledge that Umar wants to fight Suga next as he believes he deserves it and understands the popularity he would gain if he could defeat O’Malley in a pay-per-view main event. While Umar still needs to win in his upcoming UFC 311 title fight, it is evident that this fight will be made assuming the heavy favourite can get his hand raised.

Moving up to the featherweight division, undefeated champion Ilia Topuria went on an outstanding run in 2024 by winning the title against one of the best featherweights of all time Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298. Ilia added his second ruby to his belt in his first defence against another featherweight former champion and future hall of famer Max Holloway at UFC 308. Both fights ended by a vicious knockout making Topuria one of the most popular fighters in the UFC right now. The 27-year-old will start his 2025 campaign by making his second title defence in the division. While the fight has not been officially made, Topuria has made it clear that he has intentions of moving up a weight class to try to attain double champion status. However, Topuria will likely have to defend the title at least once or twice before his wish can be granted. As for potential fights, people have assumed Volkanovski would get an immediate rematch due to his longevity and success in the division but it seems unlikely due to the amount of time Topuria has left in this division and he will likely want to take on new challengers to boost his resume. As for new contenders, the only fighters that qualify are the fascinating Diego Lopez and undefeated wrestler Movsar Evloev. I believe Lopez will receive the title shot as he has had an amazing 2024 with three impressive wins against the division's best compared to Evloev who only won twice with two boring decisions. As it is up to both the UFC and Topuria’s team, it makes sense that a win over Lopez will be more impressive and win him over more fans due to Diego’s large fanbase. But more importantly, Diego Lopez right now is the second most dangerous fighter in the featherweight division behind the current champion and a win over Diego will warrant Topuria an opportunity to move up to lightweight to fight for his second title. If he decides to fight Evloev instead, everyone will still want to see Topuria fight Lopez still opposed to the lightweight champion. Topuria can knock out two birds with one stone which is why it is evident that at some point in 2025, Ilia Topuria will attempt to defend his featherweight title against the dangerous Diego Lopez.

Moving up to lightweight, the current champion and pound-for-pound best fighter in the UFC Islam Makhachev will be defending his lightweight title in a rematch against Arman Tsarukyan. If you want to know about this upcoming title fight at UFC 311, please look at one of my previous posts breaking down every fight on the main card including predicting each fight. As a -360 favourite per UFC odds, it is expected that Makhachev can retain his title this January. As Makhachev will likely defend his title again in 2025, former champion Charles “Do Bronx” Oliveira will be Islam’s next opponent. As the two were supposed to fight previously at UFC 294 but fell through due to an eye injury sustained by Charles, it makes the most sense that Oliveira will be Makhachev’s next title defence. Not only has Charles won his last fight in impressive fashion against Michael Chandler, but every other contender below him is coming off a loss up until Dan Hooker who still needs at least two more wins before getting a title shot as he also lost to Makhachev previously. Oliveira also gave Islam his title opportunity as in their first fight so it is only right for Islam to do the same. Oliveira’s resume at lightweight in addition to his large popularity will ensure he will fight Makhachev next assuming Islam wins at UFC 311. Even though Islam has hinted towards moving up to welterweight, training partner and friend Belal Muhammad is the current champion and does not have a fight booked yet. This implies that as long as Belal remains the welterweight champion, Islam will have no motive or reason to move up weight classes hence ensuring Oliveira will be Makhachev’s next opponent.

As previously mentioned, current welterweight champion Belal Muhammad does not have his first title defence booked yet in 2025. To explain, Muhammad was booked to fight undefeated contender Shavkat Rakhmonov in December at UFC 310 but Belal pulled out due to a gruesome toe injury. Instead, Shavkat decided to still fight on the card taking on Ian Machado Garry who at the time was also undefeated. While the fight was close and entertaining, Shavkat was victorious and won by a close decision. In addition to having a title fight booked already, having a win against an undefeated champion has locked in Shavkat to be the next contender to fight the champion in Belal. While this fight might not be booked until later down the line in 2025, this fight will for sure take place. As Shavkat needs time to recover from his fight just a few weeks ago on top of Belal recovering from his foot injury, I predict this fight will take place at the earliest May of 2025 and could even be prolonged into the summer. Either way, this matchup nevertheless will be made at some point this year which will either severely boost Belal’s quiet resume or give Shavkat the title that he has been chasing after for years.

Going up to the middleweight division, current champion Dricus Du Plessis will be taking on the comedic Sean Strickland at UFC 312 in Australia. As the two previously collided at UFC 297 to kick off 2024, the fight that went to a close split decision warranted Strickland to get a rematch as he only lost very narrowly. Going into this fight, Du Plessis is expected to win again as he is the current champion and has been more impressive since the two last fought. Dricus successfully made his first title defence against the middleweight GOAT and future hall of famer Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 via submission. On the other hand, Strickland last fought at UFC 302 where he unimpressively beat Paulo Costa in a boring decision. Assuming Du Plessis can beat Strickland once again, Khamzat Chimaev is the next clear contender to fight for the title. As Adesanya has already had a fight booked before UFC 312 against Naseerdeen Imavov, Adesanya is looking to regain momentum before trying to become a three-time middleweight champion. Moreover, Khamzat last defeated former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 308 in the first round by submission breaking his jaw in the process. This impressive win is surely enough to make him the next title contender as the contenders above him in Strickland and Adesanya are both fighting in February. Even if Strickland somehow prevails, Chimaev would be next in line anyway even if Adesanya wins his upcoming fight against Imavov which he most likely will. To put it all together, Chimaev will be getting a middleweight title shot in late 2025 and will either be fighting Strickland or Du Plessis. Fighting Du Plessis is more probable and a more entertaining matchup due to Du Plessis’ entertaining fighting style giving him the best chance to be the first fighter to truly stop Chimaev’s brutal takedowns and wrestling. As for Strickland, he was exposed at UFC 297 for his subpar ground game as he allowed Du Plessis to take him down with ease multiple times implying a matchup between Strickland and Chimaev will be much less exciting assuming Chimaev would submit him immediately.

Moving up to light-heavyweight, champion Alex “Poatan” Pereira had the best year of any UFC champion or fighter for that matter as Poatan successfully defended his title three times in 2024 in only six months. As for potential matchups, Jamahall Hill and Jiri Prochazka can be ruled out as these two former champions and top contenders both got knocked out by Alex last year and will be fighting each other at UFC 311. Even if Hill wins this matchup, he will likely have to wait to get his rematch as Poatan will likely be fighting number one contender Magomed Ankalaev. According to Pereira's Twitter, he announced a few days ago that he will be in Australia at UFC 312 hinting that he could fight or headline the card. This all adds up perfectly as Ankalaev will be unable to fight a couple of weeks after UFC 312 due to Ramadan. Fortunately for Ankalaev, Ramadan begins a couple of weeks after UFC 312 implying that Ankalaev is likely the opponent because Pereira would have fought on a later date if it was not Magomed. While this fight has not been officially made by the UFC just yet, Pereira took two fights last year on short notice proving that it is not a surprise that the UFC has not released this fight to the public just yet. Furthermore, as Ankalaev is the number one contender in the division, he has earned a title shot and even if the fight does not happen in February, it will take place at some point in 2025 as Pereira is confident in a matchup against Magomed and is not scared to fight him.

At last, the heavyweight division has the most attention of any UFC division due to the ongoing title picture. Notoriously known as the greatest fighter of all time, current heavyweight champion Jon Jones last fought in November at UFC 309 where he defeated the all-time great and former champion Stipe Miocic by TKO. Unfortunately, many UFC and MMA fans were unimpressed due to Stipe’s old age in addition to Jones being a very inactive fighter. To prove, since 2020, Jon Jones has only fought twice implying fans expect Jones to wait a long time before fighting again. What makes fans even angrier is that Jones did not defend his title against interim champion Tom Aspinall. As for Tom, he has only one loss in his UFC career where he tore his ACL seconds into the fight which was a complete fluke. After sustaining that injury, Tom has been on a three-fight win streak with three consecutive first-round knockouts. Not only has Tom won the interim heavyweight title, but he even made his first defence of his interim title in a rematch against Curtis Blaydes as he was the opponent he tore his ACL against and knocked him out quickly in the first round. Due to Jones refusing to fight Aspinall in 2024, most UFC fans acknowledge Aspinall as the real heavyweight champion. Going into 2025, UFC President Dana White made it evident that if Jon Jones was ever going to fight again in the UFC, it would have to be against Tom Aspinall as it was always expected for the champion and interim champion to fight each other making the winner the undisputed champion of the world. Dana White even gave his personal guarantee that this potential super fight will one hundred percent take place this year per MMAFightingonSBN. After all the wait for the past two years, it is clear that this matchup will happen at some point this year most likely at International Fight Week during the upcoming summer. Either way, all UFC fans should be excited about this potential thriller.

Putting it all together, I believe these seven title fights will be taking place throughout 2025 ensuring this year will be great for the UFC and its fans too. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns relating to this article post, please leave a comment under this post or go to the community page to leave a comment on the UFC forum’s page. As previously mentioned, I have posted an article recently breaking down UFC 311 and be sure to check it out if you want to know who is going to win each fight. Thanks for reading this article and stay tuned as I post articles about the UFC and NFL daily.