2024 has been quite a tumultuous year as far as the UFC titles go. After all, six of eleven UFC divisional titles changed hands, while almost every division is seeing an injection of new young talent precipitating a change of generations. Ilia Topuria not only became the featherweight champ but also became possibly the greatest 145fer within 12 months!

Welterweight champ Belal Muhammad and bantamweight champ Merab Dvalishvili finally tasted gold after years of grinding in their respective divisions. Dricus Du Plessis, stamped himself as the middleweight champ with a fantastic victory over Israel Adesanya, erasing any doubts whether he deserved to win the title off of Sean Strickland at their incredibly close UFC 297 clash. But next year may spring some more surprises as we take a look at the three dark horses we think could be UFC champions in 2025.

Movsar Evloev

Movsar Evloev is a unicorn. After all, the Russian #4 ranked featherweight is one of the rare mixed martial artists who has had a significant number of fights and is still undefeated after nineteen professional fights (nine of them in the UFC). In fact, the Russian phenom not being in title contention at the moment is a bit surprising to many given his UFC record and who he has defeated.

After all, Evloev is the only person in the UFC who has defeated #3 ranked Diego Lopes, who seems next for a 145-pound title shot after Alexander Volkanovski gets his rematch. But the reason for this seems pretty clear. After all, all of Evloev’s wins in the UFC have come via decision- including the one against Lopes. The latter, on the other hand, goes for the kill in every fight, with three of his five wins coming via stoppages.

But now that the duo is ranked within one place of each other, it seems likely that an official #1 title contender bout may be in order with the winner fighting the victor of Topuria-Volkanovski 2. And if Evloev gets a title shot, he can likely become the new featherweight champ somewhere down the line in 2025.

Jack Della Maddalena

Shavkat Rakhmonov will fight Belal Muhammad sometime next year for the latter’s welterweight title. But after that, there seems to be only one man in the 170-pound division who could fight for the title- #4 ranked Jack Della Maddalena. The Aussie is undefeated in his seven UFC fights so far.

The only issue with the JDM’s UFC stint is that he has fought only two top-ranked opponents- Kevin Holland and Gilbert Burns. But that is likely to be rectified soon. At the moment, there are rumors that he is going to fight former champ Kamaru Usman at UFC 312 in February 2025. If true, that would almost definitely mean that the winner fights for the title next.

After all, there are no other real contenders in the top ten who could stake a claim to a title shot other than the winner of Usman-Madalena. None of the others have either done enough to deserve a shot at the gold or are coming off losses. This is why no one should be surprised if the welterweight division has a new champ by the end of 2025 in the form of Jack Della Maddalena.

Manon Fiorot

Manon Fiorot, just like the other two guys on this list, is undefeated in the UFC. Like Maddalena, she is undefeated in her seven UFC fights. Like the other two men, she is also on a stellar run, having defeated top-ranked contenders Katlyn Cerminara, Rose Namajunas, and Erin Blanchfield in her last three.

Currently ranked #2 in the women’s flyweight division, the Frenchwoman is ranked just below former champ Alexa Grasso and reigning champ, Valentina Shevchenko. Since Grasso and Shevchenko are coming off of three epic battles over the past two years, it is pretty clear that Fiorot is next for a title shot. Moreover, the 125fer even made a callout to ‘Bullet’ and even got a scathing acknowledgment from the champ, even challenging the Frenchwoman to step inside the Octagon with both of their careers on the line.

If the Frenchwoman continues her recent dominant form, combined with her size and strength, it may be enough for Fiorot to defeat the champ and become the new women’s 125-pound champ in 2025. Which of these fighters would you like to see become champion the most?