Clay Collard vs. Shane Burgos – August 23
Clay Collard vs. Shane Burgos is the only fight on this list from outside of the UFC. It’s not often a fight in another promotion outshines the UFC, but this one did.
The match-up wasn’t even supposed to happen. Burgos, who’d left the UFC to fight in PFL was eliminated from the tournament at PFL 6 but was called up after Collard’s original opponent, Natan Shulte was suspended and pulled from the event due to inactivity in his qualifying fight.
Collard and Burgos went three incredible rounds of non-stop action on the feet and, at the time, was touted as the best fight in PFL’s history.
Collard would get the nod via a unanimous decision but he lost in the PFL Finals to 2022 champion Olivier Aubin-Mercier.
Watch the fight highlights right here.
Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski – February 11
Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski fought twice in 2023, their first meeting on Feb. 11 being the longer of the two.
Volkanovski went up in weight in an attempt to be a rare UFC champ-champ by taking on the lightweight champion. The Perth, Australia show was set up for a perfect fairy tale win for Volkanovski but after five hard-fought and close rounds, the judges awarded the win to the reigning champion, Makhachev.
The decision was widely contested by fans and media who thought Volkanovski had won, but we all know public perception doesn’t change the outcome of a fight. The pair fought again, on Oct. 21 and Makhachev silenced the doubters by knocking out Volkanovski in the very first round.
Watch the full fight free right here.
Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev – March 18
Many felt that the fight between Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev was the fight of the year for 2023. Their wild slugfest when against what Gaethje had wanted the fight to be, but in the end he won the fight via decision.
I literally tried not to do that, Gaethje said after the fight. I knew there was no way this fight was not going to be exciting.
And boy was he right.
Gaethje would go on to knock out Dustin Poirier in his next fight, winning the BMF title.
Watch the full fight free right here.
Dan Hooker vs. Jalin Turner – July 8
Dan Hooker vs. Jalin Turner was originally slated for March 4 at UFC 285, but Hooker pulled out of the fight with a broken hand. Mateusz Gamrot stepped in on short notice a won a close split decision. The fight with Hooker was rebooked for UFC 290 and we got three glorious rounds of violence that night.
The pair slugged it out on one of the best events of the year and took it to the judges. They were split, as were many watching but Hooker earned the nod in the end.
After the fight, in the build-up for his next, Turner reflected on the hard fight.
“Seeing him in the hospital messed me up. I was like, dang, I really took years off this man’s life. He couldn’t be with his family, he had to get surgery, Turner said dueing his UFC Austin media day. I felt so bad. That played on my head for a while, that’s one of the reasons – I was healthy after [UFC 290], I could have fought the next week – that’s one of the reasons why I took a bit of time off, for my mental. I had a lot of stuff mentally going on… It affected me a lot.”
Valentina Shevchenko vs. Alexa Grasso 2 – Sept. 16
Fans were lucky enough to see Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko twice in 2023. In their first meeting, Grasso submitted the long-standing champion in the fourth round of a fight many thought Shevchenko was winning.
The rematch, six months later, headlined Noche UFC, and delivered on all levels. The fight went five full rounds with back-and-forth action throughout. The media and fans were split when it went to the scorecards but in the end the fight was scored a draw. There was some controversy over Michael Bell’s scores, which is how the fight was declared a draw but all that means is we’ll see a third fight hopefully sooner rather than later.
