After all of the hustle and bustle leading up to the holiday season, it’s finally here. This Wednesday will be Christmas Day. By now, you’ve probably got your tree up with all of the decorations up, your stockings are by the chimney (if you have one), and the turkey is defrosting in the refrigerator. At this time every year, MMA fans the world over await the presents under the tree.
With Christmas looming on Wednesday, the big man in a red suit known as Santa Claus needs a little bit of help delivering all the presents to all of the world’s children. A few days ago, Santa left a voicemail for me:
“Ho-ho-ho, Drew, it’s your old friend, Santa Claus,” he said in the telephone call. “Congratulations on another successful year of writing about all those fights. Would you care to assist me again this Christmas delivering presents to the MMA world?”
Let’s Look Under The MMA Christmas Tree!
Santa, my man, you’ve got it. Let’s go right away because there’s no time to waste. Hey, there’s some extra room in the sleigh this year, too.
There are a few stops we need to make before we can head home for the holidays. Where to first, St. Nick?
To: Kayla Harrison. From: MMA’s Top Promotion
Earlier this year, ahead of the landmark UFC 300 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, former two-time PFL Women’s Lightweight Champion Kayla Harrison (18-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) was signed by Dana White‘s promotion due to her desire to fight at bantamweight.
Kayla Harrison has signed with the UFC, per Dana White.
She will make her debut at UFC 300 in a 135-pound fight against Holly Holm.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 24, 2024
With the PFL not sponsoring a women’s bantamweight class at the time of her departure, the UFC would become Harrison’s new home. So far, the move to the No. 1 promotion has paid off handsomely for the former Olympian.
On April 13, during the late prelims of UFC 300, Harrison made a successful promotional debut, besting Holly Holm (15-7, 1 NC MMA, 8-7, 1 NC UFC) by way of second-round submission (rear-naked choke) in front of an ESPN+ audience.
Harrison then followed it up with a unanimous decision victory this past October over Ketlen Viera (14-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) during UFC 307 in Salt Lake City. As of this writing, there’s no word on who Kayla Harrison’s opponent might be, but Santa gave her an early Christmas present, as she is currently ranked No. 2 in the rankings at 135 lbs.
We’ve got more gifts to open. Let’s see what this one is.
To: BKFC Fighters: From: David Feldman
Santa’s sleigh has a lot of money in it this year. This past weekend, BKFC on DAZN Hollywood served as the final event of the bare-knuckle boxing promotion’s 2024 itinerary. While the BKFC 2025 schedule begins on Saturday, Jan. 18 in Pechanga, CA with another BKFC Fight Night, the promotion’s president, David Feldman, has something big lined up for the new year.
Before the holiday, Feldman made it official that BKFC will be launching a tournament in 2025 with $25 million in prize money at stake. That kind of cash could fill every the Christmas stocking of every kid in America.
“It’s going to be spread out over nine or 12 months,” Feldman told the media. “There’s going to be tryouts [and] qualifying rounds and those qualifying rounds are going to take place in five different continents. We’re close to locking in a huge streaming platform that’s going to have the rights to this thing, so everything is really falling in place.”
With no free passes given, the winner of this tournament will earn every penny of the top prize.
One more present to open. This one contains a belt.
To: Karlos Vemola or Will Fleury. From: Oktagon MMA. (Do Not Open Until Dec. 29)
Finally, no holiday season would be complete without a few prize fights after Christmas Day. That’s what Czech Republic-based Oktagon MMA has on offer this coming Sunday, Dec. 29.
While Oktagon 65 features the Tipsport Gamechanger Lightweight Tournament Final between Ronald Paradeiser and Losene Keita in a rematch for the division during the main event of the evening and a battle for the Vacant Oktagon Bantamweight Championship between Lucie Pudilova and Lucia Szabova, the co-main event of the evening takes place at 205 lbs.
Current Oktagon Light Heavyweight Champion Karlos Vemola (37-8 MMA, 12-3 Oktagon) makes his third defense of the 205-lb strap when he meets up with challenger and No. 1 contender Will Fleury (13-3 MMA, 2-0 Oktagon.)
Vemola has already successfully defended the belt twice over and is a 45-fight veteran, but Santa has given Fleury the opportunity to wrest the championship away from the titleholder in only his third promotional appearance. It’ll be a happy new year for the winner, no matter who it is.
Happy Holidays!
From all of us here at MMA Sucka, we wish you a happy and safe holiday season and all the best for the upcoming new year.
