Roll up, roll up, we have out outlandish MMA predictions piece for 2025! Every year, MMASucka makes 10 outlandish predictions for the upcoming year. You can check out our 2024 piece here and see how close (or not so) we were in our revisiting 2024’s MMA predictions article here!
Without further ado, let’s go!
Outlandish MMA Predictions for 2025
1 -Tom Aspinall Will End the Year as Undisputed Heavyweight Champion… After Beating Jon Jones in July
It’s potentially the biggest fight in UFC history and is the fight that everyone (apart from Jon Jones) wants to see. This prediction is simple. Jones is paid the BIG money by Dana White and Tom Aspinall finally gets his shot at the consensus GOAT during international fight week.
Aspinall will prove to be too fast, too well-rounded and too good for Jones at this point in the undisputed champion’s career, defeating him convincingly inside 4 rounds, lifting gold and having a fight scheduled for early 2026.
2 – Bellator Will Cease to Exist
Oh Bellator. Big things were on the horizon for the former ‘second’ promotion having picked up some good ex-UFC stars and had a number of champions who could potentially compete with some of the best in the world. After the PFL acquired Bellator in 2023, some believed there was a future for the promotion, it wasn’t to be, however. 2024 was one to forget for Bellator.
Some key names in the promotion, notably Corey Anderson and Patricio Pitbull have come out stating that the PFL haven’t honoured their Bellator contracts, highlighting key issues with the current system. Bellator only have one event scheduled for 2025, in January which is headlined by an interesting fight between Usman Nurmagomedov and Paul Hughes.
Bellator won’t roll out any more events following their Abu Dhabi debut and all Bellator fighters will either be swallowed up by the PFL or enter free agency.
3 – Valentine Shevchenko Will Make Two Defences of Her Title Before Retiring
At 36 turning 37, Valentina Shevchenko has achieved more in her career than most. She’s been successful at bantamweight, competing for the title and narrowly losing to Amanda Nunes. At flyweight, she’s 10-1-1, recently picking up the title again from her short-term rival, Alexa Grasso, finally getting one over on the Mexican.
She will defeat Manon Fiorot in a boring, one-sided, wrestling-heavy decision, potentially in the UFC 313 co-main event before rounding out the year with a close victory over Erin Blanchfield in New York in November. Shevchenko’s style gels well against Blanchfield and she’ll outpoint her in a similar manner that Fiorot did back in March. With nothing left to achieve in the sport, Shevchenko will lay her gloves down in the Octagon and call it time on her career.
4 – Kayla Harrison Finishes the Year as UFC Bantamweight Champion
Possibly not one of our most ‘outlandish’ MMA predictions, with DraftKings having her at -300 to be the champion, but there’s a reason for that. Kayla Harrison debuted at UFC 300, defeating Holly Holm in dominant fashion. Later in the year, she went on to out-point Ketlen Vieira at UFC 307. She’s the logical next contender for Juliana Pena’s belt, however, the current champion appears extremely reluctant to give her the shot.
Can you blame her? Harrison is a terrible stylistic match-up for Pena and will enter the fight as a huge favourite. It would take something special for Pena to keep hold of her title, but we know that she has that in her locker. With that being said, Harrison beats her, via finish within three rounds. Harrison will then be scheduled to clash with Norma Dumont in December when she wins again.
5 – Paddy Pimblett Headlines in London in March, Wins and goes on to Fight Michael Chandler
The Baddy, Paddy Pimblett had a great 2024. Although he only fought once, he silenced a lot of his doubters, submitting Bobby Green in emphatic fashion in just 3:22.
He’s suggested that he might return in March in London and we anticipate that he will headline the Fight Night card, although it won’t be against the man many think it will be (Michael Chandler). He will headline against Dan Hooker, beating The Hangman via a close decision before actually meeting Chandler later in the year or early 2026. He’s got a big fight on his hands in London, especially across five rounds, however, who knows what could happen.
6 – Alex Pereira goes 2-0 in 2025 but still doesn’t fight Magomed Ankalev
Alex Pereira was one of the top fighters in 2024, making three defences of his light heavyweight title, including headlining the iconic UFC 300. His logical next fight is Magomed Ankalaev. The Russian is the #1 contender and went 2-0 in 2024. With that being said, he didn’t do so in great fashion. He beat Johnny Walker (everyone does, especially by knockout) and then went to yet another decision against Aleksandr Rakic.
Alex Pereira will continue to be active in 2025, knocking out the winner of Carlos Ulberg and Jan Blachowicz before re-matching Jamahal Hill (after he knocks out Jiri Prochazka in January), again winning via knockout. Maybe then Poatan will fight Ankalaev… or an Aspinall heavyweight clash could interest him.
7 – Ilia Topuria Retires a Legend and Makes a Further Defence of his Title
The featherweight champion is many people’s pick for the fighter of 2024 as he finished both Alexander Volkanovski to capture the belt before becoming the first man to finish Max Holloway with strikes.
This prediction sees Ilia Topuria rematch Volkanovski, this time out-pointing him over 25 minutes. With this loss, the former longtime, dominant, fan favourite, Alexander Volkanovski, at 36 will hang up the gloves and call time on a hall of fame career.
Topuria will then go on to face the undefeated Movsar Evloev, again defeating the Russian over 25 minutes. Evloev simply isn’t good enough at this point to compete with Topuria and the reason why he doesn’t get the shot sooner is because of his lack of finishing ability.
8 – Conor McGregor Competes in the UFC!
Arguably one of our most outlandish MMA predictions for this year is that Conor McGregor, yes, The Notorious Conor McGregor, the former double champion, arguably (still) the biggest name in the sport will make the walk to the octagon for one…last…dance.
We haven’t seen McGregor since his leg break against Dustin Poirier in 2021 and although he was scheduled to fight against Chandler earlier in 2024, he withdrew from the fight due to injury.
His outside-of-the-sport behaviour has characteristically become overbearing in the past year, something that we won’t go into here, which has, of course, taken away from his training focus. Towards the end of 2024, he appeared to be in talks with Logan Paul for a boxing match in India, taking to social media to confirm the bout. With that being said, whether Dana White would allow him to do so is another question (unless it’s co-promoted of course).
Conor McGregor and Logan Paul are to feature as part of a historic “Visit India” tourism campaign as the pair clash in Mumbai’s iconic Wankhede Stadium.
The two will be well rewarded for their efforts, with McGregor set to walkaway with $250 million, making the fight one of the… pic.twitter.com/HTuIMN5w8F
— The Mac Life (@TheMacLife) December 29, 2024
He will also make his return to the UFC octagon later in the year. Match-ups with Dan Hooker, Michael Chandler, Charles Oliveira and even another fight with Dustin Poirier have all been rumoured, however, a trilogy fight against Nate Diaz makes the most sense. Book that, re-sign Diaz and break PPV records.
9 – The UFC Acquire some BIG names from ONE Championship
ONE Championship may not be the glamorous promotion many thought it would be. Former champion, Reinier de Ridder made the switch to the UFC last year and warned others not to sign with Chatri Sityodtong’s promotion.
This prediction sees a number of big names from ONE Championship sign with the UFC. Current ONE featherweight champion, Tang Kai, Gary Tonon and Alibeg Rasulov could all come over to the UFC. Stamp Fairtex would be a huge scoop, as would some form of contract with Danielle Kelly in a grappling sense (similar to Mikey Musumeci’s Fight Pass contract), however, these would be hard to do.
Whatever happens, expect some bigger, well-known names to make the transition stateside and compete at the highest level.
10 – Dakota Ditcheva Continues to Dominate the PFL’s Flyweight Division, Setting up a Fight with Shanelle Dyer
Dakota Ditcheva. The face of the PFL, the flyweight tournament champion and the overall finishing machine had a spectacular 2024. She dominated each and every fight she had, putting on a show in each. She speaks well, is likeable and is a megastar. The risk is that the PFL lose her as she’s already claimed to want something to ‘challenge her’.
There is no one on her level in the PFL, however, there is an up an coming grudge match which will certainly get fans excited. Shanelle Dyer is 6-0 and like Ditcheva, is from the UK. She’s a good talker on the mic and if it weren’t for an injury, she would have been facing Paulina Wisniewska for the PFL Europe title.
Ditcheva and Dyer will face off at some point, however, it may not be until 2026. The fight has to happen and both women’s career paths are heading in the right direction.
