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MMA's All-Violence First Team: Spotlighting the most ruthless fighters of 2024

The past 12 months were a tough time for the pacifists in mixed martial arts.

drake riggs
Uncrowned
·12-min read
ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - OCTOBER 26: Khamzat Chimaev of Russia prepares to face Robert Whittaker of New Zealand in a middleweight fight during the UFC 308 event at Etihad Arena on October 26, 2024 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
Khamzat Chimaev has been one of the most dominant forces in MMA history. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

We're all sick to a slight degree for being MMA fans, and there's plenty to digest in the weekly global fisticuffs when you can find beauty in such diverse levels of violence.

That violence was on full display in 2024. Across every division, some stars became — or remained — the most must-see of the bunch, while the handiwork of others was sometimes even too difficult to look at. Everybody loves guaranteed excitement, so here's to more chaos in 2025 as we ring in the new year by reflecting on the most savage members of the MMA world over the past 12 months. May your in-cage (or ring) brutality never cease! (Shoutout to the legend Jordan Breen, the originator of the OG All-Violence teams.)

Believe it or not, heavyweight was among the two hardest divisions to highlight this year. Ultimately, all arrows circled back to an all-time dominant force and his bone-breaking ways.

UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones only spent one night in the Octagon in 2024. As he historically does, Jones made the most of his time, battering Stipe Miocic from pillar to post en route to a third-round spinning back kick knockout. The strike was a devastating blow that immediately melted the former two-time champion. Upon replay, the thud is even more gruesome when listening back, as Miocic's ribs take the full force of Jones' heel.

Jones, 38, utilized his punishing ground-and-pound before the finishing sequence, pummeling Miocic in the first round. That opening beatdown would have stopped most fighters with lesser toughness, but it only added to Jones' viciousness.

Overall, Jones did enough in one fight to supersede any of his heavyweight peers in 2024, landing him comfortably as the division's most destructive.

Not much more needs to — or can be — said about the brilliance of Alex Pereira's destructive and superhero-like year.

Three fights, three knockouts, all violence. Future champions will study Pereira's 2024 campaign for years to come, finding it staggeringly unable to be replicated. Within eight months, Pereira silenced Jamahal Hill at the biggest UFC event of all time, scored essentially two knockouts in one fight against Jiri Prochazka, and capped it off with a bruising dismantling of Khail Rountree Jr.

Pereira is arguably the greatest striker in MMA history and his battles with these fellow strikers showcase that while supporting his diversity in punishment. Flying knees, earth-shaking left hooks, head kicks, body punches — you name it and Pereira will smash opponents with it. As a fan of pure striking, it's impossible not to love "Poatan."

Like Jones, Khamzat Chimaev is a unique addition to our team by having just a single appearance in 2024.

However, it's pretty simple: Chimaev literally broke a man's face with his squeeze. And not just any man — Robert freaking Whittaker.

Chimaev's career-highlight face crank at the end of his first round against the former middleweight champion was the conclusion of a typical "Borz" feast. He smothered and dissected "The Reaper" with his impossible top control, avoiding any damage.

Aside from being an absurdly violent finish, Chimaev gave us one of the most horrific performances in MMA history.

Brazil's Carlos Prates is on fire heading into 2025, smoking welterweights (and cigarettes) at every turn.

"The Nightmare" followed the tried-and-true best way to break out and become a star: Fight a lot and knock people out. What Prates lacked in title fights compared to Pereira he made up for with an additional win on his 4-0 ledger for 2024.

Trevin Giles, Charles Radtke, Li Jingliang and Neil Magny all fell victim to Prates via nasty knockout blows. The Fighting Nerds product unleashed his dynamite-like fists on three of the four, while Radtke succumbed to brutal knees to the body.

Prates and the judges don't get along very well, and we love him for that.

Joel Alvarez is awesome.

Although Alvarez isn't undefeated like welterweight's Shavkat Rakhmonov, he has a flawless finishing percentage with all 22 of his wins coming in stoppages. Somewhat surprisingly, Alvarez has won 17 times by submission with only five knockouts. He's become the definition of a club-and-sub master, thumping opponents before snapping a limb or stealing their oxygen. Drakkar Klose discovered that firsthand in Alvarez's most recent win at UFC Tampa.

In Alvarez's first win of 2024, he styled on Elvis Brener, kneeing and punching his way to a stoppage win. His arsenal is as versatile as it is deadly.

Of all the divisions, earning this accolade for lightweight may very well be the most prestigious. If you're somehow unfamiliar with Alvarez, get familiar.

Like Carlos Prates, Diego Lopes made the most of his activity in 2024.

Lopes is best known as a grappling ace who has doubled as a coach throughout his 32-fight career. But over the past 12 months, the Lobo Gym representative developed into a well-rounded lethal weapon and put the whole featherweight class on notice.

UFC 300 started Lopes' 3-0 run in 2024 with an epic 89-second knockout of perennial contender Sodiq Yusuff. Brian Ortega played a pivotal role in Lopes' year by essentially giving him the opportunity at three fights when Ortega fell ill at UFC 303; in came Dan Ige to save the day on four hours' notice, and Lopes continued to shine bright en route to a unanimous decision win.

When Lopes and Ortega eventually fought at UFC 306 in September, Lopes put on a show and nearly finished the notoriously durable Ortega several times. The Brazilian-Mexican has officially become a shark on the feet and the mat.

Despite bantamweight being one of the most talent-rich divisions across MMA, a prospect on the rise got the nod.

The 26-year-old Payton Talbott slept his way to the weight class' violence mantle and became the youngest fighter on Uncrowned's inaugural All-Violence list. Hype quickly started to build behind Talbott upon his UFC arrival in 2023 and he remained on a slow roll in prospect matchups in 2024.

Against Cameron Saaiman in March, Talbott showed there were levels to their progressions, outstriking the South African for an early second-round knockout. Talbott justifiably earned a Performance of the Night bonus for that one, then pocketed a second in his follow-up showcase against Yanis Ghemmouri — a 19-second starching in June. Outside his UFC contract-winning effort on Contender Series, Talbott has been a finishing machine throughout his budding 9-0 career.

Calling bantamweight a division in 2024 is admittedly generous. We have to be fair though, and there was one correct answer — and going with only the winner felt wrong because the loser's otherworldly toughness shined brighter than ever.

Norma Dumont became a bonafide contender in 2024, and while she hasn't been consistently entertaining in the opinion of most, Dumont created arguably the worst cut in MMA history at UFC 306 when she split Irene Aldana's face into two.

The striking clinic saw Dumont over-perform against a historically dangerous boxer like Aldana. Dumont jabbed and elbowed her way to a unanimous decision that undeniably should have resulted in a doctor's stoppage TKO win.

When you have a scene that could be straight out of a horror film, you make the list. I mean, "Aldana vs. Dumont" is now blurred when searched on Google Images. Nasty.

The lower in weight our Most Wanted list goes, the more creativity — and arguably more violence — was produced in 2024.

RIZIN invested in its flyweight division this past year, bringing in several new acquisitions from around the globe. The standout? "The Ultimate Fighter 24" alum and teammate of UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis, Nkazimulo Zulo.

The South African striker came into his own in 2024, earning his RIZIN contract with an EFC guillotine choke of Gift Walker. In his RIZIN debut, Zulu continued to shine with a vicious onslaught of knees in the clinch accompanied by a flurry of punches and spinning wheel kick. While Zulu closed out the year with a tough loss to RIZIN flyweight champion and perennial elite fighter Kyoji Horiguchi, he enters the new year as a guaranteed good time in the ring or cage. (Well, not for his opponents, but for the fans.)

(I mean, just watch this highlight.)

England's Dakota Ditcheva was one of the easiest selections for 2024's Most Wanted.

"Dangerous" lived up to her nickname in all four of her outings to win the PFL title and become the new face of the promotion. Ditcheva stunned every opponent, knocking all of them out with body shots.

Four-for-four with a hatred for organs. Perfectly fitting of our MMA violence requirements. It hurts just remembering all those punishing blows.

Ditcheva is as savage as it gets at flyweight and should continue her streak of brutality when looking to extend her 14-0 unbeaten streak in the new year.

Strawweight has been a weird weight class in recent years. What was once the clear best women's division globally has fallen harshly stagnant among its upper echelon.

What hasn't been stagnant is the violence we see weekly. Brazil's Valesca "Tina Black" Machado failed her bid at landing a UFC contract in 2021 but has been on a tear since. The former Invicta FC champion went 3-0 in 2024 and started her campaign with one of the best knockouts of the year.

In 50 seconds, Machado scored a nasty knockout on Taylor Mauldin in Urijah Faber's A1 Combat. Two return bouts to Invicta followed that saw Machado earn unanimous decisions, outsriking Yulia Ostroverkhova and Yasmin Castanho with relative ease.

When the Muay Thai practitioner is on, she's a scary one to deal with. 2024 was further evidence.

Best. In. The. World.

Seika Izawa is the best female fighter on Earth — if you follow my rankings in our Uncrowned panel. Undefeated at 14-0 and 27 years old, the RIZIN and Deep Jewels titleholder is unequivocally the best her division offers and has an unmatched killer instinct. Give her an inch and she takes a mile on the ground.

The judoka-turned-wrestler has been a submission wizard throughout her still-young career and is developing her striking to match. In one of the Submission of the Year candidates, Izawa secured a nasty ninja choke in her champion vs. champion clash against Si Yoon Park after landing a thunderous right hand. Afterward, Izawa retired one of the atomweight division's latest staples Kanna Asakura in a typically dominant three-round affair. Upkicks, grounded knees ... the RIZIN roster has an advantage on a list like this. With Izawa, however, she utilizes her overall toolbox better than most.

To close out her 2024 run, Izawa added an expected triangle armbar to her résumé when she tapped Lucia Apdelgarim in less than three minutes at RIZIN 49. In the lightest weight class in MMA, there's none better or more violent than "Starflower."

I know, I know — I just called atomweight the lightest weight class in MMA. Because it is. Microweight isn't a real weight class. Think of something akin to PFL's now-defunct women's lightweight division which was solely created for Kayla Harrison — only, this is the opposite. Japan's Deep Jewels organization is committing to the below-100-pound competitors, but it's still extremely experimental.

Despite all that, how do we have several highlights to share at 2024's closure and not include Eun Bi Cho's disgusting shutdown of Momoka Yamazaki?

"Libby" is not the greatest fighter in the world. Far from it, to be honest.

At 0-5, the 36-year-old entered her sixth pro fight at Deep Jewels 44 this past March and decided to go Hulk mode on her diminutive counterpart. In 57 seconds, Cho blasted her way through Yamazaki to earn perhaps the best first win any 0-5 fighter has ever gotten.

She lost her follow-up bout that came months later, but the knockout was so great, it deserved a mention, not only for her, but for the mighty little division that could.