Okamoto: The 12 MMA fights I want most in 2025

A new year is upon us. It's time for optimism and hope, right?

I believe in both, but unfortunately, mixed martial arts has not been fantastic about giving me what I want. Particularly, my top choices.

In my annual ESPN story about fights I want to see in the coming year, I asked in 2022 for Francis Ngannou vs. Jon Jones. No luck. I also asked for Ngannou vs. Jones in 2023. Nope. Last year, I switched it up and went Jones vs. Tom Aspinall. Also nope.

Are you sensing a pattern? What I really want is for Jones to fight the best heavyweight on the planet, so I can find out whether Jones is the best heavyweight on the planet. Have I learned my lesson going into 2025? Of course not. Here are a dozen fights I want to see this year, including (sigh) Jones vs. Aspinall.

1. Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall, UFC heavyweight championship

I guess I'm signing up for another year of Jon Jones heavyweight disappointment. I hope that every reason Jones has given for not wanting to fight Aspinall has been a disguised way of telling the UFC, "Pay me." At this point in his career, it is Jones' privilege to seek the biggest payday, attached to the lowest amount of risk. Floyd Mayweather Jr. did that for years, and exited boxing quite rich and with his health intact. That's how you beat the fight game. It's on the UFC to offer Jones so much money he can't afford not to fight Aspinall. This fight needs to happen -- not just for Jones, the UFC or even Aspinall, but for the sport. It's that big. As someone who loves MMA, I will be slightly crushed if it doesn't happen. A fight such as this is why we watch MMA.

2. Jones/Aspinall vs. Alex Pereira, UFC heavyweight championship

Pereira is No. 1 in the world in terms of being must-see TV. He's the most interesting man in MMA. I think he'd be at a competitive disadvantage against Jones or Aspinall, two athletic heavyweights with high-level grappling. But that would be the point of him moving up to heavyweight: for the challenge. If the UFC booked Jones vs. Aspinall, and then Pereira got the winner we would call 2025 a banner year, regardless of what else happens.

3. Dricus Du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev, UFC middleweight championship

You were all set to write off Chimaev's future in October, weren't you? We all were. He couldn't stay healthy and hadn't looked as dominant in his most recent wins. Plus, there was his history of missing weight. The sport was as down on his future as ever, and then he submitted Robert Whittaker, a former champion, in three minutes. If Du Plessis hangs on to the belt against Sean Strickland in February, Chimaev has to be next up. And him fighting for a title will be a moment we've been waiting for since 2020.

4. Sean Strickland vs. Khamzat Chimaev, UFC middleweight championship

If Strickland wins in February and recaptures his belt, this matchup is just as high on the list as the one above. He'd go after Chimaev, verbally, in ways no one has before. It would be an interesting fight build-up, I promise you that. They also have a history. They've trained together in Las Vegas and there are wildly different versions of how that went, depending on whom you ask. I hope Chimaev fights Du Plessis and Strickland in 2025.

5. Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes, UFC women's bantamweight championship

This will happen. I'm pretty certain of it. The way Nunes has engaged on social media. The competitiveness of the two. No disrespect to the current champion, Julianna Peña, but this Harrison vs. Nunes fight would be one of the UFC's biggest events of the year. And I am here for it. In fact, I think this would be the biggest fight in women's MMA history. It's going to happen.

6. Sean O'Malley vs. José Aldo, UFC men's bantamweight

I've been (shamelessly) plugging this matchup for a few months, and no one has jumped on board with me. I've even brought it up, in person, to Aldo (he loved it) and O'Malley's coach, Tim Welsh (he didn't hate it). I haven't understood the UFC's matchmaking of Aldo in recent years. Matching him against good but unknown prospects such as Jonathan Martinez and Mario Bautista seemed to be a waste of his star power. Oddly, Aldo would be the biggest fight O'Malley could sign up for right now. It'd be an exciting stand-up fight, bigger for O'Malley than any title fight to reclaim his belt. Why is no one else talking about this matchup?

7. Ilia Topuria vs. Diego Lopes, UFC featherweight championship

If Pereira is No. 1 in terms of must-see TV, then Topuria is No. 2, and not far behind. His fighting style is so pretty to watch. If you believe he's the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, I can't strongly disagree. He does everything well, and he does it with style, technique and finishing ability. Perhaps I have this fight too low on this list, which shows how much I want to see the fights listed above. Alexander Volkanovski deserves a second crack at Topuria, and I'm excited to see that fight, but I will be more excited for a new matchup with Lopes, if and when it happens. Topuria has talked about moving to 155 pounds, but I think we'll see this fight.

8. Islam Makhachev fighting for the UFC welterweight championship

Belal Muhammad is the current champ, but I can't pit him against Makhachev because the two have become teammates in recent years, and from what I hear, they'll never fight each other. Still, it is Makhachev's dream to move up and win a second title, and as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world (in my opinion), he deserves that chance. So, either Muhammad would have to lose or move up a weight class to give Makhachev the opportunity. I don't see the second possibility happening, but I wouldn't rule it out. Bottom line: Makhachev moving up to try to win a second title would be a massive storyline, and there are a couple of ways it could happen in the next 12 months.

9. Dustin Poirier vs. Max Holloway, BMF championship (in New Orleans)

What a send-off for Poirier this would be. It's no secret that he wants one more and he wants it in his home state of Louisiana. Seeing him fight in New Orleans would be a gift, and the UFC is trying to make it work. The Holloway matchup makes sense -- even though Poirier owns two wins over him -- because this one would be for the BMF belt. Their second fight in 2019 was a banger, and Holloway was at a bit of a disadvantage moving up in weight. If Poirier wins, he would end his career with a BMF title. Beautiful. If Holloway wins, he becomes a title challenger at lightweight, with wins over Poirier and Justin Gaethje. It's the right fight, with two of the best of the past decade.

10. Zhang Weili vs. Tatiana Suarez, UFC strawweight championship

This is the only matchup on this list that's already booked. It has been such a long time coming for Suarez, who has an incredible story of missing out on a potential Olympics bid due to cancer, and would have fought for a UFC title years ago were it not for rotten injury luck. She has been around the sport for a long time, but we still don't know the true extent of her potential. Her story is similar to Chimaev's in that way. She could jump to being the No. 1 pound-for-pound women's fighter with a win over Zhang. Or Zhang could expose unknown holes in her game. I don't know what will happen in this fight, which makes it that much more exciting.

11. Valentina Shevchenko vs. Zhang Weili, UFC women's flyweight championship

Shevchenko's dominance hasn't been what it used to be, but at the end of the day, she's coming off a one-sided conclusion to her trilogy with Alexa Grasso and there aren't many title challengers awaiting her. Manon Fiorot is an obvious one, but after that, it's worth thinking about Shevchenko's career from a sense of legacy rather than being the traditional next-woman-up defending champion. Shevchenko vs. Zhang has been a tantalizing option for a long time, but the timing has never been right. The UFC isn't against the potential matchup. It has about it internally. This might be the year in which it makes sense, and it could easily headline a pay-per-view.

12. Leon Edwards vs. Jorge Masvidal, UFC welterweight

I'm not that invested in Masvidal returning to the UFC. I love him as a fighter and loved covering his career, but I don't enjoy seeing guys come out of retirement past their prime. I don't think many true MMA fans do. He is coming back, though, and when thinking about matchups, why wouldn't the UFC do this one? With the history of that backstage confrontation in 2019? Why wouldn't Edwards want the fight? For a long time, he wanted an opportunity to right that wrong, not just as a competitor but personally. That night in 2019 was crazy. Masvidal upsets Darren Till, goes backstage and interrupts an interview to punch Edwards, calling it a "three-piece and a soda." That was a memorable night in MMA history. I'd enjoy revisiting it.