How’s this for an “overreaction”? When it comes to who’s the 2024 Male Fighter of the Year, Ilia Topuria ’s quality over Alex Pereira ’s quantity could not be ignored. To be sure, both Topuria and Pereira had incredible years. Topuria claimed the featherweight championship with a knockout of Alexander Volkanovski back in February then followed up that win by doing something no fighter had done before: knock out Max Holloway for his first title defense. As for Pereira, he defended his light heavyweight championship three times in less than six months – between April and October – with knockouts of Jamahal Hill , Jiri Prochazka and Khalil Rountree