MMA Junkie's Fight of the Month for June: A record-setting UFC flyweight war
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from June 2025: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie's Fight of the Month award for June.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting on your choice.
Nominee: Phil Rowe def. Ange Loosa at UFC on ESPN 69
For nearly 90 seconds, Ange Loosa's (10-5 MMA, 2-3 UFC) mouthpiece laid on the canvas, and in about that same time, Phil Rowe (11-5 MMA, 4-3 UFC) started to mount a comeback in the welterweight bout.
With less than a minute left in the fight, Rowe put Loosa away with a vicious TKO that easily could have been stopped sooner by referee Brent McKeehan, and finally was when Loosa collapsed to the canvas.
Nominee: Tagir Ulanbekov def. Azat Maksum at UFC on ABC 8
Tagir Ulanbekov (17-2 MMA, 6-1 UFC) showed again that he is an emerging threat in the flyweight division with a entertaining win over Azat Maksum (15-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC).
Ulanbekov extended his winning streak to four fights by being a step ahead of Maksum throughout the 15-minute affair, ultimately leaving with the unanimous decision nod.
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Nominee: JunYong Park def. Ismail Naurdiev at UFC on ABC 8
JunYong Park got one of the wilder decision wins in middleweight history when he claimed the win after Ismail Naurdiev was deducted two points for an illegal blow.
With Naurdiev finding success early, he threw an illegal knee that cut Park open and nearly stopped the fight. Park battled on after the two-point deduction and rallied back to dominantly defeat Naurdiev with one ultra-rare 29-25 scorecard.
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Nominee: Nazim Sadykhov def. Nikolas Motta at UFC on ABC 8
Azerbaijan's Nazim Sadykhov (11-1-1 MMA, 4-0-1 UFC) sent the Baku crowd into a frenzy when, after a back-and-forth war for nearly two rounds, he blasted and dropped a bloodied Nikolas Motta (15-6 MMA, 3-3 UFC) for the TKO finish.
Both men were hurt and on the ropes throughout the just over nine minutes of chaotic action. Sadykhov was the winner, both men were rewarded as each got $100,000 in bonus money for Fight of the Night and an individual Performance of the Night award.
NAZIM SADYKOV GETS THE KO AFTER AN EPIC FIGHT AT #UFCBAKU 💥 🇦🇿 pic.twitter.com/mLPIsvWSIW
The winner: Joshua Van def. Brandon Royval at UFC 317
If it wasn't already apparent that he's elite, Joshua Van (15-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) proved that Saturday at UFC 317 when he defeated Brandon Royval (17-8 MMA, 7-4 UFC) by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27) in an elite flyweight featured fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Van's power and timing proved the difference. In Round 1, he out-timed Royval in the exchanges and appeared to land the more effective shots. Although Rovval came on strong in Round 3, Van dug deeped and out-dogged "Raw Dawg."
In the final moments of the bout, Van may have stole the fight on the judges' scorecards as he badly stunned and dropped Royval. Though the buzzer saved Royval, he was still wobbly when he got up the shake hands with Van after the horn.
The bout was one of the year's best by many accounts. Van and Royval showed off elite technical abilities, but also provided exciting levels of violence.
Prior to the bout, Dana White said the winner of the bout would be next for flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja, and Van faced off with him in the octagon that same night.
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