ext week, the biggest sporting event in the world kicks off. No, I’m not talking about UFC White House, though this one is also happening in the United States. I’m talking about the FIFA World Cup.
For the next month, 48 nations will square off to determine bragging rights over the game of football (the most popular sport in the world) for the next four years. Billions of people will watch, and in the end, one team will be crowned champions of the world and bring glory to their home country. It’s awesome, but unfortunately, we here in the MMA world don’t really have anything like it. Except we do. Because for each of the past two World Cups, I made an equivalent MMA World Cup. And it’s time to do it all again!
In the first iteration of this experiment, Brazil followed in the footsteps of its footballing countrymen, raising the inaugural Golden Cage. But in 2022, the United States entered the fray and wrestled control of global MMA from the Seleção, squeaking by them in a contentious championship match. Will Brazil even the score this time around? Or will a new contender emerge to take their spot atop the global MMA hierarchy?
A quick reminder on how all this works. The World Cup of MMA runs side-by-side with the FIFA World Cup, meaning only teams qualified for the latter are entered into the former. Football teams start with 11 players, so we pick 11 fighters — one for each of the premier weight classes in the sport — to represent each country in an MMA tournament. We then play out the various matches and see which country takes home the gold.
One win equals one point, and countries share the points when neither has an eligible fighter in a given weight class. We did the best we could to fill out teams, while also not putting complete novices in there. Choices were made, and liberties were taken. If you have any issues with the team compositions, I encourage you to email the appropriate authorities at [email protected].
Special shoutout to Tapology, without whom this endeavor would be nearly impossible. Now, let’s get it on.
Group A
The biggest change to the World Cup this year is that the field expanded from 32 teams to 48. While that ends up making the first knockout stage seeding a bit complicated, it’s pretty nice when you look at a group like this — which is probably the Group of Death in this year’s tournament — with four viable teams. Now, there’s an opportunity for three teams to make it out of this stage, instead of just two.
Mexico consistently fields a strong team in this endeavor, carried by the strength of its women’s divisions, plus notable figures in a few of the other weight classes. They’ve yet to make a deep run, but that’s mostly a result of unfortunate matchups. This year’s squad remains strong and wins Group A.
South Korea were darlings in 2022, making it to the semi-finals, and they return enough talent to punch their ticket through as well. Jiri Prochazka does enough to give Czechia a chance at a wild card spot, and South Africa gives a good accounting of itself as an MMA nation on the rise.
Results: Mexico (26) wins the group. South Korea (17) comes in second. Czechia (11) gets enough wins to advance as a wild card. South Africa (9) is eliminated.
Best Fights: Dricus du Plessis vs. Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez, Yair Rodriguez vs. Doo Ho Choi
Group B
Canada gave a solid showing in 2022, and despite the broader decline in talent in the country, they’ve fielded a decent squad, helmed by top 15 fighters in multiple weight classes, and six returning names. They romp over a relatively easy group, giving the home-country fans something to celebrate.
Switzerland comes in second, backed by the trio of Volkan Oezdemir, Robert Valentin, and Ange Loosa, while Bosnia and Herzegovina far exceeds expectations and makes a play for a wild card spot. Qatar, meanwhile, brings up the rear, but this is still a huge win for the 2022 host team, who did not field a single fighter four years ago.
Results: Canada (31) wins the group. Switzerland (15) takes second place. Bosnia and Herzegovina (10) comes in third. Qatar (7) is eliminated.
Best Fights: Mike Mallott vs. Ange Loosa, Lance Gibson Jr. vs. Damir Hadzovic
Group C
Brazil is a powerhouse that’s been in the finals of every World Cup. That may well continue here as they go a perfect 33-0 in the group stage. A few names to note on this Brazil squad: Amanda Nunes has returned from retirement to try and reclaim gold, and Mackenzie Dern opted to represent Brazil instead of the United States. Will that come back to bite her?
Morocco and Scotland battle it out for second place, with Youssef Zalal and company barely edging out Paul Craig and the Bravehearts. Haiti can’t really field a team, and while they don’t go winless, they do score the fewest points of any team in this year’s World Cup.
Results: Brazil (33) wins the group. Morocco (14) comes in second. Scotland (13) takes third. Haiti (2) is eliminated.
Best Fights: Diego Lopes vs. Youssef Zalal, Caio Borralho vs. Ismail Naurdiev
Group D
Man, you’ve gotta feel bad for Paraguay and Türkiye. The United States and Australia are two of the strongest countries in this sport, so they’ve got no real chance to advance here. Even their wild card hopes are slim, given the lack of overall wins they can expect to get against the powerhouses of the group.
The U.S. sports three UFC champions, and every fighter is ranked in the top 10 of their weight classes. They’re the favorites to repeat, especially as Merab Dvalishvili is taking advantage of his U.S. citizenship to team up with Aljamain Sterling. Oh, and Justin Gaethje beat out Max Holloway for the lightweight spot because he’s ahead in the rankings (that’s how this works).
As for Australia, they’re always good. Robert Whittaker stuck around at 185 for this because there wasn’t another great option, and Jimmy Crute is a respectable light heavyweight. It’s all about teamwork for the Kangaroos.
Shoutout to Türkiye, who appear to be a nation on the rise in MMA. They tried out there, but this was a lion’s den. Paraguay, meanwhile, has some work to do.
Results: U.S. (31) wins the group. Australia (24) comes in second. Türkiye (8) and Paraguay (3) are eliminated.
Best Fights: Justin Gaethje vs. Quillan Salkilld, Aljamain Sterling vs. Alexander Volkanovski, Sean Brady vs. Jack Della Maddalena, Sean Strickland vs. Robert Whittaker
Group E
This is an impressively weak group, with Germany being the only country to field a full team. That’s a huge advantage in something like this, as they just get free wins and roll to an easy first-place finish. Michael Morales and Chito Vera carry a short-handed Ecuador to second place, while the smaller nations of Curacao and Ivory Coast do their best and, amazingly, Ivory Coast does enough to grab one of the eight wild card spots.
Results: Germany (24) wins the stage. Ecuador (15) comes in second. Ivory Coast (10) comes in third. Curacao (6) is eliminated.
Best Fights: Michael Morales vs. Islam Dulatov
Group F
The Netherlands is probably the country where I took the most liberties, and I regret nothing. Rico Verhoeven nearly upset Oleksandr Usyk; we want that guy on our World Cup team. Sadly, it’s not enough to win the stage as the Big Three here all take chunks out of each other, with Tunisia doing its best not to go home empty-handed.
Ultimately, Sweden wins the stage on the back of a lot of veteran experience, while the Dutch come in second. Japan has a strong core unit, but its supporting players kill them, and they miss out on the guaranteed advancement, but do earn a wild card place.
Results: Sweden (22) wins the stage. The Netherlands (19) comes in second. Japan (17) takes third. Tunisia (6) is eliminated.
Best Fights: Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Bernardo Sopaj?
Group G
This is a highly competitive group, as no team is a monster, but every team has some strengths. Belgium is an MMA nation on the rise, as the recent PFL event showed; Egypt has fighters in every spot on the roster, Iran has enough of a regional scene to field a real team, and New Zealand is a known staple of high-level MMA.
The impressive young talent of Belgium carries it to a group win, while New Zealand comes in second on the back of established veterans, barely edging out Egypt, which also advances. Also to note, in this exercise, Carlos Ulberg’s knee isn’t jacked up, and Navajo Stirling is filling in at heavyweight since his teammate is the obvious light heavyweight contender.
Results: Belgium (19) wins the stage. New Zealand (18) comes in second. Egypt (16) takes third. Iran (10) is eliminated.
Best Fights: Boris Atangana vs. Carlos Ulberg, Patrick Habirora vs. Jay Jay Wilson, Hamdy Abdelwahab vs. Amir Aliakbari (LOL)
Group H
This group is a tough hand as neither Saudi Arabia nor Cape Verde can field a real team. That leaves Spain and Uruguay to battle it out for the group, and one of those countries has the Topuria brothers backing it.
Spain wins, Uruguay advances, Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia pick up a few wins each.
Results: Spain (25) wins the group. Uruguay (18) comes in second. Saudi Arabia (6) and Cape Verde (5) are eliminated.
Best Fights: Look, not every stage is a winner, OK?
Group I
It’s at this point in the endeavor that I realized that a) the World Cup expanding to 48 teams has added a lot of work to this thing, and b) man, not all these teams need to be here.
France is one of the favorites of this tournament, having made it to the semi-finals of the last two World Cups. They romp over the rest of the group, with the second-highest point total of the open rounds, while Norway picks up the scraps. Iraq has Amir Albazi, who goes 3-0 for them, but that’s not enough as Reug Reug and company improbably eke out enough wins to make it in as the last of the eight wild card teams.
(At this point, I should explain ties are the first tie-breaker for advancement. Senegal had seven ties compared to Iraq’s five.)
Results: France (32) wins the group. Norway (9) comes in second. Senegal (8) takes third. Iraq (8) is eliminated.
Best Fights: Ciryl Gane vs. Reug Reug, Oumar Sy vs. Marthin Hamlet
Group J
Argentina has a strong core of fighters in the middle of their lineup, headed by Kevin Vallejos and Santiago Ponzinibbio, and that carries the group. Aleksandr Rakic and Bogdan Grad bring Austria to second place, while Algeria just misses the knockout stage due to tiebreakers.
Results: Argentina (29) wins the group. Austria (16) comes in second. Algeria (8) and Jordan (4) are eliminated.
Best Fights: Esteban Ribovics vs. Mochamed Machaev, Kevin Vallejos vs. Bogdan Grad