In total, 15 different athletes received votes, including one athlete from the first event of the year and one from the last, and when you factor in that competitors like Fatima Kline and Mansur-Abdul Malik were ineligible because they each made an appearance in 2024, it makes those totals even more impressive.
For those curious about the process, our seven-person panel was asked to submit their top five in each of the categories — newcomer, submission, knockout, fights, and fighter — with points from 5 to 1 awarded for first-place, second-place, third-place votes, et cetera until all the votes were in and everything was tallied.
And so, without any further ado, let’s kick off our year-end awards with a look at the newcomers that impressed us the most in 2025.
1 – Quillan Salkilld
The Perth man came out of the gates strong in his rookie campaign, debuting at UFC 312 in Sydney with a 19-second knockout win over Anshul Jubli and followed it up with a gritty unanimous decision win over Yanal Ashmouz in June.