I'll just do for the past year, which for me is Aldo-Mendes II, Bektic-Redmond, RDA-Pettis, RDA-Diaz, Wonderboy-Ellenberger, Maia-Magny, and Jedrzejczyk-Penne.
Current Aldo might be the best, most technical fighter ever. He showed why he arguably has the best boxing in the sport now, got his vintage mount that he gets on most guys, showed why he has the best footwork/pivots in the sport, great head movement, GOAT-level TDD, just a masterful performance all-around offensively and defensively. Whenever Mendes was trying to gain control Aldo just turned it up on some "from the favelas" shit and took control. Masterful performance against by far the best Mendes we have ever seen, who heading into that fight was looking like one of the 5 best fighters in the world, and arguably the best counter-fighter in the UFC:
Clinics in pressure fighting, which is my favourite style of fighting among elite fighters due to, from RDA and Bektic, both striking and grappling, two of the very best in the entire sport at it. Bektic had one of the most one-sided and dominant 3-round decisions I've ever seen, hurt Redmond badly on the feet two times (a gif of the counter left hook in the 2nd round and/or straight at the start of the 3rd would be much appreciated, if anyone has it.. Can't find any gifs of this fight actually) and just put on a clinic on the ground, though with a couple mistakes, but almost stopping him more than once. He really does some things with his g&p that I haven't seen anyone else do, guy could revolutionize it and easily have the best g&p and maybe even overall ground game in the entire sport soon.
RDA-Pettis, not much needs to be said. Won everywhere and clowned Pettis' guard as well, had a nice kimura at one point as well. Diaz got beaten badly as well, showed RDA's great kicking game, has one of the very, very few close to resembling Thai-style technique in kicking (from his training at Evolve):
Wonderboy's wrestling has looked so much better recently, as well as his scrambling, had a nice reversal, showed threatening g&p from top in the far one-on-one turtle ride position (very encouraging), subtle controlling of his head as he was getting up after he tried looking for a guillotine, and even clinch grappling. The best part is that he hasn't sacrificed the effectiveness of his striking, and is developing his MMA game the right way. He showed that he can maintain his composure, adjust, and execute even after taking some punches from one of the hardest punchers in the division. Ellenberger after the flash knockdown and some clinch work got completely destroyed, good stuff with the manipulating distance and timing to get into range for those kicks. No one has ever hurt Ellenberger that badly, especially in succession, got hurt at least 5 times on wobbly legs (dropped twice from spinning kicks). And Ellenberger has fought Condit, Lawler, MacDonald, Gastelum, Story, Kampmann, etc. Really Lawler, Kampmann, and Howard are the only guys that have really hurt him in the past 5 years, and it was much more of a process for them:
Maia just completely out-classed Magny on the ground, was very surprised with how many people were picking Magny giving his suspect defensive grappling:
Got to see more of Jedrzejczyk's striking, which is one of the Top-5 to 10 best in the entire sport, imo. Showed out some of her underrated counter game and kicks which she is getting more comfortable using as she grows her TDD, and thanks to Penne's confidence and ability to take punishment we got to see more layers of her game:
