2025 Australian MMA Performance of the Year - Amena Hadaya

This award could have gone a dozen different ways.

George Mangos stopping Justin Van Heerden at Eternal 101 in round one, straight off the back of a DWCS loss, was the definition of a statement. Darcy Vendy’s finishes over Mat Myers and Blair Bretag were vicious, and it is always hard to look past a Vendy performance when he is on. Marwan Rahiki wrote a whole movie script in a single year, claiming the HEX and Beatdown featherweight titles against Sem Kakembo and Gabriel Schlupp in narrative altering fights. Lisa Kyriacou’s dominant turnaround against the rising Faine Mequita deserves real love. Matty Iann taking out the bantamweight boogeyman Conor Birch was massive. You could even stretch it to the UFC and hand it to Alex Volkanovski for the way he reclaimed gold against Diego Lopes. Or Jack Della for his title claiming bout against Belal Muhammad which feels often forgotten.

But the 2025 Performance of the Year is not about the cleanest technique or the biggest name.

It is about doing something that should not be possible.

Performance of the Year

Amena Hadaya defeats Samantha Jean Francois via TKO, round 3, UAE Warriors 64

Amena Hadaya tore her ACL in the early parts of round one and still went on to finish her opponent on international soil with a third round TKO.

The injury happened during her opponent’s hip throw, and it was not just a tweak. It was a full knee disaster. ACL rupture, partial tears through the MCL and LCL, and a meniscus tear. Her third ACL tear. Her sixth knee operation coming.

You can even see the moment the fight changes. You can see her hobbling, and you can see the referee, Marc Goddard, checking on her as she tries to keep moving in round one. Most fighters would have taken the sensible exit right there. No one would blame them. In fact, most people would encourage it.

Instead, Amena locked in.

She fought through two more rounds on a broken wheel, found ways to win every exchange she could, and then finished the job with a third round stoppage. That is not just toughness. That is a mentality you only build in rooms like Freestyle MMA, where grit is a skill in itself.

Wins and losses in title fights are one thing. What Amena did was different. She was shown the door with multiple valid excuses, any one of them enough to quit. She chose none of them.

Congratulations to Amena Hadaya. Every bit of this award is earned.

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