In his third full season of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Haiden Deegan has been incredible. With six out of eight moto wins to start the season, his 42-point lead is the third largest of all-time in the 250 class, after four rounds. And while Deegan won the championship last year, the defending champ has come into the 2025 outdoor season even stronger. As he explained in the post-race press conference after going 1-1 at High Point:
“I just feel like last year I was going fast, but it was like a point where I was on the edge, and I feel like this year in this off-season, I made like huge gains on my speed, where now I can run a crazy speed comfortable. So now, I literally just kind of take my time. I'd rather be smarter, then that speed's more natural to me now. I make less mistakes and I get to the lead where last year I felt like I was kind of at that pace riding over my head a little. I'd get it done, but mistakes would happen where I feel like this year, I've cleaned that up a little bit.”
Thx to @MxReference we know that Deegs has the third largest lead after 8 motos in history of 250MX class pic.twitter.com/lI6A11C8JZ
— Steve Matthes (@pulpmx) June 15, 2025
If Deegan has shown any weakness at all this year it has been that his starts have not been great. It usually takes him a bit to get into the lead. But not at High Point where he was in the lead on the first lap both motos. Even in the second moto where he did not come through the first turn that strong, he somehow maneuvered his way into the lead early.
“I was like, 'No way I'm in the lead right now,'" he recalled in the press conference. "I went from like sixth to first in like two turns. I was like, 'Oh sweet, okay.' I got into the lead, and I had a rider right behind me, Chance [Hymas] and obviously he ride's pretty good, so I was like, 'I just got to send it for a few laps,' and I got my gap and I'm pretty sure I got it up to like 10 seconds or so at one point. So, once I got it around that bubble, I just kind of held it.”
This weekend the series will take it's first weekend off and Deegan has plans: “It's definitely nice, nice little weekend off, go practice some sand in North Carolina, do the same thing I did last year. So yeah, it should be good. Go on the lake a little too, it should be nice.”
But what about his plans for the future? There are rumors that Haiden may move to the 450 Class next summer, though he could not confirm for sure until he spends some time on the 450 during the off-season.
“Yeah, probably in the offseason when I have some time to do some testing on a 450 and figure out what the plan is," he said on when a decision will be made." But yeah, as of now, 250 supercross, and outdoors is still up in the air, you know, winning these 250 titles is nice, so, if I feel good on the 450 preseason, then we'll run it.”
With both Haiden Deegan dominating in the 250 class and Jett Lawrence dominating in the 450 class, fans cannot wait for the day to see these two phenoms race each other. Until then Haiden will be learning and improving his game on the smaller bike. Will anyone else be able to mount a challenge this summer?
