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Now that Blaydes and Ngannou -- Black Beast fight notwithstanding -- have graduated into contender status – who do you think will be the next man to follow their footsteps?
It seems like, right now, there's slim pickings there with Tuivasa and Justin Willis being the two most promising guys rising through the ranks, but I don't buy them as actual contenders for now. I think they'd be middle of the pack guys or gatekeepers at best, granted they have time to improve.
Dmitry Sosnovskiy seemed very promising, but his debut was unimpressive to say the least, but I won't write him off yet. Adam Wieczorek is kind of a weird prospect, given he's looked underwhelming in both of his fights but pulled out the win in the end. Still, pulling off an Omoplata against an olympic caliber wrestler like Arjan Bhullar is pretty beastly.
I guess Greg Hardy and Juan Adams might be guys to watch out for in the coming years, but we'll have to wait and see how both look in the octagon before hailing them as the future of the division. I heard they were in the process of signing Sergey Pavlovich too, who is one of the more promising prospects out there, so hopefully they net him.
TL;DR: the current batch of prospects at HW seem like middle of the pack fighters, most interesting ones are the unknowns like Juan Adams and Hardy. Pavlovich would spice things up if he doesn't end up being overhyped, which I don't think he is.
It seems like, right now, there's slim pickings there with Tuivasa and Justin Willis being the two most promising guys rising through the ranks, but I don't buy them as actual contenders for now. I think they'd be middle of the pack guys or gatekeepers at best, granted they have time to improve.
Dmitry Sosnovskiy seemed very promising, but his debut was unimpressive to say the least, but I won't write him off yet. Adam Wieczorek is kind of a weird prospect, given he's looked underwhelming in both of his fights but pulled out the win in the end. Still, pulling off an Omoplata against an olympic caliber wrestler like Arjan Bhullar is pretty beastly.
I guess Greg Hardy and Juan Adams might be guys to watch out for in the coming years, but we'll have to wait and see how both look in the octagon before hailing them as the future of the division. I heard they were in the process of signing Sergey Pavlovich too, who is one of the more promising prospects out there, so hopefully they net him.
TL;DR: the current batch of prospects at HW seem like middle of the pack fighters, most interesting ones are the unknowns like Juan Adams and Hardy. Pavlovich would spice things up if he doesn't end up being overhyped, which I don't think he is.
