Top Prospects Thread

[DS66]

Who in your opinion are the best prospects in the UFC? I'll define "prospect" with very basic criteria: Under 30 years old, not ranked, at least one UFC fight (just to exclude any fighters who have been signed but haven't proven anything yet).

Here's a list of some top prospects on my radar, by division:

FLW:
Amir Albazi: 13-1, 1-0 UFC, 27 years old
Su Madaerju: 13-4, 2-1 UFC, 24 years old
Tagir Ulanbekov: 13-1, 1-0 UFC, 29 years old

BW:
Casey Kenney: 16-2-1, 5-1 UFC, 29 years old
Sean O'Malley: 12-1, 4-1 UFC, 26 years old
Kyler Phillips: 8-1, 2-0 UFC, 25 years old
Ricky Simon: 16-3, 4-2 UFC, 28 years old
Said Nurmagomedov: 14-2, 3-1 UFC, 28 years old
Jonathan Martinez: 13-3, 4-2 UFC, 26 years old
Jack Shore: 13-0, 2-0 UFC, 25 years old
Randy Costa: 6-1, 2-1 UFC, 26 years old
Nathaniel "The Prospect" Wood: 17-5, 4-2 UFC, 27 years old
Adrian Yanez: 12-3, 1-0 UFC, 27 years old

FW:
Ilia Topuria: 10-0, 2-0 UFC, 23 years old
Movsar Evloev: 13-0, 3-0 UFC, 26 years old
Grant Dawson: 16-1, 4-0 UFC, 26 years old
Hakeem Dawodu: 12-1-1, 5-1 UFC, 29 years old

LW:
Brad Riddell: 9-1, 3-0 UFC, 29 years old
Jordan Leavitt: 8-0, 1-0 UFC, 25 years old
Rafael Fiziev: 9-1, 3-1 UFC, 27 years old
Arman Tsarukyan: 15-2, 2-1 UFC, 24 years old
Nasrat Haqparast: 12-3, 4-2 UFC, 25 years old
Joel Alvarez: 18-2, 3-1 UFC, 27 years old
Ludovit Klein: 17-2, 1-0 UFC, 25 years old
Guram Kutateladze: 12-2, 1-0 UFC, 29 years old

WW:
Sean Brady: 13-0, 3-0 UFC, 28 years old
Shavkat Rakhmonov: 13-0, 1-0 UFC, 26 years old
Miguel Baeza: 10-0, 3-0 UFC, 28 years old
Khaos Williams: 11-2, 2-1 UFC, 26 years old

MW:
Brendan Allen: 15-4, 3-1 UFC, 25 years old
Tom Breese: 12-2, 5-2 UFC, 29 years old
Punahele Soriano: 8-0, 2-0 UFC, 28 years old
Dricus Du Plessis: 15-2, 1-0 UFC, 26 years old
Sean Strickland: 22-3, 9-3 UFC, 29 years old (most experienced prospect ever)
Kyle Daukaus: 10-1, 1-1 UFC, 27 years old

LHW:
Modestas Bukauskas: 11-3, 1-1 UFC, 26 years old
Da Un Jung: 13-2-1, 2-0-1 UFC, 27 years old

HW:
Tom Aspinall: 9-2, 2-0 UFC, 27 years old
Alexander Romanov: 13-0, 2-0 UFC, 30 years old (slightly too old but for HW I'm making an exception)


I'm sure I'm missing a bunch, any good ones that I'm missing? Particularly in the higher weight classes... it seems like it's a barren wasteland of young talent up there.

Should be interesting to look back on this thread in the future and see how these guys turn out!

EDIT: Lot's of good suggestions, adding to the list

 

[Jose Beehive]

Khamzat is ranked at 14 in WW now.

Great list otherwise!

 

[Gio]

Where's the young hot prospect, Erick Silva?

 

[DS66]

Khamzat is ranked at 14 in WW now.

Great list otherwise!

Oh shit, you're right! I wouldn't have even thought that was possible given his only win at WW is vs Rhys McKee haha. But I guess can't underestimate the hype train... I'll remove him from this list.

 

[DS66]

Where's the young hot prospect, Erick Silva?

He's still too young and inexperienced to even be considered a prospect at this point. Give him a couple more years and I'll add him to the list.

 

[Drugstore Cowboy]

Sergey Morozov and Umar Nurmagomedov are fighting each other in like two days. Both are top BW prospects. I'm hoping UFC signs Kerimov, Askhabov, Racic, Deak and Fernandes for BW. BW is by far the deepst division worldwide followed by FW.

 

[JonJonesLost3times]

LHW:
Jamahal Hill 6ft4 unbeaten light heavy 9-0, 3-0 in UFC

 

[JustOnce]

Bryce Mitchell is a real deal.

 

[Jose Beehive]

Oh shit, you're right! I wouldn't have even thought that was possible given his only win at WW is vs Rhys McKee haha. But I guess can't underestimate the hype train... I'll remove him from this list.

Yeah fair enough man, it doesn't make much sense to me, he has 2 wins at MW and 1 at WW yet is ranked at WW..

 

[davidlemonparty]

LHW:
Jamahal Hill 6ft4 unbeaten light heavy 9-0, 3-0 in UFC

This boy is ranked, and well deserved.

 

[davidlemonparty]

LW:
Brad Riddell: 9-1, 3-0 UFC, 29 years old

Really like Brad (some local Bias) and look forward to seeing if he can continue his development.

 

[The Witcher]

Lazzez not on the list. Interesting

 

[Iron Nick]

@DS66 add Arman Tsarukyan @ 155 to that list or i'll go to war with ya!

 

[Jose Beehive]

For HW I might add Carlos Felipe.. Not sure if my namesake Nascimento is still considered one after his abysmal last showing(i'm still hoping for big things) Both are young for HW though at 26 and 28 .

 

[Jose Beehive]

@DS66 add Arman Tsarukyan @ 155 to that list or i'll go to war with ya!

Yeah big big prospect! I 2nd this... Surprised he's not ranked yet!

 

[bend24]

This boy is ranked, and well deserved.

Oh damn. Didn’t realize he was ranked now. Good for him. I actually met him when I was in college. His brother lived in the same dorm as me freshmen year. Jamahal came down to visit him a couple times, was a nice dude. Pretty sure he wasn’t training mma at that time. This was years ago lol

 

[JonJonesLost3times]

Hill is ranked because the LHW division is shallow, hence why a guy can jump 20lbs and be a favourite for the belt and guys like Thiago santos can go for title contention as a journeyman middleweight and 12 fight Dominick Reyes also fights for the belt.

But he's still only 3-0 in the UFC and relatively unknown. I wasn't going to post him until I seen 4-0 and 5-1 fighters in the UFC.

 

[DS66]

@DS66 add Arman Tsarukyan @ 155 to that list or i'll go to war with ya!

Good call, not sure how I forgot about him... I'll add him on there.

 

[DS66]

Lazzez not on the list. Interesting

He's a bit older, 33 years old. He's definitely got some skills though, looked awesome beating Alhassan.

 

[BooBoyMan]

Sodiq Yusuff is better than Hakeem Dawodu IMO, he should be on that list.