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Bellators biggest prospects - highest ceilings?

J

jamesgalb

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Who has the highest ceiling?

Which fighters will turn out to be consistently ranked in the top 20 over the next 5 years?

-Heavyweight
Dmitriy Sosnovskiy (8-0)
Augusto Sakai (7-0)
Stuart Austin (8-0)


-Light Heavyweight
Liam McGeary (9-0)
Phelipe Lins (9-1)
Ray Sloan (7-0)


-Middleweight
Brandon Halsey (7-0)
Ben Reiter (14-0)


-Welterweight
Michael Page (6-0)
Chris Honeycutt (5-0)
Adam McDonough (11-1)


-Lightweight
Brent Primus (5-0)
Pablo Villaseca (9-0)
LaRue Burley (4-0)


-Featherweight
Julio Cesar Neves (30-0)
Darrion Caldwell (5-0)
Bubba Jenkins (7-1)


-Bantamweight
Brandon Bender (12-1)
Steve Carcia (5-0)

(note: this list is mainly of untested prospects. Bellator certainly has more real up and coming 'contenders' that I didnt list here)
 
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McDonaugh has to drop, imo. Other than that, nice prospects on that list.
 
Arkridge said:
McGeary, Halsey, Honeycutt, Caldwell.
Click to expand...

I also think Sosnovskiy, Lins, Page and Neves are going to be long-term players that stay top ranked.

Those are the 8 I see as being the most successful... Outside of that I am very interested in how far all of them make it...
 
McGreary, Halsey, Page and Neves, imo. Haven't seen Caldwell fight yet, but I've heard great things
 
jamesgalb said:
I also think Sosnovskiy, Lins, Page and Neves are going to be long-term players that stay top ranked.

Those are the 8 I see as being the most successful... Outside of that I am very interested in how far all of them make it...
Click to expand...

I'll have to check out Sosnovskiy and Lins. Haven't seen Sos fight, and Lins the only fight I saw was his injury against Anundson. Page is really good, I just want to see him fight a legit wrestler and I wanna see Neves against someone legit too, but he's looked good against the lesser guys in his 30-0 steak.
 
Arkridge said:
I'll have to check out Sosnovskiy and Lins. Haven't seen Sos fight, and Lins the only fight I saw was his injury against Anundson. Page is really good, I just want to see him fight a legit wrestler and I wanna see Neves against someone legit too, but he's looked good against the lesser guys in his 30-0 steak.
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Michael Page vs Chris Honeycutt could happen one day :)

Right now I think Chris dominates him via wrestling because I am not sure Page has the TDD to stop a Honeycutt... But in a few years...
 
Liam, Honeycutt, Caldwell, Halsey, Primus
 
McGeary looks like a complete monster. Dude could be a star with his style.
 
I am very excited to see Honeycutt's progression as an MMA fighter, and think the guy has some serious potential.

And I don't know if many will agree with me, but I think Barncat is about ready for a career resurgance.
 
LaRue will challenge for the title. He's gonna be at the top soon. Gets past pina. A win over Couture or rickles only ones I see really challenging him are Held, chandler and brooks
 
Slongkong said:
LaRue will challenge for the title. He's gonna be at the top soon. Gets past pina. A win over Couture or rickles only ones I see really challenging him are Held, chandler and brooks
Click to expand...

I like Larue, but I dunno about that. He's still very raw and beat Bubba cause Bubba's cardio was garbage. He needs to keep working and improving and have some easier fights before fighting someone like Rickels or Couture.
 
Neves/MVP can be good but I think the wrestlers have higher ceiling. Caldwell/Honeycutt have the base to be top guys.
 
CC27 said:
Neves/MVP can be good but I think the wrestlers have higher ceiling. Caldwell/Honeycutt have the base to be top guys.
Click to expand...

I very hopeful on Halseys growth. His hype would be huge in 2015 coming off wins over Shlemenko and Manhoef and being undefeated.
 
Since he looked GREAT b4 it, I don't think Lins should lose his status because of his injury. Did anyone hear the extent of it? I know the assumption was torn acl, but some of those are a bad sprain, or light sprain and panic.

McDonough would be A LOT better prospect at 155. He has good timing, combos, and wrestling. But he just couldn't inside enough against Koreshkov. Some at 170 can just dwarf him. He doesn't have that problem near as much at 170. He could create quite a few interesting match-ups at 155.

I quite liked the cut of the jib of a guy not on your list named Sergio Rios. He had diverse stand-up with good set-ups, a dangerous guard, and his tdd seemed ok when he wasn't getting over-aggressive with striking attempts. He's got a tough test to say the least next against Awad. That seems like too much too soon, especially given he's not a wrestler which seems like the best way to attack Awad right now. If he could somehow upset a still improving Awad at age 31, then he's right there in the mix of top Bellator prospects.

Also, a guy who we haven't seen in Bellator so far, but looked great on video is Davi Ramos. He's a powerful striker with really good bjj credentials. That historically is a good combo. Impressed me from what I've seen of him so far early in his MMA career.

Barncat and Macapa were weird cuts at young ages for UFC, and they could qualify too. Look how much Guerreiro has improved.

From that list I'd say McGeary, Lins, Halsey, Page, Honeycutt, Primus, Neves, Caldwell, and Jenkins have high upsides.
 
Sergio Rios does indeed look to be solid Jon... His fight with Awad will tell a lot about his potential.
 
I dunno how Goiti Yamauchi isn't being mentioned, only 21 years old with the best skill set and wins then any other prospect in Bellator
 
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