Is New Zealand the hotbed for mma talents right now?

[Johnnny]

Is New Zealand the best place to go for mma talents and training right now?

Guys like UFC MW Champ Israel Adesanya, UFC top contenders Brad Riddell and Dan Hooker leading the way.

Riddell only has 10 pro fights under his belt. The Dober fight will be a good test to see if he's at least borderline Top 15.

Dan Hooker is falling. He was in too many absolute wars over a relatively short period of time, which is career suicide. Then he got brutally KO'd to make it even worse. Realistically, he's no longer a Top 10 lightweight. Taking into account the long-term effects from all of the death cuts to make 145, he should seriously be thinking about retirement.

Kai Kara-France is borderline Top 10, but flyweight is very shallow.

Shane Young isn't very good, but he will probably get a couple more fights in the UFC as a favor to Izzy.

Carlos Ulberg is very green and needs to drastically improve his fight IQ, but light heavyweight is another extremely shallow division.

 

[AerialPingPong]

New Zealand is a hot bed for hookers?

Halves and props too. A country that small should not have this monoply.

 

[chaos_36]

Wait until Blood Diamond gets in the UFC, he's going to put the Welterweight division on blast. We have always had great strikers down this way and we're naturally tough but our grappling sucks.

 

[CallMeCasual]

Georgia is imo

Merab Dvalishvili
Giga Chikadze
Ilia Topuria
Guram Kutateladze
Roman Dolidze

I have high hopes for Merab, Giga, and Ilia. Guram also got potential, but Roman is kinda meh.

 

[Choco]

Is New Zealand the best place to go for mma talents and training right now?

Guys like UFC MW Champ Israel Adesanya, UFC top contenders Brad Riddell and Dan Hooker leading the way.

Wait, Adesanya if a freaking Nigerian or is not? Tha's the question.

 

[oldschoolmmafan]

Halves and props too. A country that small should not have this monoply.

 

[Misanthropist]

Aussie checking in.

I’m suprise why Kiwis don’t persue their career in MMA. They are massive, have bear size hands and quickly grow up as MW-HW at high school. They could use that advantage.