If there’s one thing that Dana White wants you to believe right now, it’s that 2015 is going to be a big year for the UFC.
Take a second to realize that the UFC will welcome the new year with Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier, Conor McGregor vs. Dennis Siver, Alexander Gustafsson vs. Anthony Johnson and Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz all in the first calendar month.
So, yeah—it’s safe to say 2015 is poised to be a big year. Real big.
But you should also take a second to realize that only one of the aforementioned bouts will have any sort of championship implications. For as exciting as the rest of those fights sound, none of those men will walk out of the Octagon with UFC gold.
Those fights for the most part will come later in the year. And with most divisions hosting challengers aplenty these days, it’s safe to say each champion should have more than enough to keep himself—or herself (we’re looking at you, Ronda Rousey and future strawweight queen)—busy.
Scroll on to see what fighters we project will find themselves challenging for a title in 2015. (Note: Fighters already scheduled to fight for the title will be excluded from this list.)