Watching a fighter go from an up-and-coming prospect to a world champion is one of the most satisfying things to watch as an MMA fan.
As we’ve recently see with Jon Jones and Cain Velasquez, if a fighter is brought into the world title picture slowly and given time to harness his skills, it can be a thing of beauty when he finally steps in there with the best.
Every couple of months we see a guy who we think could be the next big thing in his weight class if only he had a little more time.
This list is comprised of prospects (one from each weight class) who have either hit that upper echelon of talent or are just getting their wings and are seen as future contenders.
The problem is there are still some unanswered questions about these guys, and we can’t yet be sure if they are quite ready to be in the championship conversation, let alone hold a championship belt.