Becoming a UFC champion is hard. Even getting into the UFC is hard, but to beat up enough of the toughest people on Earth to get to the top of the mountain is on a whole other level.
The years in the gym, toiling in obscurity and putting in the work nobody sees just to have 25 minutes in the cage and 12-pounds of gold around your waist—it’s not for everyone.
Almost as challenging as making it to the top of the heap? Predicting who might be there a year from now.
MMA is a fast-moving sport, where opportunities present themselves out of nowhere and a pivot or slip in the wrong direction can undo a life’s work.
Short-notice replacements can wreak havoc on contenders, and champions can be injured or simply abstain from fighting for a while; before you know it, someone you had never heard of last year is a world champion.
With that said, that’s what this exercise is all about: trying to predict who will hold UFC gold a year down the line.