On Saturday night, the UFC held a pay-per-view in Montreal that featured a main card with a championship fight and a couple notable names from MMA‘s past and present. It was an unanticipated card that turned out to be a good one, much to the surprise of fans.
While Demetrious Johnson and Kyoji Horiguchi were the headliners for their championship status, it was names like “Rampage Jackson” and “Michael Bisping” that figured to be the biggest on the card. Those fights seemingly had the most attention, which was thought to bring in most of the views.
That said, the main card also featured a young Brazilian who is set to make waves in the bantamweight division. That man is Thomas Almeida, and he is just one of the many young bantamweights the UFC currently has who makes the division the one to watch in the future.
Almeida, just 23 years old, is undefeated at 19-0. He threw himself in the 135-pound fray with his performance Saturday night, as he knocked out respected WEC and UFC veteran Yves Jabouin in under a round.
That performance, coupled with the recent outings of many of the young UFC fighters, shows that the bantamweight division is the division of the future.
Right now, we have a young champion who is one of the most improved fighters in the UFC by the name of T.J. Dillashaw. He has another young counterpart who is a big rival right now in Renan Barao, the man Dillashaw took the title from and has a rematch against already.
In the wings of it all, old-timers like Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber are still in the division and contenders in their own right. Most of the fighters in the top 10 are veterans of the division and represent the “old guard,” but the UFC has a ton of young guys who will make the division among the most competitive the company has.
Obviously, one of those guys is Almeida. He is young, powerful, exciting and aggressive—characteristics that will surely continue to get him the spotlight.
Then consider UFC on Fox 15, where prodigy Aljamain Sterling got his trademark win by choking out longtime contender Takeya Mizugaki in an incredible performance. Sterling is certainly a contender now, but he is still young and gaining experience as an undefeated prospect.
Also, Chris Holdsworth, a teammate of Dillashaw, has already pushed his stock up, though injuries have hampered some of his progress. He dominated The Ultimate Fighter 18, where he was the season champion, and he hasn’t looked back since.
We could go on all day about the numerous up-and-coming fighters, but there are almost too many to name. Some of the young and talented future contenders putting their names on the map are Cody Garbrandt, Frankie Saenz, Rob Font, Pedro Munhoz and Mitch Gagnon, among others.
Almeida‘s win on Saturday, coupled with Sterling’s win the weekend before, definitely signals things to come for the 135-pound division. There is a murderers’ row of fighters waiting in the helm to take over and make it a division the UFC can really get behind.
It’s certainly the most underrated division in the UFC and one that’s only growing with talent and prospects as we speak.
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