The UFC is increasingly running a star-driven business.
Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey accounted for 61 percent of the UFC’s pay-per-view business in 2015, a much greater proportion of the total than the biggest stars in the past have drawn. McGregor is the biggest draw the sport of MMA has ever seen.
The UFC knows this, which is why the promotion has gone out of its way to invest in new stars. Up-and-coming talent is on the rise in practically every division, injecting new blood into even some of the more static weight classes.
Let’s take a look at 10 fighters who could break through in 2017.