Another week in the book and another exciting batch of young prospects set to take the UFC by storm.
For only the third time ever, UFC president Dana White handed out contracts to all five of the winners from this week's show. From savage knockouts, to dislocated elbows, each fighter demonstrated huge potential going forward and likely has an exciting future.
That being said, we at The MMA Mindset have decided to take a look at all five of the contract winners and rank them on based on their performance on the night and on how successful we see their UFC careers being.
5. Impa Kasanganay
In what was his second appearance on the show, Impa Kasanganay finally earned a UFC contract. With two wins on the show, Dana White has a lot of faith in Kasanganay and has already booked him for a short notice fight later this month.
The 26-year-old looked fairly impressive, dominating his opponent to a decision victory, but is still pretty raw and we are still quite some way away from seeing the finished product. Hopefully, his UFC debut won't be too much too soon and he'll continue to make a name for himself.
4. Cory McKenna
If this was strictly based on potential, Cory McKenna would probably be higher up on these rankings. Coming out the Team Alpha Male, McKenna dominated her opponent, despite being the underdog heading into the bout.
A lot of eyes were on Vanessa Demopolous heading into the fight, but McKenna made a statement, dominating Demopolous on her way to a decision victory. The 21-year-old showed excellent stand-up ability and was also impressive with her groundwork, especially her submission defence. That being said, at only 21 years old, McKenna is still really young and heading into the strawweight division, one of the toughest in the UFC, could be a huge ask right now. Hopefully, she's ready for the challenge.
3. Dustin Stoltzfus
Despite Dustin Stoltzfus not getting the finish he wanted, he still looked incredibly impressive throughout. Yes, the way the fight ended was unfortunate and could be viewed as a bit of a fluke, but make no mistake, Stoltzfus is dangerous.
Stoltzfus demonstrated some incredible strength with the way he picked up Joe Pyfer and savagely dropped him, leading to a sickening stoppage when Pyfer dislocated his elbow. The German fighter is heading into a pretty stacked division though and it will be interesting to see how he deals with it.
2. T.J. Laramie
T.J. Laramie is a savage. That's all there is to say about the American. He's a savage. Laramie dominated Daniel Swain throughout the fight and inflicted some serious damage, on the feet and on the ground.
With Daniel Swain unable to start the second round, Laramie secured a TKO victory through doctor stoppage and looks set to make a huge impression in an exciting featherweight division.
1. Adrian Yanez
Heading into the fight last night, Adrian Yanez had drawn comparisons to Jorge Masvidal and after the fight, it was easy to see why. Yanez looked fantastic. It's actually almost disappointing how great he looked, as his 39 second TKO victory over Brady Huang denied us what was looking set to be an entertaining clash.
Yanez showed some truly sensational striking and the strikes to stop Huang looked so crisp, fast and fluid. If Yanez can continue to strike the way he did in this fight, he's got an incredibly promising future in the UFC. If the Bantamweight division wasn't stacked enough already, it's just got a little bit more interesting.
Comments