There may not be another Brock Lesnar or Georges St-Pierre on the UFC roster – a fighter that can single-handedly carry a pay-per-view over the 650,000-buys plateau independently and break a million with the right supporting cast.
There may not be another Chuck Liddell in the mix either – a crossover superstar that appeals to casual and hardcore fans alike. A guy whose combination of skill, looks and marketability brings a new audience to the sport while delivering the type of performances that avid supporters crave.
However, there are four UFC champions that are 27-years-old or younger*, leading a cavalcade of highly skilled, talented new fighters up the divisional ranks.
None of them may be Lesnar, St-Pierre or Liddell, but Ronda Rousey and Jon Jones are established commodities that still possess breakthrough potential, while Jose Aldo and Demetrious Johnson are superior talents and dominant fighters that garner a great deal of love from the MMA intelligentsia, even if the fans haven’t fully bought in to either as of yet.
While the UFC is certainly feeling the sting of the departures of those major pay-per-view draws and iconic names that even casual MMA fans knew in the past like Ortiz, Couture and Jackson, the depth of young talent on the UFC roster is at an all-time high and the future looks exceptionally bright.
Rousey is a superstar – there is no doubt about it. When you’re getting high profile offers to join action movie ensembles, getting nominated for ESPYs and garnering media attention that no one else in the company’s history has commanded in the past, there is no other way to frame it.
And it’s not just because she’s a good-looking woman either. Though her looks and personality certainly don’t work against her, none of these opportunities and a lot less attention is focus her way if she weren’t a dominant force in the cage and the reigning, undefeated, undisputed UFC women’s bantamweight champion.
Though Jones may not be the crossover star Rousey is at this point, he’s on his way to being the greatest fighter in the history of this sport. Regardless of how you feel about him as an individual, that fact makes him someone fans should be tuning in to see each and every time he competes. Whether it’s in hopes of seeing him fall or to watch him move closer and closer to immortality, the 26-year-old light heavyweight champion has the potential to put up staggering totals inside the Octagon before his career comes to an end.
Aldo and Johnson are currently without rivals in their respective divisions. Couple with their diminutive stature, that puts them at a disadvantage with fans that can’t simply appreciate elite talent and tremendous skill regardless of the package it comes in. Nevertheless, both have established themselves as dominant champions and aretwo of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world. If more fans ever open up to the greatness of fighters in the lighter weight classes, they will see a wealth of impressive, young athletes that deliver each and every time they step into the cage.
Former champion Renan Barao and light heavyweight title challenger Alexander Gustafsson fit in the “27 and Under” ranks as well, with the man that dethroned Barao, TJ Dillashaw, having graduated from the group back in February.
Rory MacDonald and Khabib Nurmagomedov are legitimate title threats in the welterweight and lightweight division respectively, while emerging contenders like Myles Jury, Gunnar Nelson and Rustam Khabilov are all 27 or younger and ranked in the Top 15.
The same goes for Kelvin Gastelum, who returns to action this weekend in the co-main event of Saturday’s fight card in San Antonio. The former Ultimate Fighter winner is 8-0 overall, 3-0 in the UFC and growing by leaps and bounds with each appearance. Oh, and he won’t turn 23 until the end of October. If you’re looking for someone to hang the “Future Champion” label on, Gastelum is your guy.
Justin Scoggins is prepping for his third UFC appearance and only turned 22 back in May. Max Holloway already has already made eight trips into the Octagon (he’s 5-3) and won’t turn 23 until December.
Charles Oliveira, who faces Hatsu Hioki as part of the main card for this weekend’s debut event in Auckland, New Zealand, will be fighting under the UFC banner for the 12th time on Saturday. While he’s suffered four losses, they all come to elite competition, including former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and current featherweight contender Cub Swanson.
Not bad for someone that doesn’t turn 25 until the middle of October.
That’s a pretty impressive collection of sub-27-year-old talent, and that doesn’t even include youngsters with upside like Chris Holdsworth, Kyoji Horiguchi, Sean Strickland, Warlley Alves or Jessica Andrade, not to mention incoming women’s strawweight competitors like Tecia Torres, Paige Van Zant, Joanne Calderwood and Rose Namajunas.
Right now, there are far more skilled and competitive potential perennial contenders lining the roster now than at any other time in the UFC’s history and we’re getting to see them more frequently and in more prominent positions than ever before as well.
With the current champions that fit into this group already in place, if even a quarter of these fighters reach their full potential, the UFC will have a robust, competitive roster of talented athletes to carry them through the next five years, easy.
The big, recognizable names may be gone, but the overall level of talent stepping into the octagon has never been better and it’s only going to keep getting better in the years to come.
(* all ages as of the time of this writing)