A Fighter’s Path: The Path of The Undefeated

Featherweight:

#13 Bryce Mitchell

Age: 26 | United States | 14-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC

Bryce Mitchell has blossomed into one of the brightest prospects in the UFC. His love for fighting and Arkansas has gained support from fans all over the world. He even began a campaign to get Reebok to exclusively make camo shorts for his fights, a campaign that resulted in him being the first fighter to wear camo in the reebok era. Mitchell began his career on the Tennessee regional scene competing in local promotion V3 Fights accumulating a 9-0 record before participating in the ‘Ultimate Fighter Season 27’. He had mixed results on the house, winning against Jay Cuccinello before losing to eventual winner Brad Katona. He opened up his UFC career with back-to-back wins, but it was his third fight in the promotion that grabbed everyone’s attention. ‘Thug Nasty’ secured just the second ever twister submission in UFC history against Matt Sayles in December of 2019. Since that fight his stock grew tremendously, as well as his competition. Mitchell secured two wins in 2020 over Charles Rosa and Andre Fili to secure his place in the Featherweight rankings. It is unknown when the Arkansas native is expected to return to the octagon, but eyes will be glued to the T.V. set when he does.

Notable Victories: Andre Fili, Charles Rosa, Matt Sayles, Bobby Moffett

#15 Movsar Evloev

Age: 26 | Russia | 14-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC

Movsar Evloev has become the fighter to watch at 145lbs, which is saying a lot considering the prospects in that division. Evloev was born in Sunzha, Russia which is only 100 miles away from home of Russia’s best combat sports athletes, Dagestan. Like most Dagestani fighters, Evloev has elite wrestling. In fact, he is a relative of multiple-time world champion wrestler Musa Evloev. The first ten fights of his MMA career took place in M-1, one of the largest MMA promotions in the world. While competing for M-1, he complied a 10-0 record with seven finishes. He managed to win the M-1 Bantamweight Title and knocked out Rafael Dias and submitted current UFC bantamweight Sergey Morozov. In 2019, he signed to the UFC and fought Seung Woo Choi in Russia winning via unanimous decision. Since his debut, he has earned three more decision victories. The most recent of those came to UFC veteran Nik Lentz at UFC 257 in Abu Dhabi. Movsar Evloev has called for a ranked opponent next time out, and it wouldn’t be surprising if his wish gets granted.

Notable Victories: Nik Lentz, Mike Grundy, Enrique Barzola, Seung Woo Choi, Sergey Morozov

Sergio Giglio

Age: 24 | Peru | 12-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC

Sergio Giglio hasn’t been seen in a couple years now, but remains one of the brightest young prospects to come out of South America in a while. the 24-year-old’s last fight was in April of 2018 when he picked up his 12th consecutive victory. The Peruvian was briefly scheduled to face Nad Narimani in November of 2018 but was forced out due to injury. Giglio’s name hasn’t been brought up again since and it is unknown when he will return to the cage. His social media shows that he’s been actively coaching, training, and sparring, so I wouldn’t rule out a potential return for the Peruvian featherweight to the cage.

Notable Victories: Henry Moya

Ilia Topuria

Age: 24 | Spain | 10-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC

There were two national waves in the UFC in 2020. The first came by Georgians who went 13-1 over the course of 2020. The other came by way of Spain who went 4-0 in 2020. Prior to 2020, only two fighters representing Spain had ever competed in the UFC going 0-4. Ilia Topuria happens to be riding both waves. The Georgian fighter trains and represents both nationalities on his walks to the cage. Topuria competed all over Europe winning belts in both the featherweight and bantamweight weight classes. In his debut he was matched up with Youssef Zalal winning via unanimous decision. He followed that up with a first round beatdown of two-time UFC veteran Damon Jackson. Topuria is on the list of most fans’ prospect lists as he has a very high ceiling. He doesn’t have a fight booked as of yet, but one can only expect it will be a bigger test next time out.

Notable Victories: Damon Jackson, Youssef Zalal

Lerone Murphy

Age: 29 | England | 10-0-1 MMA, 2-0-1 UFC

Like Topuria, Lerone Murphy is considered by many one of the brightest prospects at 145lbs. Murphy competed on the England regional scene for much of his early career for organization Full Contact Contender. In his first five fights he fought opponents with a combined record of 23-65 which caused many UFC fans to write him off when he entered the promotion. However, right before his signing he picked up an ultra-impressive finish over Manolo Scianna inside the first round. In his UFC debut he was assigned Zubaira Tukhugov, who is a very decorated fighter in his own right. He entered the contest as a heavy underdog and the two fought to a draw. Since the draw, Murphy has fought two highly touted opponents in Ricardo Ramos (whom he finished in the first) and Douglas Andrade back in January. Murphy sits in a very good spot at 145lbs, and could be looking at a big name at some point in mid-2021.

Notable Victories: Douglas Andrade, Ricardo Ramos

Natan Levy

Age: 29 | Israel | 6-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC

Natan Levy became the first Israeli fighter to ever sign for the UFC when he was signed back in November. Prior to signing with the UFC, his journey to the promotion was far from usual. He began training at 13 and by the age of 18 he had received a black belt in both kung fu and karate. At 22, Levy was working in Israel and was travelling to and from Las Vegas to train. His life-long goal was to compete in the UFC which is why he turned down Bellator offers while fighting for the UFC’s biggest feeder organization LFA in order to reach that goal. Between 2018 and the end of 2019, Levy had picked up a 4-0 record with two finishes. In August he returned for the first time since the pandemic shut down many organizations to win a narrow decision victory over Ben Lugo. Shortly thereafter he agreed to face Bruno Souza before getting offered a matchup on the Contender Series up a weight class against Shaheen Santana. He won the fight with an arm-triangle choke in the third round picking up his first finish in two years. The victory earned him a UFC contract, and it has yet to be announced when we may see him inside the cage.

Notable Victories: Shaheen Santana

Uros Medic

Age: 27 | Serbia | 5-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC

Uros Medic’s road has been different than most other fighters on this list. The Serbian-born featherweight has only been competing in the sport for four years and has only had one fight outside of Alaska. That fight was his DWCS fight in which he earned a TKO less than halfway into the first round. He was born and raised in Serbia and competed primarily in kickboxing up until 2015. He was a kickboxing champion back in Serbia and was a medalist at the European Championship. Upon his move to Alaska, he competed in grappling where he became State Champion as well. His all-around game is very good but obviously prefers to strike on the feet. His 100% finishing rate in his five fights thus far excites the UFC brass. He has been matched up with fellow striker Aalon Cruz for a matchup on March 6.

Notable Victories: Mikey Gonzalez