Welcome to Year 12 of the annual “Prospects the UFC Should Sign” series, in which we’ll examine five MMA prospects per division the UFC should sign in the upcoming year.
This series started during my time as a writer for Bleacher Report, continued through my tenures at Today’s Knockout and FanSided, and now it stays alive another year here at Combat Press.
Let’s examine the featherweight division, a weight class that is loaded with good, young talent.
In picking these prospects, I’ll try my hardest to stay away from fighters who are currently in top organizations, such as ONE Championship or the Professional Fighters League, but a couple may pop up. In the past, I’ve had some great picks on the list, and some that haven’t worked out. Below are the previous year’s selections, followed by the five men the UFC should offer roster spots to in the coming year.
2012: Doo Ho Choi, Joe Soto, Georgi Karakhanyan*, Lance Palmer, Henrique Bilcalho
2013: Doo Ho Choi, Andre Fili, Rick Glenn, Georgi Karakhanyan*, Deividas Taurosevicius
2014: Raoni Barcelos, Bekbulat Magomedov*, Marat Gafurov, Gleristone Santos, Alexandre Bezerra
2015: James Jenkins, Ivan Buchinger*, Andre Harrison*, Henry Corrales, Mark Dickman
2016: Tom Duquesnoy, Herbert Burns, Andre Harrison*, Magomed Idrisov*, Rasul Mirzaev
2017: Raoni Barcelos, Paddy Pimblett, Magomed Idrisov*, Salman Zhamaldaev*, Michael Tobin
2018: Kevin Aguilar, Tyler Diamond, Mike Grundy, Salman Zhamaldaev*, Juan Archuleta
2019: Mike Grundy, Nate Landwehr, Timur Valiev*, Leonardo Limberger*, Alex Gilpin
2020: Pat Sabatini, Leonardo Limberger*, Yusuf Raisov*, Justin Gonzales, Jason Soares
2021: Pat Sabatini, Daniel Rutkowski*, Kyle Driscoll, Felipe Froes, Bibert Tumenov*
2022: Gabriel Santos, Dennis Buzukja, Daniel Rutkowski*, Timur Khizriev, Islam Omarov*
2023: Dennis Bazukja, Gabriel Santos, Elijah Johns, Islam Omarov*, Bibert Tumenov*
2024: Andrey Goncharov, Roberto Hernandez, Paul Hughes, Daguir Imavov, Kurban Taygibov
Note: Bold denotes fighter was signed by UFC; * denotes fighter ineligible due to two years on list.
Earlier this year, Marcio Barbosa was supposed to appear on the Contender Series, but for an unknown reason, he ended up not competing. Despite that, Barbosa is a big-time prospect in the featherweight division that would bring violence to the UFC 145-pound division.
Barbosa is a headhunter with immense knockout power and a penchant for going for the finish early and often. Most of his wins are by knockout (13), with a majority of those coming in the first round. He gets the center of the cage, walks down his opponents and throws bombs. Unfortunately, he only fought once in 2024, where he blasted through Felipe Oliveira with another devastating first-round knockout.
With this style, finish rate and strong resume, there is no reason Barbosa should not be in the UFC right now. He would provide excitement, violence and a potential title contender in a few years, seeing as he’s just 26 years old right now.
Kazakhstan is another country that has recently become a hotbed for MMA talent in recent years. One of their best prospects is featherweight Karshyga Dautbek, a 19-fight veteran who competes for Rizin now, but should come over once he’s contractually able.
Dautbek is a hammer who possesses strong kickboxing skills and solid ground to compliment that. He has 14 wins by way of knockout and he is currently on a seven-fight first-round knockout streak, which has really shot his stock through the ceiling. He has gone 3-0 in 2024. He led the year off with a brutal one-punch KO of Koyomi Matsushima in a Korean regional promotion. He then came to Rizin, where he brutally put Tetsuya Seki away with a liver shot and blasted through Takeaki Kinoshita, his most recent bout.
New Year’s Eve, Dautbek will fight one more time in 2024 for Rizin, taking on Ren Sugiyama. Should he win that and free up from his Rizin contract, this is a guy that needs to be a UFC roster member. The 30-year-old banger would bring excitement and violence to the UFC.
If the last name “Hardwick” sounds familiar, it could be because George Hardwick was featured on the lightweight list. His brother, Harry, is a featherweight prospect who has also proven he’s ready to step up to the UFC and show what he’s got.
Like his brother, Harry has strong boxing skills with a solid submission game. He has three wins by way of knockout and four by submission. He’s also like his brother in that he’s always in exciting fights. Hardwick won the Cage Warriors Featherweight Championship to start off 2024, knocking out Orlando Wilson Prins. He then defended that belt once with a knockout of Brazilian prospect Keweny Lopes, which solidified Hardwick’s prospect status.
To get both Hardwick brothers on the roster would be a great move by the UFC from both a skill standpoint and an excitement factor. Both guys would provide some great fights, and seeing as the UFC likes to come to England once or twice a year, these guys could help fill those cards.
The MMA Lab has produced some fantastic, top-notch fighters in MMA over the years. Tommy McMillen has made his way over to the MMA Lab, where he has taken his already solid MMA game to another level.
A wrestler by trade McMillen has rounded his game off to become a complete mixed martial artist. All of his wins come by finish, showing that he’s got the killer instinct. McMillen started off his 2024 with a guillotine choke over Josh Wright. He was then supposed to compete on the Contender Series next, but had to withdraw from that bout. He ended his 2024 with a win over Genier Penagos to keep his perfect record in tact.
McMillen obviously has the matchmaker’s eyes, as he already had done enough to get an invite to the Contender Series. I can see that happening again this year, where he wins on the show and earns his UFC contract.
There are a number of really good, young English fighters in the prospect scene right now. Perhaps the best of those prospects is Luke Riley, a Cage Warriors staple who has wowed fans and scouts alike.
Riley is an absolute banger who is lightning on the feet. He uses a combination of excellent technique, speed and power to beat up and stop his opponents. In fact, seven of his ten wins come by way of knockout. In 2024, he was supposed to compete on the Contender Series, but visa issues stymied that. He was 2-0 in 2024 otherwise, besting veteran John de Jesus and knocking out Alexandre Junior in another impressive year.
Riley is a true prospect at just 25 years old, and his best days are still ahead of him. That’s scary thinking how good he is right now. Dana White and the matchmakers already have obvious interest in Riley, so I wouldn’t be shocked to see him in a UFC fight kit in the first half of 2025.