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 women’s flyweight division, a more recent addition to the UFC. It’s been inhabited by fighters who have departed the strawweight and bantamweight divisions, but it could easily add even more depth by adding existing flyweights from outside of the promotion.
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.
2018: Molly McCann, Ariane Lipski, Sabina Mazo, Silvana Gomez Juarez, Karina Rodriguez*
2019: Lara Procopio, Melissa Gatto, Mariya Agapova, Brogan Walker, Stephanie Geltmacher
2020: Mariya Agapova, Victoria Leonardo, Miranda Maverick, Mandy Bohm, Mabelly Lima
2021: Manon Fiorot, Erin Blanchfield, Jamey-Lyn Horth, Stephanie Geltmacher*, Daiana Torquato
2022: Gabriella Hermogenes, Jamey-Lyn Horth, Josefine Knutsson, Karina Rodriguez*, Carolina Jimenez
2023: Ivana Petrovic, Ketlen Souza, Dakota Ditcheva*, Corrine Laframboise, Kristina Williams
2024: Shannon Clark, Beatriz Consuli, Dakota Ditcheva*, Lisa Kyriacou, Sora Rakhmonova
Note: Bold denotes fighter was signed by UFC; * denotes fighter ineligible due to two years on list.
Cage Warriors and Invicta FC are two promotions known for being promotions that send a lot of their talent to the UFC. Kate Bacik is a veteran of both promotions and skilled on top of that, so she seems to be a shoo-in to the UFC at some point.
Bacik is a striker by trade, possessing a Muay Thai background. That said, she has rounded her game and does have a solid ground game, possessing two submission wins on her resume. She started off her 2024 winning the PAWFC Championship with a unanimous decision over Larissa Carvalho. She then won her Invicta debut with a split verdict over respected vet Paula Bittencourt.
Bacik is ready to go now, as she’s 31 years old and in her athletic prime. Her most recent fight fell through because of an injury to Bacik, but it would have been her biggest fight to date against a UFC veteran in DeAnna Bennett. She ends her year fighting for the Hexagone Championship on December 20th, where she will look to strike gold against Thalita Soares.
Making her second appearance in two years, and getting more of that much encouraged cage time before coming to the UFC, Beatriz Consuli has continued to prove she’s a top prospect at 125 pounds. The former top amateur in the world has transitioned perfectly to her pro career and has been tearing it up for the LFA promotion.
Consuli, who is a grappler by background, has done a stringent job tightening up her striking and becoming an all-around threat. In fact, she’s mostly used her striking in recent bouts to show she can win fights without using her jiu-jitsu. That can be credited to her training with KO Squad in Brazil. She over doubled her pro fight record in 2024, scoring three wins under the LFA banner over Carol Foro, Patricia Batista and Thaiany Lopes, the latter of whom was the biggest win of her career and she swept the judge’s scorecards.
Consuli is the definition of a prospect at 24 years old and she is continually getting better. She has more than proved she has the all-around skills to continue building herself up, this time in the major leagues of the UFC.
In previous years, I twice included Dakota Ditcheva, a top prospect that was working her way up through PFL Europe. She then became the PFL World Champion, which also made her a top flyweight in the world. There is another English fighter in Shanelle Dyer who is working her way up PFL Europe, but should be somebody the UFC targets in the same way they should have targeted Ditcheva.
Dyer is a pure striker, possessing excellent kickboxing skills that she employs in her fights. She uses a combination of fundamentals and flashy techniques, making her exciting and effective. Her ground game is still developing, as that was her weakness as an amateur, but she’s still young and adding to her arsenal. After going 4-0 to start her pro career in 2023, she went 2-0 in 2024. She won her first PFL Europe season fight with a brutal head kick over Mariam Torchinava. That was followed up with a decision win over Valentina Scatizzi, which got her to the PFL Europe finals. Unfortunately, she was unable to compete in that finals bout, as she had to pull out of the finals with an injury.
Dyer is only 23 years old and has already been very impressive in her MMA career. She has nearly a dozen amateur fights and is a half dozen MMA fights into her pro career, so she’s already very experienced given her age. She’s a true blue chipper that the UFC should jump on before she goes over to the world PFL stage.
In recent years, the UFC has been highly attracted to Glory Kickboxing veterans, which seemingly started earlier with Israel Adesanya but has accelerated in recent years. Another Glory vet they should give a shot to is Jady Menezes, a former Glory Champion that has gotten re-focused on MMA after a four-plus year away from combat sports.
Menezes is obviously a striker by trade, known for her Glory Championship win over Anissa Meksen, albeit controversially. Either way, she brings that style to the cage, where she uses excellent kickboxing fundamentals and power to dominate her opponents. That said, she also has shown some grappling chops, as seen in her last win over Alexandra Tekenah by rear-naked choke. Her other 2024 bout saw her score a brutal knockout of Gisele Luna for the UAE Warriors promotion, dropping her with body kick and finishing with some devastating punches.
Dana White likes strikers and Menezes certainly fits that bill. Seeing that she’s now 32 years old, her window is closing faster than other fighters considered top prospects at this point. The time to pick her up is now, especially considering she is the Ares FC Flyweight Champion.
A good number of top-level MMA guys come from top gyms, as it’s a more exposed route to get to the UFC. However, there are some fighters that come from unknown gyms. Marina Spasic is a top flyweight prospect in the world who fights out of a little-known gym in Serbia, but has big-time talent.
Spasic is a good striker who has a kickboxing background, including pro experience with K-1. Five of her six wins come by way of knockout, as she uses her strong kickboxing skills to excel in the cage. She went 2-0 in 2024, scoring a knockout over Marina Nica before scoring the biggest win of her career for Brave CF over Maristela Alves.
Again, because she’s from a small camp, it may be tougher for the UFC brass to get wind of Spasic. However, she’s a great talent with a fan-friendly style who has beat better talent as she’s taken more fights. She seems to be a UFC-ready fighter.