Welcome to Year 13 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 start with the heavyweight division. The UFC has added new talent at this weight class, but it needs more fighters on the roster to add depth to the division. It’s still one of the toughest classes to fill, but there is good talent available.
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: Shamil Abdurakhimov, Jared Rosholt, Tyler East, Guram Gugenishvili, Magomed Malikov
2013: Derrick Lewis, Damian Grabowski, Smealinho Rama*, Satoshi Ishii, Maro Perak
2014: Marcin Tybura, Anthony Hamilton, Konstantin Erokhin, Dmitriy Sosnovskiy, Smealinho Rama*
2015: Marcin Tybura, James Mulheron, Cody East, Chris Barnett, Denis Goltsov*
2016: Cody East, Sergey Pavlovich, Denis Goltsov*, Denis Smoldarev*, Karol Bedorf
2017: James Mulheron, Sergey Pavlovich, Denis Smoldarev*, Ivan Shtyrkov*, Fernando Rodrigues
2018: Jeff Hughes, Amir Aliakbari*, Roggers Souza*, Michal Andryzak, Ricardo Prasel
2019: Cyril Gane, Sergey Spivak, Alexander Romanov, Amir Aliakbari*, Roggers Souza*
2020: Mohammed Usman, Ante Delija, Hugo Cunha*, Renan Ferreira, Evgeniy Goncharov
2021: Mohammed Usman, Ante Delija, Alikhan Vakhaev*, Mukhamed Vakhaev, Tony Johnson Jr.
2022: Thomas Peterson, Alikhan Vakaev*, Kirill Kornilov*, Aleksandr Maslov*, Oleg Popov*
2023: Junior Tafa, Rizvan Kuniev, Adam Bogatyrev, Marcelo Nunes, Oleg Popov*
2024: Hugo Cunha*, Kirill Kornilov*, Aleksandr Maslov*, Alexander Soldatkin*, Anton Vyazigin
2025: Alexander Soldatkin*, Brett Martin, Pouya Rahmani, Mario Piazzon, Arkadiusz Wrzosek
Note: Bold denotes fighter was signed by UFC; * denotes fighter ineligible due to two years on list.
Kicking off this year’s list is Lithuanian and Brave CF Heavyweight Champion Pavel Dailidko, a mid-sized heavyweight with big-time power and a strong resume to join the big leagues of mixed martial arts.
Dailidko is a solid 6’4”, roughly 240-pound fighter known for his big-time power and his finishing ability. Through 13 professional fights, the Lithuanian has yet to make it to the judges, and has nine first-round wins under his belt. All of his wins come by way of knockout. In 2025, he went 2-0 in defending his Brave CF title, knocking out Odie Delaney and Gregory Robinet to keep his three-year winning streak alive.
Dailidko is 34 years old, so his window is closing much faster than most other prospects. It’s obvious, the UFC likes to stay away from fighters in their mid-30s. However, given how shallow the heavyweight prospect pool is and how good Dailidko has looked, as well as his championship status with Brave CF, I think he should get inked immediately so he can make his run before age catches up with him.
These days, a win on Dana White’s Contender Series is basically an automatic invite to the UFC. Unfortunately for Serbia’s Jovan Leka, there wasn’t enough inspiration in his winning effort on the show, but given the shallow nature of the heavyweight division, I think he should get a shot in 2026.
Leka is a good-sized heavyweight standing at 6’4” and tipping the scales around the 260-pound mark. His background is clearly in striking, as he has solid kickboxing fundamentals that include hard low kicks and good straight punches. After ending 2024 with a wrestling-heavy loss, Leka went 4-0 in 2025, scoring a decision over 30-fight vet Dirlei Broenstrup, a first-round knockout of Tiago Alfonso, a second-round knockout of Genadi Zhorzholiani and his Contender Series decision win over Azamat Nuftillaev.
Dana White made the point that Leka is only 23 years old, so there’s still a ton of time to get him in the UFC. Seeing as the heavyweight division is the oldest average division in the company, Leka’s youth could prove to be a strong long-term investment.
Tristar Gym has long been the keystone training camp in Canada, and continues to be so. One of their brightest prospects is Iranian-Canadian fighter Seyedmostafa Salahzedeh, a powerful heavyweight who has quickly become a top prospect outside the UFC.
Salahzedeh is a physically strong heavyweight with strong wrestling and boxing skills. Three of his five career wins have come by knockout or submission, and in the bouts that have gone to decision, he’s shown great control. He had a successful 2025, running a 3-0 record. He started the year under the LFA banner, scoring an impressive decision over Welerson Oliveira. He followed that up with an armbar of the notable Edison Lopes before scoring the biggest win of his pro career, a unanimous decision over fellow Iranian-blooded prospect Masoud Safari.
He’s immensely confident and thinks he should be in the UFC right now, and given the talent in the UFC’s heavyweight division, I don’t disagree with him. The win over Safari should have been the stamp on his passport to the big leagues.
I doubt there is a heavyweight in the last five, ten years that has the hype Gable Stevenson currently has. The Olympic gold medalist in wrestling has finally made his way to MMA and he seems to be on a beeline to the UFC at this point.
Stevenson took to the WWE after scoring gold at the Olympics, looking to make it big in the world of pro wrestling. However, he was released in mid-2024, returned to amateur wrestling at University of Minnesota and obviously began taking MMA training seriously. He made his UFC debut in 2025, scoring a quick TKO of Braden Peterson for the LFA promotion. He then won a custom rules bout under the Dirty Boxing promotion before toe-tagging Kevin Hein with a 24-second knockout.
Stevenson’s wrestling is going to give him a major edge over many he will share the cage with. When your wrestling is that high level and you combine it with his work ethic and athleticism, you have a scary prospect that could work his way up to the UFC title picture quickly. On top of that, he’s only 25 years old, so he’s got plenty of time to develop, and doing so at Kill Cliff FC seems to be priming him for greatness.
Russia has long been a major supplier of heavyweight talent in the world of MMA, and no prospect in the past few years seems to have the potential as Zumso Zuraev. The ACA fighter has made mincemeat of the competition and is continuing to get even better.
Zuraev possesses a heavy wrestling attack that combines successful takedown ability with nasty ground-and-pound and impressive submission skills. He’s no lay-and-pray artist, as he scores finishes at a high clip. After ending 2024 with a massive win over Denis Smoldarev, he went 2-0 in 2025 with a submission of UFC veteran Carlos Felipe and a TKO over longtime Russian heavyweight staple Anton Vyazigin.
At 31 years old, Zuraev is in his prime and it appears to be that way in his past few fights. He could be a serious threat to a good portion of the UFC heavyweight division right now.