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 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
2025: Marcio Barbosa, Harry Hardwick, Tommy McMillen, Luke Riley, Karshyga Dautbek
Note: Bold denotes fighter was signed by UFC; * denotes fighter ineligible due to two years on list.
Very rarely do I include a fighter that did not compete in the past year on this list, but in the case of Brazil’s Icaro Brito, I will make an exception. He’s twice fallen out of Dana White Contender Series bouts in the last two years because of visa issues, despite being one of the most intriguing prospects on either season.
Brito reps the highly touted Fighting Nerds team, which has come to great prominence in the last few years. They are well-rounded and students of the game, which describes Brito. That said, he’s more of a hammer that uses excellent, powerful striking to destroy his opponents. Five of his eight pro wins come by way of knockout.
Brito should have been in the UFC two years ago if not for his visa SNAFUs, so I think they shouldn’t even risk it at this point and just sign him straight to the roster. He’s a destroyer and the type of guy Dana White salivates over in a prospect.
Not long ago, Ilias Bulaid was a top prospect that Bellator had jumped on before the UFC had the chance. His last bout with Bellator was in 2021, and since then, Bulaid has fought for other promotions, meaning he’s freed up for the UFC to take a run at in the near future.
Bulaid is a former professional kickboxer who accomplished much in that sport before coming over to MMA. He has since linked up with the famous SBG Gym in Ireland, where he has worked hard to round off his game. In 2025, he sandwiched an unfortunate “no contest” with two wins, a TKO over Kewin Jacques and an anaconda choke submission of Eduard Demenko.
Bulaid is now 30 years old and has shown that he’s added to his ground game. He follows the trend of former top kickboxers coming to MMA and being successful. Given he has a connection to the North African-Middle Eastern scene given his heritage and where he’s fought, combined with the UFC’s investments in/from the Middle East, and I think he’s an excellent candidate to join the UFC roster.
Part of the fight game is not only being a skilled mixed martial artist, but having the personality or brash nature to attract eyes. It appears German prospect Max Holzer has those qualities, which make him an intriguing fighter at 145 pounds.
Holzer is best known for his submission wrestling game, though he has no problem banging it out on the fight. He has seven wins by way of tapout, including his viral rear-naked choke win in 2025 over Deniz Ilbay, where his post-fight antics attracted more eyeballs due to his unsportsmanlike behavior.
Despite that behavior, Holzer is just 23 years old and immensely talented. He has run through the competition in the Oktagon promotion in Europe, which is one of the best promotions on that continent. He’s a guy with a bright future in this sport.
The UFC has targeted China as an emerging MMA market, which makes sense given it’s huge population and potential economic impact. While there isn’t a massive influx of UFC-ready prospects right now, Naerti Kezibayi looks like one of the best, if not the best, non-UFC prospect from that country.
Kezibayi is a well-rounded fighter, owning five wins by knockout and three by submission. He has knockout power in his hands and solid grappling fundamentals, making him a tough out on the feet or the mat. He scored two wins in two outings in 2025, submitting 25-fight vet Jizheng Wang and knocking out 40-fight veterean Zhikang Zhao in impressive fashion.
At only 25 years old and emerging as a top prospect from the massive market that is China, Kezibayi is an attractive candidate as the UFC continues to try and make headway in that country. He has shown he’s ready for a look, whether it’s on the Contender Series or straight to the UFC roster.
Recently, fighters from Rizin have been able to get out of their contract and go over to the UFC. Despite the fact he has a fight scheduled to end 2025, I think Razhabali Shaydullaev should scoot over to the UFC once he wins his December 30th fight under the Rizin banner.
Shaydullaev has been an absolute ace thus far in his career, combining strong submission wrestling skills with nasty one-strike knockout power. He has absolutely run through Rizin thus far, with his biggest win coming over former Bellator star Juan Archuleta. His 2025 has been highly impressive, scoring a 62-second knockout over now-former Rizin champ Kleber Koike and a nasty 33-second knockout of 30-fight vet Viktor Kolesnik.
Shaydullaev may be the best featherweight outside the UFC right now, meaning he needs to take his talents there and show them off. He’s a guy that could be a title challenger very quickly. He first must get by Mikaru Asakura on December 30th.