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 middleweight division, a weight class that has been filling up with talent. It’s been a roller-coaster ride in terms of title changes and growth in this weight class.
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: Uriah Hall, Tom Watson, Elvis Mutapcic, Jake Rosholt, Chaun Sims
2013: Sean Strickland, Marcos Rogerio, Elvis Mutapcic, Michal Materla, Wes Swofford
2014: Ramazan Emeev, Scott Askham, Vyacheslav Vasilevsky*, Ben Reiter, Max Nunes
2015: Jack Hermansson, Alberto Uda, Vyacheslav Vasilevsky*, Anatoly Tokov*, Igor Svirid
2016: Ramazan Emeev, Khalil Rountree, Alberto Uda, Phil Hawes, Aleksei Butorin*
2017: Trevin Giles, Oskar Piechota, Rob Wilkinson, Rafael Lovato Jr., Mattia Schiavolin
2018: Albert Duraev, Vladimir Mineev*, Mike Shipman, Artem Frolov, Damian Janikowski
2019: Roman Kopylov, Shamil Gamzatov, Puna Soriano, Bruno Silva, Albert Duraev
2020: KB Bhullar, Kyle Daukaus, Dustin Stoltzfus, Vladimir Mineev*, Salamu Abdurakhmanov*
2021: Alex Pereira, Abus Magomedov, Josh Fremd, Salamu Abdurakhmanov*, Aaron Jeffrey
2022: Josh Fremd, Abdul-Rakhman Dzhanaev*, Magomedrasul Gasanov*, Cezary Kesik, Josh Silveira*
2023: Christian Duncan, Shara Magomedov, Magomedrasul Gasanov*, Raimond Magomedaliev, Shamil Magomedov
2024: Marco Tulio, Azamat Bekoev, Abdul Rakhman Dzhanaev*, Dauren Ermekov, Ibragim Magomedov
2025: Azamat Bekoev, Eric McConico, Jose Henrique Sousa, Virgil Augen, Kerim Engizek
Note: Bold denotes fighter was signed by UFC; * denotes fighter ineligible due to two years on list.
A guy who went from unknown to prospect on the radar in 2025 was Ukraine’s David Allakhverdiev. The unheralded middleweight jumped onto the American scene in the past year, becoming an LFA Middleweight Champion in the process.
Allakhverdiev is a finisher who has only left the first round one time in his career. He did start his career fighting in small organizations beating unheralded talent, however, 2025 saw him gain an opportunity with the LFA, where he struck gold in quickly knocking out John Moore.
LFA gold means a lot, and the fact that Allakhverdiev is a first-round finisher really give him a leg up on the other prospects in the middleweight talent pool. He’s a guy I think that gets the nod from the UFC in 2026.
When there’s a fighter coming off a loss, they don’t usually make this list for that reason alone. That being said, Anvarbek Daniyalbekov does make the list because his last fight in 2025 was a loss, but it was by disqualification due to shots to the back of the head in a fight he was winning.
Daniyalbekov is a striker who also has a strong ground-and-pound game on the mat. Ten of his eleven wins come by way of knockout, showing his ability to put guys away. Despite that DQ loss, Daniyalbekov went 3-0 in 2025 before that, scoring wins over 60-plus fight vet Jonas Bueno, Imam-Shapi Mukhtarov and Christiano Frohlich.
Daniyalbekov was linked to Dana White’s Contender Series last year, and for good reason. The UFC recognizes the talent this guy has. He would surely shore up the UFC’s middleweight division immediately upon entering the UFC.
Wrestling has long been proven to be the best base in mixed martial arts and continues to do so. That is exemplified yet again in the case of University of Wisconsin-Whitewater alum Roland Dunlap, who has quickly emerged as a middleweight prospect to watch.
Dunlap is obviously strong on the takedown and has good ground-and-pound, though he has tested his hand in the world of Karate Combat. His on-the-feet prowess has improved, making him even tougher to deal with in the cage. Dunlap went 2-0 in 2025, winning the APFC Championship by decision over Dahlen Wilson before defending it by TKO over Miguel Tovar.
Dunlap seems to have the personality to garner attention, which will aid him in getting attention from the UFC. He’s 32 years old right now, so the time to make his move to the UFC is as soon as possible.
There have been a number of fighters coming out of the Khabib Nurmagomedov camp in recent years that have taken the MMA world by storm, but none may be more impressive than middleweight Khabib Nabiev. The undefeated fighter has a chance to follow in his mentor’s footsteps in 2026.
Nabiev is a prototypical Khabib acolyte, using a heavy wrestling style as his base. Once he gets his wrestling going, he has heavy top pressure and a solid submission game, which accounts for most of his wins. He went 2-0 in 2025, choking out Dhouglas Ribeiro before scoring a TKO over Mikhail Kolobegov.
The PFL has been on the hunt for fighters training out of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s gym, so the UFC needs to set their sites on Nabiev before they do. He’d be a valuable addition to the UFC middleweight division.
It’s hard to imagine how a promotion like Bellator of PFL could fumble a 26-year-old son of an Olympic wrestling champion with a great deal of potential, but somehow both companies did that with Norbert Novenyi Jr. He is yet another exile from those companies that the UFC should look to bring in, as he’s immensely talented and only getting better.
Like his father, Novenyi has a good wrestling base with a submission arsenal to top off his ground game. He also has shown solid boxing ability as well, showcasing himself as a true mixed martial artist. After suffering his only pro loss to PFL top contender Dalton Rosta by split decision last year, Novenyi left the company and fought twice in 2025, knocking out Arley Figueiredo and submitting Madalin Pirvulescu.
As stated, Novenyi is just 26 and has been a pro since he was a teenager. He’s got great experience in the cage, including quality experience in fighting for Bellator and PFL. He’s a guy that has great upside and can compete in the UFC right now.