I am just curious to hear others' thoughts on the emergence of several young fighters from the state of Ohio. While Rich Franklin, Jorge Gurgel and Dustin Hazelett are some well-known names from Ohio and Jason Dent and Forrest Petz have had multiple UFC stints and fights, these guys (and gal) are all making names for themselves and quite impressive IMO:
Roger Bowling - Cincinnati-based Strikeforce Welterweight is 9-1, 2-1 for Strikeforce and headlining the July 22 Strikeforce Challengers event.
Jessica Eye - Cleveland-based fighter at 125 lbs is 3-1 and extremely popular with her lone loss coming earlier this month to Aisling Daly. Eye is rumored to have signed with Bellator for a expected women's 125 lb Tournament.
Chris Lozano - Bellator Welterweight Tournament participant is 8-1, 1-1 Bellator with his lone loss coming to Lyman Good in March.
Stipe Miocic - Cleveland-based UFC heavyweight signed a 4-fight deal with the UFC last week and is 6-0.
Brian Rogers - Cleveland-based Bellator Middleweight will be in this fall's Bellator Middleweight Tournament an d is 7-2 with 6 straight 1st round KO/TKO wins. His last fight was a 1st round TKO at Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson in Columbus on March 5th.
Daniel Straus - Bellator Featherweight Tournament finalist last season had won 12 straight fights before loss in Featherweight Tournament final to Patricio Freire.
Donny Walker - The only fighter on this list not currently with a national promotion, Walker has the longest current win streak in the state of Ohio (as far as I can tell) at 7 straight wins including two wins over Bellator vets and one over a Strikeforce vet during that span. I know for a fact that he has gotten significant looks from Strikeforce and Bellator in recent months and says "all I need is a chance."
I can think of another 5-10 fighters to mention, but this covers many of the top young fighters in the state.
Thats awesome! Ohio MMA is top notch without a doubt!
ttt