Ten fighters outside the top 10 to watch at MW

Outside the UFC top 10 you got Borralho, Pereira, Hernandez, Muniz, Rodriguez, Aliskerov, Vieira, Ferreira, Kopylov, Nickal all climbing the ranks right now.

100% its been the best division going in the UFC this year and I expect the trend to continue the remainder of the year.

Holland, Curtis, Dolidze still around too.

You got Whittaker vs Chimaev coming up soon and then the Du Plessis title fight in August.

Really hope to see Vieira and Nickal booked soon.

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Im not impressed with Vieira at all. Great next fight for Bo to test his hands in a live fight

Vieira has five subs in his five UFC wins. Thats a dangerous MW.

Thats impressive to me even if I don’t think he is the second coming of prime Anderson Silva.

If people on the UG responded to Anderson’s PRIDE career they would say the same thing before he entered the UFC…“I’m not impressed with Anderson at all”.

Losses make dangerous fighters look human and then people disregard what makes them dangerous offensively… we have seen this play out a million times.

Obviously he won’t be confused for Alex Pereira but even Pereira only finished 3/5 of his first five UFC fights. Very different skills of course.

Saw the Hernandez fight and Hernandez now has a five fight win streak going.

Saw the Curtis fight too, no shame in losing to Curtis. Chris has been fighting pro almost a decade longer and has 4x the fights as Vieira. He is a tough out.

Whether its a a Vieira, a Nickal or a Pereira or Adesanya… you can always point the the holes in their game.

Given his age, activity level and some other factors…I don’t expect to see Vieira grab the MW title in his UFC career but I’d be ready to see him continue to submit a lot of good fighters and only two top 15 MW’s have been able to beat him in MMA so far.

I would favor Nickal to beat Vieira right now but I doubt they fight one another next. I expect them both to keep climbing the ranks.

The Top 10 in that shoddy division aren’t even worth watching right now!

Khizriev would be up there but only seems to fight once every two years.

Shara would probably beat several on the list too.

Also quite a lot of unsigned MWs with great records, so definitely a top division of today.

The difference is Anderson was 31 when he joined the UFC, with 20 fights under his belt. Rodolfo is almost 35.

Anderson was also more complete, Rodolfo’s striking is robotic, his chin seems a bit iffy and he has clear conditioning issues.

I can name a handful of fighters Anderson fought before joining the UFC, I can’t even name the fighters Rodolfo has fought in the current UFC landscape outside of Chris Curtis, who is a gatekeeper.

So no, Im more Impressed with pre-UFC Anderson than current Rodolfo.

As stated above, I see Rodolfos gas tank as the main factor holding him back.

Just curious, who do you see Shara beating of the ten fighters I listed? I don’t see him beating any of them personally, well I don’t see him as the favorite vs any of them.

I totally get your concerns with him, I wasn’t trying to compare him to Anderson but just saying how Anderson had some bad performances in PRIDE but later improved as a fighter. I was just saying that we can still see Rodolfo improve and he is already incredibly dangerous on the floor as he has proven with five subs in his first five UFC wins.

I don’t see him ever in a position to be in a #1 contenders fight most fighters never are. I just see him as a good addition to the division because I love to see extremely talented strikers and grapplers crossover to MMA.

The more ADCC/Olympic medalists/All-Americans and elite kickboxers crossover to MMA, the better in my book.

Jackdd White Boy
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I agree. I just don’t think Rodolfo is it. Im very hesitant on the BJJ sport cross over. I am hoping for big things from those twins over at ONE though.

To me his not “it”, just one of many UFC MW’s I like watching fight right now. Not just a sport BJJ crossover though, he is an ADCC champ who has been wrestling for a long time. Just saying he is dangerous and he is one of ten fighters outside the top 15 I like to watch at MW this year.

Its just my favorite division of 2024 in my favorite sport, thats all. I’m no Rodolfo fanboy or anything and understand he is not the next Whittaker.

Yeah but he has the same problem Magomedkerimov and Nemkov have. They can’t compete with most of the other top 10 in the world when they stay outside the UFC.

Especially at MW.

Magomedkerimov is like 16-1 in PFL.

Hopefully he makes the jump to UFC before he is too old.

Those who strike - definitely Rodriguez and Ferreira.

Maybe Pereira but I’d favor Pereira.

50/50 against Kopylov if grappling comes into it. He should be better there. I’d favor Kopylov standing.

And I wouldn’t bet on it but I can picture him beating up Vieira from the bottom, simultaneously hurting him and draining his cardio, leading to a finish later. He legitimately beat up his opponent from the bottom in his last fight.

Yeah, I just don’t see it, maybe I’m sleeping on him, we will probably see him fight a couple of those guys here soon so I guess we wait and see.

I’d be down for Ferreira vs Nickal next.

Brunno Ferreira had a big callout after his big knockout.

The Brazilian middleweight called for a fight against famed prospect Bo Nickal following his impressive knockout win at Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 57 at KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky. Ferreira (12-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) put the lights out on Dustin Stoltzfus (15-6 MMA, 2-5 UFC) with a spinning back elbow in the first round of their main card bout.

With the attention of the crowd on him, Ferreira shot his shot at Nickal in his post-fight interview.

“I’ve shown my power in the division, but I come from judo,” Ferreira told commentator Paul Felder. “I’ve said this many times: I’m an excellent judoka, I’m a black belt, and a former athlete in Brazil’s national team. I want to issue the UFC a challenge: What do you guys think about judo vs. wrestling? Come on, Bo Nickal.”

Speaking backstage with the UFC, Ferreira said he expected the knockout win. His team saw an opening in preparation for Saturday.

“You can say that this knockout was really worked for – we really planned it,” Ferreira said. “We saw that he would come in, and he would throw his body a lot, so we knew that this and other strikes would work. But once the first one landed, I knew I could try it again and that it would land.”

Ferreira got a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus for his finish and leaves UFC on ESPN 57 with a smile on his face.

“I feel like it’s mission accomplished – the job has been done,” Ferreira said. “I went through injuries and everything the fighters go through to get here, so right now the feeling is mission accomplished.”

He is in the top 10 now but Brendan Allen is a fighter who needs a big fight. Was 4-0 in the UFC before he lost to Strickland and then he won two more before he lost to Curtis and since then he has gone 7-0 and avenged the Curtis loss, finished five of those wins via RNC in this active streak too.

Ikram needs to start getting fights regularly. He is a beast and would be top 5 IMO.

Fighting someone named Trocoli this weekend after Muniz pulled out. I think before that Aliskerov has been out with injury since his UFC debut.

Glad to see Aliskerov get the big fight vs Whittaker.