There's no UFC this week, but after UFC 198, there hardly needs to be. Stipe Miocic is champ and rarely for the 206+ lb division, he's hitting his stride at just exactly the normal point for prospect development. So that means it's time to take a look at heavyweight, why that's so rare, and why it feels rarer now than ever before. And of course we'll be talking Renato Moicano, Thiago Santos, Warlley Alves, Corey Anderson and the rest of the successes and failures for young fighters at UFC 198.
And what would this show be if we didn't look outside the UFC for young talent fighting around the world. We're checking out Bellator, ACB, Akhmat, Jungle FIght, and plenty more as there are a ton of young fighters doing work in non-Zuffa promotions this weekend.
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Here's a quick/dirty list of some of the people we checked out for this week's show:
--NORTH AMERICA--
Bellator
Rafael Carvalho
Augusto Sakai
Joe Hamilton vs. Tyler Freeland
Tachi
Andres Quintana
Stephen Cervantes
CFFC
Ricky Bandejas vs. Jordan Morales
Tony Gravely vs. Dave Roberts
WCF
Oscar Ivan Cota
Ray Elizalde
Victory
Kelvin Tiller
Chuka Willis
Golden Fights
Andrew Yates
NLFC 5
Charles Jacob Whitfield
No Mercy
Chris Bachmeier
LAMMQ
Jonathan Meunier vs. Francis Charbonneau
--RUSSIA--
ACB
Anatoly Tokov
Sergey Khandozhko
Oleg Borisov
Askar Askarov
Stanislav Vlasenko vs. Mukhamed Berkhamov
Akhmat
Magomed Bibulatov
Khusein Khaliev
Salman Zhamaldaev
Khunkar Osmaev
Shamil Iraskhanov
--BRAZIL--
Jungle Fight
Polyana Viana
Paulo Henrique Costa
Rodrigo Praia
Kaynan Kruschewsky
Shooto Brazil
Felipe Froes
Nikolas Motta
Immortal FC
Joao Elias - good athlete, good wrestler
Rei da Selva Combat
Mayana Kellen
Marcos Rodrigues - Muay Thai
Copa
Ricardo Prasel - Massive, mediocre kickboxer
--EUROPE--
Venator
Emil Webber Meek
Karl Moore
Jack Hermansson
FEN
Michal Michalski
Pawel Pawlak
PLMMA
Adam Wieczorek vs. Zoumana Cisse
Sadibou Sy
FightStar
Christopher Jacquelin
WFS 6
Kams Ekpo
--ASIA--
Top FC
Kwan Ho Kwak
Ji Yeon Kim
Kyu Sung Kim
Weili Zhang
Superstar
Muslim Salikhov
Bullet Fly
Denilson Bischiliari