While most of the best talent is under the UFC banner and Bellator and WSOF have seemed scooped up the rest, there is still plenty of talent yet to be signed by the top promotions of the MMA food chain. These are not necessarily 'free agents' or even prospects, they are top 100 ranked fighters who are navigating the nebulous seas of regional and international fight promotion for whatever reason.
Since the last edition in February most of the top half of the list appears relatively unchanged except for slight moves up or down in the overall rankings. Tony Johnson (#16) was recently signed by Bellator and proved his mettle by defeating former Bellator champ Alexander Volkov by split decision at BMMA 136. With the win Johnson was catapulted into the overall Top 20. In the previous edition he sat at #57. Denis Smoldarev made the biggest move for a non-major promotion signee by jumping up 19 spots and into the Top 50 overall after submitting Maro Perak by first round keylock at M-1 Challenge 55.
Heavyweights (206-265lb)
RANK | NAME | RECORD | AGE | Last Promotion |
12 | Marcin Tybura | 12-0-0 | 29 | M-1 (Russia) |
19 | Damian Grabowski | 20-2-0 | 34 | M-1 (Russia) |
21 | Sergei Kharitonov | 22-5-0 | 34 | M-1 (Russia) |
23 | Denis Goltsov | 13-4-0 | 24 | Tech-Krep FC (Russia) |
37 | Evengy Erokhin | 9-4-0 | 28 | FEFOMP (Russia) |
38 | Michal Kita | 16-7-0 | 34 | PROMMAC (Poland) |
39 | Chris Barnett | 13-1-0 | 28 | IGF (Japan) |
41 | Derrick Mehmen | 19-6-0 | 29 | Dynasty CS (Nebraska) |
42 | Satoshi Ishii | 13-4-1 | 28 | IGF (Japan) |
43 | Cody East | 10-1-0 | ? | Legacy FC (US) |
45 | John Hawk | 11-5-0 | 35 | NAAFS (US) |
46 | Denis Smoldarev | 10-1-0 | 25 | M-1 (Russia) |
47 | Mike Kyle | 21-12-1-2 | 35 | ADW (UAE) |
48 | Ruben Wolf | 10-6-0 | ? | M4TC (UK) |
50 | Chase Gormley | 12-4-0 | ? | Titan FC (US) |
51 | Peter Graham | 11-8-0 | 39 | KSW (Poland) |
53 | Kenny Garner | 16-8-0 | 40 | Fight Time (Florida) |
55 | Alexei Kudin | 19-8-0 | 30 | Union MMA (Russia) |
57 | Ante Delija | 13-2-0 | 24 | M-1 (Russia) |
58 | Tim Hague | 20-9-0 | 31 | Unified MMA(Canada)/WSOF? |
59 | Richard Odoms | 9-2-0 | 39 | FuryFC (Texas) |
60 | DJ Linderman | 18-9-0 | 31 | Fight Time (Florida) |
61 | Yosef Ali Mohammad | 5-1-0 | ? | IGF (Japan) |
63 | Chris de la Rocha | 4-0-0 | ? | Prime Fighting (US) |
64 | Brandon Vera | 13-7-0 | 37 | ONE (Asia) |
Dropped out of Top 25: Konstantin Gluhov (65), James Mulheron (66), Magomed Malikov (69), Brett Rogers (75), Philip de Fries (81), Dion Staring (99)
Top 3 promotions in the division
Promotion | # Top 100 fighters | Champ |
UFC | 32 | Cain Velasquez/Fabricio Werdum |
Bellator | 11 | Vitaly Minakov |
M-1 | 7 | Marcin Tybura |
*All Rankings taken from Fight Matrix at time of writing.
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