BDFW

The UFC is the cream of the crop in the mixed martial arts world. At one time PRIDE came close to the UFC but now that PRIDE is gone, no other mixed martial arts organization comes close to the UFC. That being said there are still some great fighters that have yet to fight in the UFC and some of them have immense talent and will be future champions at whatever organization they are currently at. In this write up I will be leaving out Fedor Emelianenko as it is highly unlikely he will be coming to the UFC, and if he does it will be years from now.

Sokoudjou
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou has had two big time fights so far in his short mixed martial arts career and the two fighters he faced are no push overs in Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona. The young twenty four old fighter trains with Team Quest so he will only get better as he goes own and his incredible knock-out win over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (who became the boxing representative for the Brazilian Olympic team) was astonishing. Sokoudjou has excellent stand up; he is a former kick boxer and won the US Open Judo championship in 2001. Look out for this guy because if he keeps excelling and beating some top name fighters, he will break into the top 10 light heavyweight fighters.

Paulo Filho
Paulo Filho is 29 years old and is thought by many as one of the top middleweights in the world, He has a perfect record of 15-0 and eight of them coming from when he fought in PRIDE FC. In Filho’s fifteen wins he has defeated such good fighters as Ryo Chonan, Joe Doerksen and Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua (Shogun’s brother). I rank Paulo Filho as the second best middleweight fighter in the world only behind current UFC Middleweight Champion, Anderson Silva. Paulo Filho currently fights in World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and in his only fight for the company so far, he won the middleweight title of off Joe Doerksen (who has wins over Chris Leben, Patrick Côté and Denis Kang)

Jake Shields
Jake Shields is 28 years old and probably doesn’t get as much publicity as other welterweights but Shields would easily be in the top 10 welterweights and maybe even in the top five. Jake Shields has wins over Hayato Sakurai and Yushin Okami. Jake Shields is currently on an eight fight winning streak and he currently fights in the EliteXC with his next fight being at EliteXC Renegade. Jake Shields isn’t one of these mainstream fighters that has fought in PRIDE or the UFC before so his name isn’t very big in the mixed martial arts fans, but he is a real good talent and has defeated some great fighters in lower name organizations, my advice is to just look out for this very talented welterweight.

The Fireball Kid
"The Fireball Kid" Takanori Gomi ranks up the top of the lightweights in the world and in my eyes is the second best lightweight behind B.J. Penn. Gomi is the PRIDE World Lightweight Champion and has defeated very good fighters such as Charles "Krazy Horse" Bennett, Jens Pulver, Marcus Aurelio and Hayato Sakurai. Takanori Gomi’s MMA record is a very respectable with Gomi having won 27 fights (9 knockouts and 7 submissions), 3 losses and recently had a no contest with Nick Diaz. It is quite astonishing that "The Fireball Kid" Takanori Gomi is 13-1-1 in a PRIDE FC ring. Currently Gomi is not associated with any mixed martial arts organization, he has said in the past he wants to stay in Japan but anything could happen and I think just about everyone who knows who Takanori Gomi is would want him to come to the UFC.

El Niño
Gilbert "El Niño" Melendez is a new fighter on the block and had his first professional fight in 2002. But he has made an impact and is still ranked high in many EliteXC fans but is unknown to some fans that mainly follow the UFC. A young lightweight fighter at 25 years old he has already defeated legendary Japanese fighter Rumina Sato and up and coming UFC lightweight Clay Guida. He fought twice in PRIDE FC and has made three appearances so far for the company he is currently at which is EliteXC. Gilbert Melendez holds a perfect record of 13-0 and unless injuries stop him, he looks to have a very long and successful run ahead of him. Melendez ranks in the top 10 lightweights in the world and that just goes to show you how well this young Mexican-American fighter has fought since debuting in 2002.

Zar

Can Gomi make 155? Becasue in my eyes that is what a lightweight needs to weigh. Unless he wants to go fight KJ Noons in EliteXC for thei 160lb lightweight title, which would be a fun standup war. (althought Diaz picked Gomi apart and Noons just dismantled him last night)

I wish that Sokoudjou would sign with the UFC. Sure he has some big wins but he is still relativly unknown and can't demand the money of a big star. He needs to sign a short 3 fight contract, knock some cats out then re sign for a bigger one. Thats how this shit works.

Jackie Pies on Jackie Pies:
"Did I ever mention that I'm not really made of pie? Nor have I ever baked myself into a pie."

Lou

Nice! Some love for KJ!

I guess now that he's won the EliteXC light weight belt, he is one more step away from obscurity. Before he signed with Elite I actually trained with him for a year at City Boxing (Brandon Vera was still here at the time). He's a great guy, very down to earth, and his kicks and knees are hard as hell. I don't know how Diaz took that knee to the face - one of those can easily knock out a normal guy like me for a whole week!

KJ's young, exciting (5-1 in MMA, and all 5 by KO), marketable, and constantly improving. Hopefully one day either he'll outgrow EliteXC and move onto UFC, or he'll help put EliteXC on the map against UFC. Keep KJ's name in the back of your heads, the future's bright for him, and he's someone very easy to root for.