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A little over a year ago I did a list (that some of you old timers may remember) of under the radar MMA fighters to keep an eye on. A few of the guys on the list who broke out in a big way include Shane Carwin, Brian Bowles, Mo Lawal, Cain Velasquez, Gray Maynard, and Dustin Hazelett. This year's list has a lot of guy who could easily follow in their footsteps.


1. Tyron Woodley
2. Todd Duffee
3. Chad Mendes
4. Efrain Escundero
5. Brendan Schaub
6. Aaron Simpson
7. Rolles Gracie
8. Mackens Semerzier
9. Lyman Good
10. John Eric Marriott
11. Ross Pearson
12. Bryan Travers
13. Marcus Jones
14. John Hathaway
15. Mike Easton
16. Dave Jansen
17. Rodney Wallace
18. Matt Veach
19. Anthony Njokuani
20. Georgi Karakhanyan
21. Rick Story
22. Raphael Davis
23. Roger Bowling
24. Michael Guymon
25. George Sotiropoulos

Cammo101 wrote:A little over a year ago I did a list (that some of you old timers may remember) of under the radar MMA fighters to keep an eye on. A few of the guys on the list who broke out in a big way include Shane Carwin, Brian Bowles, Mo Lawal, Cain Velasquez, Gray Maynard, and Dustin Hazelett. This year's list has a lot of guy who could easily follow in their footsteps.


1. Tyron Woodley
2. Todd Duffee
3. Chad Mendes
4. Efrain Escundero
5. Brendan Schaub
6. Aaron Simpson
7. Rolles Gracie
8. Mackens Semerzier
9. Lyman Good
10. John Eric Marriott
11. Ross Pearson
12. Bryan Travers
13. Marcus Jones
14. John Hathaway
15. Mike Easton
16. Dave Jansen
17. Rodney Wallace
18. Matt Veach
19. Anthony Njokuani
20. Georgi Karakhanyan
21. Rick Story
22. Raphael Davis
23. Roger Bowling
24. Michael Guymon
25. George Sotiropoulos

I've seen one of his(Tyron) fights, looks like he could be really good. He is with ATT which is a good camp but I would like to see him go to AKA.

I'm also interested in seeing a heavyweight Gracie.

Njokuani also looks like he has a promising career.

You forgot Jacob "Tick-Tock" McClintock, this dude is the real deal. He is the hottest prospect in AZ right now. His BJJ is world class, I've seen him sub ADCC competitors including a bronze medalist in last years Olympics, he can also bang with the best of them. He is one of the best in the gym and is only 21. Sherdog put out a article on him as a cant miss prospect. You got Simpson and Escudero at #4 and #6, trust me Jacob has alot more potential than them and is younger.

El Hardee wrote:You forgot Jacob "Tick-Tock" McClintock, this dude is the real deal. He is the hottest prospect in AZ right now. His BJJ is world class, I've seen him sub ADCC competitors including a bronze medalist in last years Olympics, he can also bang with the best of them. He is one of the best in the gym and is only 21. Sherdog put out a article on him as a cant miss prospect. You got Simpson and Escudero at #4 and #6, trust me Jacob has alot more potential than them and is younger.

Haven't heard of him, but I will definitely check him out now. Also, the list is not really in any kind of order. I guess I should not have numbered them.

Rick Story and Dave Jansen are the real deal. Story trains at Brave Legion with Mike Pierce(the guy who beat Larson and is now fighting Fitch). Jansen is a Team Quest guy but is extremely well rounded. A couple other prospects to look out for from the NW:

Mario Miranda- This guy is 11-0 and trains under Matt Hume. He's a good striker and an ADCC competitor. 4 wins by submission, 5 by TKO, and 2 by decision. I've hear he is signed with Strikeforce.

Nate Coy- This is another Team Quest product. 6-2 right now. Holds wins over Rick Story and Mike Pierce. His two losses are to Brian Foster and Paul Bradley. This kid has the potential to be the best welterweight to ever come out of the NW(Pierce, Story, Wilson, Dolce, Hallman, etc to name a few NW products)

I agree with George Sot too. His striking looked pretty good against Dent and his BJJ is very legit. I would not be surprised at all if he handed Joe Daddy a beating in their fight. I said it from the beginning, George and Matt Arroyo were the two guys from TUF 6 that I thought had the most potential to be great fighters.

kdawg32086 wrote:Rick Story and Dave Jansen are the real deal. Story trains at Brave Legion with Mike Pierce(the guy who beat Larson and is now fighting Fitch). Jansen is a Team Quest guy but is extremely well rounded. A couple other prospects to look out for from the NW:

Mario Miranda- This guy is 11-0 and trains under Matt Hume. He's a good striker and an ADCC competitor. 4 wins by submission, 5 by TKO, and 2 by decision. I've hear he is signed with Strikeforce.

Nate Coy- This is another Team Quest product. 6-2 right now. Holds wins over Rick Story and Mike Pierce. His two losses are to Brian Foster and Paul Bradley. This kid has the potential to be the best welterweight to ever come out of the NW(Pierce, Story, Wilson, Dolce, Hallman, etc to name a few NW products)

I agree with George Sot too. His striking looked pretty good against Dent and his BJJ is very legit. I would not be surprised at all if he handed Joe Daddy a beating in their fight. I said it from the beginning, George and Matt Arroyo were the two guys from TUF 6 that I thought had the most potential to be great fighters.

+1, I really like what Sot and Arroyo bring to the table, their BJJ is 100% legit, you can see they have trained in traditional Gi BJJ. Clean BJJ is almost lost nowadays with all these guys focusing on becoming well rounded MMA fighters, its nice to see guys who have a strong BJJ base.

Sot is actually training in Portland now too which is nice. He comes and works his jiu jitsu where I train and he does his boxing and mma stuff somewhere else. Super nice guy.

kdawg32086 wrote:Sot is actually training in Portland now too which is nice. He comes and works his jiu jitsu where I train and he does his boxing and mma stuff somewhere else. Super nice guy.

Thats pretty cool, does he roll with a gi at your school, also have you had a chance to roll with him?

Big fan of the big souvlaki. He deserves to fight a contender, would not surprise if he gets a title shot in his next 3 fights.

El Hardee wrote:

kdawg32086 wrote:Sot is actually training in Portland now too which is nice. He comes and works his jiu jitsu where I train and he does his boxing and mma stuff somewhere else. Super nice guy.

Thats pretty cool, does he roll with a gi at your school, also have you had a chance to roll with him?

Haven't had a chance to roll with him yet. He was rolling without a gi the two times I saw him there, but it was also while he was preparing to fight Jason Dent. I don't think he rolled with anyone below purple, which makes sense during a fight training camp. I'm sure he'd prob roll with a gi on or with lower belts for fun if he's not in the middle of a training camp.

Spartan13 wrote:Big fan of the big souvlaki. He deserves to fight a contender, would not surprise if he gets a title shot in his next 3 fights.

He's got Stevenson next, who may not be a true contender, but is definitely a big step up.

And Cammo, have you actually seen all of these guys fight? Where/how?

CPT wrote:

Spartan13 wrote:Big fan of the big souvlaki. He deserves to fight a contender, would not surprise if he gets a title shot in his next 3 fights.

He's got Stevenson next, who may not be a true contender, but is definitely a big step up.

And Cammo, have you actually seen all of these guys fight? Where/how?

The only one I have not seen fight is Roger Bowling, but I have a friend who has and he tells me he is going to be huge.

HDNet is where I see a lot of guys for the first time. They air a ton of minor league MMA. It is definitely worth the 4 bucks or so a month i pay for it. Also, some guys I hear about and then watch on Youtube. Mostly HDNet though, that channel is an MMA fans dream.