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For the most part, the UFC is a near-impossible place to find success in. For most fighters, getting to the top of the promotion can take the best part of an entire career. However, that isn’t always the case.
Some fighters have been able to shoot up the UFC rankings in rapid fashion, usually through stunning the world by knocking off one or more far more renowned opponents. Naturally, a number of champions from rival promotions have pulled this off. However, it’s even more special when a fighter who is largely unknown manages to do it.
Some of these rapidly-rising fighters were able to claim UFC gold at the end of their journey while others fell by the wayside, but they all shocked everyone by the speed that they climbed the ladder.
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Here are five UFC fighters who shot up the rankings quickly.
#5. Volkan Oezdemir – UFC light heavyweight
After spending the best part of five years with the UFC, Volkan Oezdemir is now considered one of the toughest gatekeepers in the light heavyweight division. If a fighter can overcome ‘No Time’, then they’re usually destined for a title shot.
However, it’s easy to forget that the native of Switzerland was once the fastest up-and-comer in the UFC at 205 pounds. It took him a ridiculously short period of time to shoot up the rankings and claim his own title shot.
Very few UFC fans had heard of Oezdemir when he signed with the promotion in early 2017. In fact, he was only brought in at very late notice, replacing Jan Blachowicz in a fight with Ovince St. Preux. However, his record of 12-1 suggested he had some talent. He was able to edge out ‘OSP’ to pick up his first UFC win via split decision.
It was his second octagon outing that really cemented him as a genuine contender, though. He was faced with Misha Cirkunov, who, at the time, was ranked in the top 10 and was unbeaten at 4-0 in the UFC.
Incredibly, Oezdemir needed just 28 seconds to knock Cirkunov out. In his next fight, a clash with another top-10 fighter in Jimi Manuwa, he needed just 42 seconds to repeat the feat.
‘No Time’ did fall short in his title fight with then-champion Daniel Cormier, but the fact that he was competing for UFC gold less than a year after he’d debuted was remarkable in itself.
The Swiss striker is the very definition of a fighter who shot up the UFC rankings quickly.
#4. Khamzat Chimaev – UFC welterweight
Khamzat Chimaev is currently ranked No.10 in the UFC welterweight division, but it seems like destiny for him to reach the very top. If he can do that, it’ll be a truly remarkable feat considering that midway through 2020, very few UFC fans, if any, had even heard of him.
‘Borz’ came into the UFC on just eight days’ notice, replacing Dusko Todorovic in a fight with John Phillips. The Englishman quickly realized just how good the Chechen fighter was. Chimaev battered him from pillar to post en route to a second-round submission.
Just ten days later, Chimaev was back again, this time smashing his way through debutant Rhys McKee. When he then knocked out tough middleweight gatekeeper Gerald Meerschaert in just 17 seconds two months later, he quickly became the UFC’s next big star.
A bad case of COVID-19 derailed ‘Borz’ for the majority of 2021, but he’s since returned and proved that he’s very much for real by completely dominating his first top-10 ranked opponent, Li Jingliang. He choked 'Leech' out in the first round.
Essentially, to go from being a total unknown to a top-10 contender in one of the UFC’s deepest divisions in just over a year is incredible. If he can continue on this trajectory, he could well be fighting for UFC gold next year.
To say that few fighters have risen through the ranks as quickly as Chimaev would be a massive understatement.
#3. B.J. Penn – former UFC lightweight champion
It’s never easy for a fighter to make their debut in the UFC, but to see an athlete make their MMA debut in the octagon is something else entirely. Ignoring the early days of the promotion, only a handful of fighters have done it and even fewer have succeeded.
The one real success story would be B.J. Penn. ‘The Prodigy’ made his UFC debut back in 2001 as a fresh-faced 22-year old. While he was already renowned for his grappling, nobody could’ve expected him to make the impact that he did.
Penn first entered the octagon at UFC 31 in May 2001, defeating wrestler Joey Gilbert with surprising ease. Gilbert wasn’t a ranked fighter, but he had been competing since 1998,. To see Penn handle him was a real eye-opener.
The UFC clearly saw the talent possessed by ‘The Prodigy’ and bumped him up into a fight with a very highly-ranked opponent in the form of Din Thomas just eight weeks later. Thomas had beaten the likes of reigning UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver during his career, but he was blown away by Penn in just over two minutes, going down to a violent knockout.
Incredibly, the Hawaiian wasn’t done there. He was back for a third time in 2001, this time knocking out former title challenger Caol Uno in just 11 seconds.
That win was enough to net Penn a shot at the UFC lightweight title, something that was unheard of given he’d been with the promotion for less than a year.
While he failed in his initial attempt to claim UFC gold, ‘The Prodigy’ eventually lived up to the form that saw him shoot up the rankings quickly, as he went onto become one of just a handful of UFC double champions.
#2. Glover Teixeira – UFC light heavyweight champion
UFC 267 saw Glover Teixeira become one of the most unlikely champions in the promotion’s history. He choked out Jan Blachowicz to claim the light heavyweight title despite turning 42 years old just days prior.
However, it’s easy to forget that when Teixeira debuted in the UFC back in 2012, he came into the promotion as a highly-touted prospect. He wasted no time in clambering up the rankings to the top of the 205-pound division.
To be fair, Teixeira was not an inexperienced youngster at the time. He’d been renowned as one of the better fighters outside of the UFC in the division for some time. His record when he signed with the promotion was 17-2. However, the way he cut a path up to the top of the division when he burst onto the UFC scene was still pretty scary.
Teixeira choked out Kyle Kingsbury inside a round in his octagon debut at UFC 146, then took two rounds to batter Fabio Maldonado five months later. 2013, meanwhile, saw him defeat three top-10-ranked contenders in Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, James Te Huna and Ryan Bader. Those wins put him in line for a shot at then-champion Jon Jones less than two years after his UFC debut.
Teixeira lost that shot at Jones and began his long and winding road to his eventual UFC title win from there. However, the fact he made it that far in the time that he did was still highly impressive.
#1. Israel Adesanya – UFC middleweight champion
Perhaps no fighter in UFC history has been able to climb the rankings all the way to becoming a world champion quite as quickly as Israel Adesanya.
‘The Last Stylebender’ defeated Robert Whittaker to claim the UFC middleweight title in October 2019 at UFC 243. Incredibly, at that stage he’d been with the promotion for less than two years.
The crazy part is that Adesanya’s rise didn’t merely take him one or two fights, either. His win over Whittaker was actually his seventh inside the octagon, just showing the strength of schedule and his willingness to compete to get to the top.
Adesanya debuted in the UFC in February 2018 against the unheralded Rob Wilkinson. When he used his kickboxing skills to destroy ‘The Razor’ in the second round, it was clear that he needed a step up in competition.
From there, every opponent he faced sat slightly higher up on the ladder than the previous one. All of them, from Brad Tavares and Derek Brunson to Anderson Silva and Kelvin Gastelum, fell at the hands of ‘The Last Stylebender’.
Nearly four years after his octagon debut, Adesanya remains unbeaten at 185 pounds and is now very much in the conversation around who is the UFC’s middleweight GOAT. It’s been a remarkable rise for him and he remains the best example of a fighter who simply shot up through the UFC’s rankings.
