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#2. Adrian Yanez – UFC bantamweight
The UFC bantamweight division is chock full of talent right now. That means it’s only natural for a number of excellent fighters to be flying under the radar.
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One power puncher who ought to be receiving far more attention than he currently is is prospect Adrian Yanez. The Texas native debuted in the UFC less than a year ago following a win on Dana White’s Contender Series.
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Incredibly, Yanez already has three wins inside the octagon to his name, all three of which were knockouts.
His first was arguably the most impressive. It was a violent head kick KO of Victor Rodriguez inside the first round. The two that have followed were equally brutal.
Interestingly, Yanez has also shown that his punching power carries into the later rounds, and remains even after he’s eaten a lot of punishment from his opponent. He demonstrated that in his win over Randy Costa in July.
Right now, Yanez hasn’t got his next fight booked, but he has called out veteran contender Raphael Assuncao for a fight.
If he can beat Assuncao, particularly if he can knock him out, then he’ll almost definitely ascend the ladder at bantamweight. He'll ensure he’s on the radar of the fans, too.
#1. Justin Gaethje – UFC lightweight
On the surface, it seems inconceivable that UFC fans could possibly sleep on Justin Gaethje. After all, ‘The Highlight’ has headlined multiple UFC shows and even held the interim UFC lightweight title last year.
However, since his loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov in their eventual title unification bout, Gaethje has not fought in the octagon. And in that time, it feels like he’s become the forgotten man of the UFC lightweight division.
New champion Charles Oliveira is widely recognized as the top fighter in the division these days. Meanwhile, all of the hype around Dustin Poirier after his knockouts of Conor McGregor has made him the division’s biggest star.
And other fighters such as Islam Makhachev, Beneil Dariush and Michael Chandler are getting their fair share of attention right now too. Makhachev has often been labeled as the ‘new Khabib’.
That’s left Gaethje as the division’s odd man out, which is crazy. Not only is he arguably the second best lightweight in the world right now, but he’s also probably the biggest power puncher in the division, too.
Nobody at 155 pounds hits quite as hard as ‘The Highlight’. Just ask his victims, who include Edson Barboza, Tony Ferguson and Donald Cerrone.
Unfortunately, until Gaethje returns to action again, which will be against Chandler at UFC 268 in November, it seems likely that fans will somehow continue to sleep on him, at least for now.
