A few weeks ago I started a little series discussing who I thought was going to become the future of their respective weight classes. I started with the lightweight division and will now move onto the welterweights. The welterweight division, especially in the UFC, is one of the most stacked divisions in terms of talent. The UFC's welterweight champ, Georges St. Pierre, is one of, if not, the best fighter in MMA. Strikeforce's welterweight champ, Nick Diaz, has been extremely successful as of late, and is certainly someone that we could see added to pound for pound lists in the near future. The division also has guys like Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, Thiago Alves, Martin Kampmann, and Jake Shields.
Tyron Woodley - Up until his most recent fight against Nathan Coy (a win by split-decision), American Top Team member Tyron Woodley had won his first six fights all by submission. Woodley has an amateur wrestling background from his time spent at Mizzou, but he's shown that he is well versed in submissions as well. With Strikeforce's welterweight rosters looking pretty thin, Woodley good start making some noise for a title shot, especially if Jay Hieron keeps getting looked over.
Jake Ellenberger - After Carlos Condit made the move to the UFC and lost to Martin Kampmann is his debut, I thought that the UFC was basically feeding Ellenberger to Condit and that Condit would walk right through him, boy was I wrong. Ellenberger rocked Condit on several occasions and continued to show how talented he is when the fight hit the mat. After three close rounds Condit was awarded the victory by split-decision, but even though I'm a huge Condit fan, I really thought Ellenberger won the fight. Ellenberger bounced back nicely with wins over Mike Pyle and John Howard. In both fights Ellenberger showed great takedowns and wrestling along with vicious ground and pound. The TKO win over Pyle was especially impressive as Pyle was able to show good defense off his back at first.
Rory MacDonald - When I went to UFC Fight Night 20 in Fairfax back in January, I was pretty excited to see MacDonald's fight with Mike Guymon. Both fighters were making their UFC debuts and I had heard good things about both guys. I was especially excited to see MacDonald due to his being 20 years old. After getting rocked early in fight by Guymon, MacDonald controlled the rest of the fight, took the Joker down, and finished him with an armbar. Guymon looked to be the much bigger fighter but looked like he had nothing to defend MacDonald's onslaught. MacDonald returned to face Carlos Condit at UFC 115 and eventually lost via TKO in the 3rd. The stoppage was somewhat controversial and came after MacDonald won the first two rounds. At such a young age MacDonald is only going to get better, and I think a fight with Ellenberger would be a great fight.
Rick Story - I first saw Story fight in a performance that won him bonuses for both fight of the night and submission of the night when he submitted Brian Foster with an arm triangle while still in Foster's guard. Since the win over Foster, Story has earned decision victories over Nick Osipczak and Jesse Lennox and most recently finished Dustin Hazelett via TKO. The win over Hazelett was impressive in that he completely nullified Hazelett's ground game and brutalized him against the cage with strikes that were coming from every angle. Story has the tough loss to John Hathaway on his record, but if he continues to perform like he has over his last four fights, he'll be someone to keep an eye on.
John Hathaway - After watching the vicious beatdown that Hathaway gave Tom Egan back at UFC 93, I was immediately a fan. After decision wins over Paul Taylor and Rick Story, Hathaway was given a real step up in competition at UFC 114 against Diego Sanchez. Hathaway went on to completely dominate the fight and utilized a quick jab that caught Sanchez the entire fight. While Sanchez certainly did not look like he was 100% ready to return to 170 and was in the process of changing camps, it was still an extremely impressive win for the Brit. I'd love to see Hathaway face any of the guys I've mentioned in this post.
Honorable Mention: Johny Hendriks
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