UFC 132 Fight Card: The 25 Greatest Fighters Under 155 Pounds

If you’re not acquainted with the little guys of MMA, now’s the time to get started.

This Saturday at UFC 132, Urijah Faber will take on Dominick Cruz for Cruz’s spanking-new UFC bantamweight title. A major fight between UFC featherweight champ and pound-for-pound all-worlder Jose Aldo and former UFC lightweight contender Kenny Florian seems all but assured for the fall.

With the UFC absorbing the WEC (which was well-known for its lighter-weight talents) and now adding a 125-pound flyweight division, the serious UFC fan already has a lot more faces to know, with a lot more on the way.

But the UFC isn’t alone here. Bellator FC is in the midst of a summer featherweight tournament, and just announced a bantamweight tournament for September. If you’re a fan of the overseas action, you surely know the kind of tiny dynamos who have long fleshed out those promotions.

To get you primed and ready for UFC 132, Bellator and beyond, here’s a list of the 25 best featherweight, bantamweight and flyweight fighters doing it today.

25. Patricio “Pit Bull” Freire

Weight class: Featherweight
Promotion: Bellator
Record: 17-1

Many people believe the hard-hitting Team Nogueira jiu-jitsu black belt defeated Joe Warren in their tournament-ending fight last year. Warren pulled it out by split decision, but after defeating Daniel Straus in May, Freire earned a rematch with the current Bellator champ—as well as the right to prove the judges wrong (or at least prevent them from having to make another difficult decision).

24. Alexis Villa

Weight class: Flyweight/Bantamweight
Promotion:  MFA/Bellator
Record: 9-0

An Olympic wrestler turned knockout machine, Villa was an undefeated mainstay at flyweight
in the MFA promotion. That is, he was until recently.

In September, Villa will jump to a larger stage and weight class when he makes his Bellator debut in their fifth bantamweight tournament. His first opponent? One Joe Warren.

23. Dustin Poirier

Weight class: Featherweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 10-1

After winning his fourth straight last month at UFC 131, the 22-year-old Louisiana native seems ready to make a leap to the next level.

22. Darrell Montague

Weight class: Flyweight
Promotion: Tachi Palace Fights
Record: 9-1

The 23-year-old Mongoose is the current flyweight champ for TPF, which is the home (for now) to many of the world’s top 125-pounders.

21. Michael McDonald

Weight class: Bantamweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 13-1

I admit it: I’m believing the hype on this one. Ah, what a fool believes. Am I right, Michael McDonald? Am I right?

Ahhh, terrific. But back to the serious matters. McDonald is one of the hottest prospects in any weight class, much less the under-155 set. Think Brian Stann with less mass.

The last time McDonald lost, to Cole Escovedo in May 2009, he had been of voting age less than four months.

He has a lot more to prove before he can be mentioned in the same breath with some of the other guys on this list. But let the record show: I’m buying the stock now. If you want out, there’s the door.

20. Zach “Fun Size” Makovsky

Weight class: Bantamweight
Promotion: Bellator
Record: 13-2

The current Bellator champ at 135. Not as accomplished (or, therefore, highly ranked) as several other bantamweights who have never worn gold, Makovsky is nevertheless a good fighter and the proud owner of one of MMA’s finest nicknames.

19. Diego Nunes

Weight class: Featherweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 16-2

The Gun was impressive at times in a losing effort to Kenny Florian, but did show some chinks in the old armor in the process. Nevertheless, the talented and well-rounded fighter should have plenty of opportunities for redemption in a loaded featherweight field.

18. Jussier Da Silva

Weight class: Flyweight
Promotion: Tachi Palace Fights
Record: 9-1

A longtime fixture atop flyweight rankings, the 26-year-old’s career took a tumble after he lost by unanimous decision in February to his toughest opponent to date in Ian McCall.

17. Masakatsu Ueda

Weight class: Bantamweight
Promotion: Shooto
Record: 12-1-2

This two-year belt holder in Shooto’s featherweight (132 pounds) division is an expert grappler and should contend again for the strap.

16. Ian “Uncle Creepy” McCall

Weight class: Flyweight
Promotion: Tachi Palace Fights
Record: 10-2

You've got to hand it to flyweights: they've got personality.

I don’t know how he got his nickname and, frankly, I don’t want to know. It’s like finding out how hot dogs are made.

What I do know about McCall, however, is that he is a highly accomplished flyweight who will challenge newly crowned and less-seasoned TPF champion Darrell Montague in August. McCall may not be the one wearing the gold, but his stronger pedigree gives him the edge over Montague on this list. That will change if the Mongoose can fend off Uncle Creepy in his first title defense.

15. Miguel Torres

Weight class: Bantamweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 39-4

It wasn’t long ago that Torres was considered a top-five pound-for-pound fighter. The rugged jiu-jitsu ace has since fallen from grace, but seemingly still has the desire to claw his way back to the top.

14. Marlon Sandro

Weight class: Featherweight
Promotion: Bellator
Record: 18-2

Sandro pulled out a decision win last week to advance in this summer’s Bellator featherweight tournament. The odds would indicate he’s on a collision course with Pat Curran for the right to fight current champion Joe Warren.

For the record, I don’t know what he’s doing in that picture, either.

13. Demetrious Johnson

Weight class: Bantamweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 9-1

After defeating two legends back-to-back in Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto and Miguel Torres, Mighty Mouse is No. 13 with a bullet.

12. Scott Jorgensen

Weight class: Bantamweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 12-4

One of the more consistent and exciting performers at 135, a few more wins could find him back in contention for a title shot. In his last one, he lost a unanimous decision after going the distance with Dominick Cruz.

11. Brian Bowles

Weight class: Bantamweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 9-1

A former WEC champ at 135, Bowles will try to build on the momentum he gained in his Octagon debut, in which he defeated Damacio Page by choke in the first round. His next fight, against Takeya Mizugazi, could help sort out the bantamweight title picture.

10. Joe Warren

Weight class: Featherweight/Bantamweight
Promotion: Bellator
Record: 7-1

Bellator’s current featherweight champion will defend his title on July 23 against Freire. If he is successful, he will enter Bellator’s September bantamweight tournament on a quest to win a belt in two weight classes.

9. Chad “Money” Mendes

Weight class: Featherweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 10-0

Chad Mendes has a right to be upset. After all, that title shot that’s going to Kenny Florian could, a case can be made, be his.  But upset or not, Mendes will go back to work in August against Rani Yahya and, in the process, pad his undefeated record and throw one more log on the fire he’s stoking underneath the matchmaker’s seat.

8. Yasuhiro Urushitani

Weight class: Flyweight
Promotion: Shooto
Record: 18-4-6

The current Shooto champ at 123 is considered by many to be the finest flyweight in the world today.

7. Mamoru Yamaguchi

Weight class: Flyweight
Promotion: Tachi Palace Fights
Record: 26-5-3

If you think he’s too high, I have three words: respect the fro. Respect it!

The longtime flyweight champion of Shooto and King of the Cage recently made his U.S. debut (unless you count one fight in Hawaii back in 1999) in California's TPF promotion. It will be interesting to see whether the men who keep the keys to the bigger gyms come calling for this flashy Japanese import.

At age 34, Yamaguchi may not have the highest upside in the world, but he is a pioneer of sorts for MMA as arguably its first great fighter at flyweight.

6. Kenny Florian

Weight class: Featherweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 14-5

So far so good for Florian at featherweight.

Admittedly, after only one fight at 145, Florian is largely trading on credit in this new weight class. But with a fight career as decorated as Florian’s, that’s not such an incomprehensible thing.

After outclassing Diego Nunes, Florian will likely tangle next with Jose Aldo for the featherweight strap. May the Force be with him.

5. Joseph Benavidez

Weight class: Bantamweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 14-2

An exciting and gutsy young fighter, Benavidez is probably the best bantamweight on this list to never wear gold.

The good news on that front is that Benavidez has only ever lost to Dominick Cruz. The bad news is, Cruz is the current bantamweight champion.

An important tussle with Eddie Wineland this August should be a rather energetic engagement that could help determine the next challenger for the strap.

Plus, when your nickname is Joe B Wan Kenobi, how bad can you be? (And I think I just won a Star Wars bet.)

4. Urijah Faber

Weight class: Bantamweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 25-4

The California Kid. The dimple-chined Don Juan of the dojo. The biggest star on this list.

I feel like if you’re still reading, you know all there is to know about Faber’s game. But at 32 years of age and showing signs of slowing, Saturday’s bout with Cruz could be an unprecedented crossroads for the California Kid’s career.

3. Hatsu Hioki

Weight class: Featherweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 24-4-2

The UFC in June plucked this succulent cherry of a featherweight out of the Shooto and Sengoku promotions, where he had won nine of his last 10 fights. At the time of the signing, he held the featherweight or equivalent belt in both, thanks in part to a submission game that doesn’t have many equals outside of Brazil.

The moment Hioki touched his pen to the UFC contract, he became the presumptive favorite to face the winner of Jose Aldo and Kenny Florian for the UFC featherweight title, though he will probably get handed some kind of getting-to-know-you engagement in the meantime.

2. Dominick Cruz

Weight class: Bantamweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 17-1

As you perused the great bantamweight names that came earlier on this list, you may or may not have been aware of something many of them have in common: a loss to Dominick Cruz.

Scott Jorgensen. Brian Bowles. Joseph Benavidez, twice.

If they haven’t lost to him, they haven’t fought him yet.

Only Faber has bested Cruz, and that was at featherweight. Tomorrow night, Cruz fights to settle that score.

1. Jose Aldo

Weight class:  Featherweight
Promotion: UFC
Record: 19-1

If you don’t know Jose Aldo yet, then let me take this opportunity to introduce you to the sport of mixed martial arts: the lighter version.

This Muay Thai punisher is one of the consensus top-five pound-for-pound fighters in the known galaxy today. He hasn’t lost in more than five years, earning and fiercely defending the WEC featherweight title and picking up several Knockout of the Night awards during that streak.

Perhaps his crowning achievement in his WEC days was brutalizing Urijah Faber so thoroughly with leg kicks for five rounds that Faber needed crutches the next day. Oh, and Faber—a former featherweight champ himself, mind you—also decided to change weight classes not long after.

After the WEC-UFC merger, Aldo was grandfathered into the Octagon as the UFC’s first 145-pound champion. He celebrated the achievement by beating bloody circles around a very talented Mark Hominick (in front of Hominick’s hometown fans) en route to Fight of the Night honors.

I could go on. But in the interest of pithy summation, I’ll invoke the words of Mike Goldberg: this…dude…is…violent. 

And good. Very good. Scary good. And he’s only 24.