Non-UFC Fighters You MUST Know About

After the publication of the recent MMA rankings second edition by Mike Leanza, I realized many new fans here on B/R in the MMA section weren't familiar with the other MMA organizations around the world, as a matter of fact, many sent in rankings with UFC fighters only.

It is important to know that the UFC don't have the best fighters in all of MMA, they have really great ones, but not all the best. Seeing Kenny Florian ranked at No. 3 in the recent MMA rankings is crazy, considering DREAM have the best lightweights—guys who could actually give B.J. Penn a run for his money.

Up next is some of those fighters you just have to know, very talented fighters fighting for another organization that don't get enough exposure. Everybody knows Affliction and Elite XC, so I'll just pass over those two organizations.

Joachim Hansen

Joachim Hansen is the current DREAM lightweight champion. He's a Norwegian fighter with a 19-7 record. DREAM held a Gran Prix tournament in 2008 and Joachim won it by defeating the very talented Shinya Aoki, a man who had defeated him before.

With the victory, Hansen became the winner of the tournament and became the first event DREAM lightweight champion, a title he still holds right now.

With victories over Caol Uno, Yves Edwards and Takanori Gomi, Joachim Hansen is a very talented fighter who deserves his place of one of the best lightweight fighters in the world today.

Gesias "JZ" Calvancante

Calvancante is a young 25-year-old Brazilian fighter currently training with American Top Team. With a 14-2 record, Gesias now fights in the DREAM lightweight division. He fought Shinya Aoki at DREAM's first event on March 15, 2008 and the fight was a No Contest because of illegal elbows in the back of Aoki's head.

In the rematch, Aoki was the winner by unanimous decision but not without major damage to his ribs. At 25 years old, "JZ" still has a long career in front of him, and I feel we haven't seen anything yet.

Shinya Aoki

Another young fighter fighting in DREAM, Aoki is a former PRIDE fighter who holds victories over Kuniyoshi Hironaka, Joachim Hansen, Gesias Calvancante, Caol Uno and Eddie Alvarez. Aoki is a submission specialist with a 19-3 record and 11 of those wins coming by submission.

Aoki has a black belt in BJJ and Judo and is know for his crazy flexibility. He is the current WAMMA lightweight champion fighting in the DREAM and Dynamite organizations.

Aoki recently showed interests in fighting current UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn, a fight many consider would be a fight between the top two lightweight in the world today, but this fight is just a dream for now.

Eddie Alvarez

"The Silent Assassin" Eddie Alvarez is a 24 years old American fighter with a 15-2 record in his career. He has victories over Aaron Riley, Joachim Hansen and Andre Amade.

He currently fights for DREAM in the lightweight division and is considered by many to be one of the top lightweight in the world.

Both the UFC and Affliction have shown interest in signing Alvarez into their organization. Whether this happens or not, Alvarez is still one of the best around and a fight between him and B.J. Penn would be a dream fight.

Gegard Mousasi

Like Karo Parisyan and Manny Gamburyan, Gegrad Mousasi is an Armenian fighter competing with DREAM. Mousasi is 23 years old and has a 27-2 record in MMA and fights in the middleweight division.

He racked up an impressive 6-0 record in MMA in 2008. At DREAM 6, he became the first ever DREAM middleweight champion after beating Melvin Manhoef and Ronaldo Souza in one night and still holds this belt today.

Mousasi has done incredible things at his young age and will continue to do so in the next years.

Alistair Overeem

Alistair is hopefully more known by the new fans because of his stay in PRIDE, but he still doesn't get the recognition he deserves. Overeem is a Dutch fighter who holds a professional MMA record of 40-11.

He's 28 years old and currently holds the StrikeForce heavyweight championship. Overeem has fought a list of great MMA fighters in his career like Chuck Liddell, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Vitor Belfort, Shogun Rua and Fabricio Werdum to name a few. Alistair looked very impressive in his last five fights.

Overeem showed interest in fighting in the UFC in the near future. He wants to avenge a loss to Chuck Liddell in PRIDE and would love to fight Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar if he ever ends up in the UFC.

Those six fighters have shown what they were all about and deserve to be known as some of the best in their respective divisions. I hope the new fans that don't know these fighters will get to learn about them, do your research, and appreciate other organizations.