The Beaten Path: Top 25 MMA Prospects for 2015, Part 2

Life comes at you fast, so it helps when you can see around corners. If you're an MMA fan, consider this your mirror, which has been tied to a stick.

With that bit of eloquence, we kick off the second half of the third annual installment of the cornerstone piece of The Beaten Path, our ongoing series of articles and interviews highlighting top MMA prospects. For this list, we searched through hundreds of fighters to find the 25 up-and-comers who are poised to do big things on the sport's grandest stages.

Last week, my man Riley Kontek published Part 1, listing No. 25-13. Now, I'm taking you through to the top.

The guidelines are pretty simple. No UFC fighters are eligible. Bellator and World Series of Fighting fighters are almost never included, and when they are, they are usually inexperienced in those promotions. All fighters are either young in age or in the sport—a particularly important rule, given that plenty of fighters find MMA later in their athletic lives (see Daniel Cormier or Holly Holm, for example).

Finally, if the fighter has been included on a previous list, he or she is no longer eligible. So check our 2013 and 2014 (both parts) rankings before you go bellyaching about so-and-so not being on here.

Fighters are ranked based on their records, their readiness to advance to the next level and our perceptions regarding their chances to continue their success once they reach said level.

OK? Sound good? Let's get it on. 

Part 1 Recap

Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

Capitalize on this opportunity to refresh or re-refresh yourself with the first part of our 2015 list:

13. Karolina Kowalkiewicz

14. Maxim Grishin

15. Denis Goltsov

16. Pannie Kianzad

17. Cody East

18. Toni Tauru

19. Alberto Uda

20. DeAnna Bennett

21. Ken Hasegawa

22. Mansour Barnaoui

23. Mateusz Gamrot

24. Borys Mankowski

25. Tom Duquesnoy

12. Stephan Puetz

Division: Light heavyweight
Promotion: M-1
Record: 12-1
Age: 27
Country: Germany

Stephan Puetz has a meat-and-potatoes kind of game. He clinches up with you or takes you down and pounds on you. He plods after you on the feet and wings leather in the general direction of your head.

So why is that remarkable? Well, first of all he's 6'6". That's pretty big. If Puetz joined the UFC today, he'd be the tallest light heavyweight on the roster.

And he's not only bested a high level of competition (including Viktor Nemkov, per the video), but he hasn't really been threatened lately. 

In an MMA world starved for light heavyweights, Puetz sticks out like a sore thumb as someone who can compete, right now, in just about any promotion's 205-pound division.

11. Kamaru Usman

Division: Welterweight
Promotion: Legacy FC
Record: 5-1
Age: 26
Country: United States

Kamaru Usman may be ready soon for a big step up. Maybe a very big step.

The Nigerian-American is the latest wrecking machine to be unleashed on the world by the Blackzilians camp. He's a D-II champion wrestler—and even spent a couple of years at the Olympic Training Center—but you can see the influence of coaches like Henri Hooft and teammates like Alistair Overeem. That is to say, his striking is diverse and dangerous. It's rare to see such a big guy (and a wrestler, no less) land strikes with such precision.

He's still inexperienced, but it hasn't taken him long to make an impression. That will happen when all five of your wins come by knockout. He's already 3-0 with LFC. We'll see how much longer that promotion can keep him.

10. Chris Fishgold

Division: Featherweight
Promotion: Cage Warriors
Record: 10-0
Age: 21
Country: Great Britain

I'm not sure it's possible to be more active on the ground than Chris Fishgold is. He's on the max end of that meter. He thrives in the scramble, always hunting for submissions, and stays on you like he's trying to create a vacuum. 

Fishgold lost a lot of momentum when he was injured and then was the victim of those general match-making misfortunes with which we're all too familiar (opponent withdrawals, etc.).

The bad stuff continued in 2014, when he, uh, didn't fight. Like at all. In a recent interview with MMA Opinion, Fishgold chalked it up to injuries, the death of his grandfather and what seems like general malaise, before saying what you'd expect him to say vis-a-vis being a new person and so forth:

"

This year made me look at life different, appreciate the people I have around me and it’s made me change my attitude towards training. This is all I’m about now I do nothing else! This is me and I’m about sharpening my tools and come fight time making men wish they never stepped in there with me. I now have better cardio than before, better striking, better submissions, better wrestling, and a better me.

"

He also said he wants to fight as soon as possible in 2015. We'll see how it goes for Fishgold. If he's right between the ears, all the other parts seem to be there.

9. Anatoly Tokov

Division: Middleweight/welterweight
Promotion: M-1
Record: 18-1
Age: 24
Country: Russia

This just in: Russia has some good young MMA fighters over there.

Anatoly Tokov is yet another example. He's light on his feet, even if he's not the most dynamic striker. He has good power and athleticism too.

He's not exactly a Shakespeare sonnet in the clinch or ground phases, but what he lacks in artistry he makes up for in tenacity. He doesn't have a textbook double leg or a beautiful judo trip. He just gets his hands on you and drags you to where he wants you to be, and then he beats on you.

He has the footwork to be a good kickboxer; he just needs to do more with combos. As is, he'll get in a slugfest, and as his record indicates, he tends to come out on the good end of those. A strong chin doesn't hurt him in this regard.

It seems like he has made a permanent drop down to welterweight, but most of his fights have come at 185 pounds. So that is a bit uncertain at the moment. But it's pretty certain he has the talent to achieve things, even at the sport's highest levels.

8. Brett Johns

Division: Bantamweight
Promotion: Titan FC
Record: 10-0
Age: 22
Country: Great Britain 

Is the Welshman exciting inside the cage? No, the Welshman is not.

In fact, Brett Johns is so focused on takedowns and position control that other fighters get angry with him, almost as if he's somehow flouting the rules. He's not, of course. The frustration is ultimately misplaced. 

This is how Johns is going to operate. If you can't stop it, you better bring your belt sander. Because you're in for a grind, baby.

Johns just wears you down. He takes you down and holds you down. That "deep waters" metaphor we hear so often is about as close to literal with the judo-based Johns as it is for anyone. He looks like he's actually trying to drown the other man.

As for stand-up, well, it's mainly defensive in nature. He skitters around and keeps his hands high, basically just looking to minimize exchanges. He's quick. He'll fire a left hook or some such every now and then but hardly ever throws a kick or meaningful combo. In his mind, striking seems to just be there as a setup to the takedown.

Though he has not yet fought under the Titan banner, the promotion was right to snap him up. He has a great base, doesn't get tired, is a likable kid and hasn't lost yet. There's nothing to dislike here, unless you need spinning wheel kicks every two minutes.

7. Adriano Moraes

Division: Flyweight
Promotion: One FC
Record: 12-1
Age: 25
Country: Brazil

Adriano Moraes is flying under the radar a little bit. Unless you're a bull-riding fan, in which case, congrats, but you're reading the wrong site.

Adriano Moraes, the fighter version, is the guy a head or more taller than everyone he's competing against. Moraes is listed at 5'8", which is enormous for a flyweight (UFC champ Demetrious Johnson is 5'3").

Moraes combines high-level submissions (especially chokes) with the takedowns to get them done. He also has good speed and power in his hands, though his clinch work and ground game are his real specialties.

Currently the One FC flyweight champ, Moraes recently bested UFC veteran and former Shooto champ Yasuhiro Urushitani and fellow top prospect Dileno Lopes.

6. Nicolas Dalby

Division: Welterweight
Promotion: Cage Warriors
Record: 13-0
Age: 30
Country: Denmark

Sometimes in an American football scouting report, you'll read that a certain player "really gets after it." Well, Nicolas Dalby really gets after it. He has aggression, energy and violence to burn.

The karate game that started his MMA path is still evident today. The reigning Cage Warriors welterweight champ is a fairly big welterweight but is noticeably light on his feet. He moves well in there—all the better to dart in and out and slam home some precision offense. 

Dalby likes to throw punches in bunches, especially when he smells blood. He conjures up vintage Chuck Liddell sometimes when he's laying hook combos on some poor cornered guy—not only because of the style, but because of the fluid, almost effortless way in which his offense happens. 

But he's more physical than the average kickboxing European. He fights well in the clinch and has good power in his core; he can take you down. His takedown defense is probably better than his takedown offense at this point, but the offense isn't nonexistent either. He stays heavy in the clinch and on the ground, tiring you out by making you carry his weight. Then, out of nowhere, here comes a knee to the ribs or an elbow to the skull.

It's a good blend of things. And though he has three wins by submission, he's mainly a ground-and-pound fighter when things are horizontal. Putting it all together, Dalby is probably the best fighter on the Western European MMA scene right now. 

5. Gleristone Santos

Division: Featherweight
Promotion: Titan FC
Record: 27-4
Age: 26
Country: Brazil

Gleristone Santos has been on prospect radars for a long time now. If he's not ready to jump to a major promotion, I'm kind of at a loss to finger whatever it is that's holding him back.

The continental divide came in 2011 when he lost to Carlo Prater. Prater won that fight and went on to the UFC. 

But that loss was three years, nine fights and one higher weight class ago. Since moving down to featherweight, Santos has been on a tear, going 9-0 with three knockouts and two submissions. That includes his first two fights in Titan FC, which double as his first two fights outside of Brazil. 

Skill-wise, Santos has the total package. He's a natural athlete, with great agility in the cage. He attacks with sharp kicks (especially leg kicks) and punches. He has great power, and for evidence of that, just check out that video, in which he iron-boards Marcos Vinicius with a relatively nonchalant right hook.

He has recently worked to make his ground game better, and that should pay dividends, especially as he moves out of Brazil and faces more diverse skill sets, including American wrestlers—in Titan and, one would assume, eventually elsewhere.

4. Sheymon Moraes

Division: Bantamweight
Promotion: World Series of Fighting
Record: 7-0
Age: 24
Country: Brazil

Do yourself a favor, person who enjoys professional fighting: Watch this young man fight.

Sheymon Moraes is a stone-cold reaver of souls. He comes in there with the muay thai striking and whups tail. Everything thuds.

Given that he works with Team Nogueira, you have to think his grappling is not terribly deficient. He hasn't had to use it much in live situations, so it's hard to know for sure. Moraes was originally set to face Canadian power grinder Josh Hill in his WSOF debut. As it is, he drew Gabriel Solorio, who gave Moraes a tough fight but ultimately lost a close decision.

Everything is lining up for a triumphant WSOF run for Moraes. And I'm telling you it's not something you want to miss. 

3. Luke Sanders

Division: Bantamweight
Promotion: Resurrection Fighting Alliance
Record: 9-0
Age: 29
Country: United States 

Ah, Strikeforce Challengers—I remember it fondly. That's where "Cool Hand" Luke Sanders got his start in professional MMA. And it looks like the defunct prospect-focused wing of the defunct Strikeforce promotion was a good launching pad for Sanders.

The RFA bantamweight champion is solid rock, and he'll be hard for any bantamweight to deal with. I didn't even know anything about him when I first saw a still photo. But I instantly thought "grinder." And you know what I was correct. 

A move to the MMA Lab also may have helped him in that regard, given as how that camp is home to one of the sport's most high-profile grinders, Benson Henderson.

Sanders has no submission game to speak of, at least not yet, preferring to look for the TKO or positional control when the fight is on the ground.

Most importantly for him, he seems committed to being good, and that shows in the improvement he displays in every fight. The champ has distinguished himself in a crowded field of prospects at 135 pounds, and given his place in the unabashed UFC feeder league that is RFA, he might just get The Call soon.

2. Musa Khamanaev

Division: Lightweight
Promotion: ACB
Record: 15-3
Age: 27
Country: Russia 

Musa "The Machete" Khamanaev vacated his M-1 lightweight title when his contract with the promotion expired. He took a stay-busy fight with ACB last fall and knocked out his opponent in less than four minutes.

What else does the UFC or Bellator need to see? He's coming straight out of Chechnya, in the North Caucasus region of Russia that produced Khabib Nurmagomedov and a slew of other standouts.

Like those guys, for Khamanaev it all starts with grappling. He has a strong base in sambo, a sport in which he once faced a guy named Rustam Khabilov (Khamanaev won, for the record).

He's also violent, packing a deceptive amount of power into a relatively unassuming frame. He may want to drop to featherweight at some point, where he'd be even more explosive. But he has a frightening arsenal no matter where he goes.

1. Marcin Tybura

Division: Heavyweight
Promotion: M-1
Record: 12-0
Age: 29
Country: Poland 

To paraphrase Newton Minow, the heavyweight division is a bit of a vast wasteland. Always kind of has been, kind of is now and probably always kind of will be. It's a marquee division in its way, but one that lends itself to novelty and short careers.

Enter Marcin Tybura, a fighter who appears ready, right now, to feast on the rank-and-file of any heavyweight division.

If you see Tybura coming toward you on the screen, what you'll want to do is, you'll want to batten down the hatches. He's a grappler first and not exceptionally athletic, but he has an international-level jiu-jitsu game. He will tear your limb off.

And he has some power in his strikes, too. He's not Floyd Mayweather, but he will still knock your sorry behind out. 

All told, all but two of Tybura's pro wins have come by finish. He looks to end people and does so. And he's the best heavyweight prospect—nay, prospect period—in MMA right now.

The Beaten Path is Bleacher Report MMA's ongoing series on MMA prospects. Scott Harris covers prospects and other aspects of MMA for Bleacher Report. For more, follow Scott on Twitter.