UFC 128 Fight Card: Will Edson Barboza Become a Player at Lightweight?

It's funny what a few leg kicks can do for your career.

This past November, Edson Barboza turned heads in the MMA world with a stunning TKO win over Mike Lullo at UFC 123. It was Barboza's second straight TKO win by leg kicks.

The man is scheduled to face Anthony Njokuani tomorrow night at UFC 128 in what should be an electrifying Lightweight battle, but let's delve deeper into what this means for Barboza in the long run.

With a win over Anthony Njokuani, can we safely say that Barboza finally becomes a major player in MMA?

The answer to that question really depends on your idea of who qualifies as a "legitimate contender" in the tank of hungry bull-sharks that we here in the MMA world are labeling as "the UFC Lightweight division".

In a tank with guys like Anthony Pettis, Clay Guida, Jim Miller, Gray Maynard, Dennis Siver, George Sotiropoulos, Evan Dunham and others, it's tough to see Barboza getting in a true contendership position anytime soon unless we see the Lightweights-only version of the sequence of events that led Jon Jones to Mauricio Rua after Barboza wins, if he does win.

However, I will say that with time, discipline and impressive performances, Barboza will become a player, but again, don't expect his next fight to come against Maynard, Melvin Guillard, Dunham, or any of the guys in at least the top 10 of UFC Lightweights.

He has what it takes to become a player, being that he is 24 years of age, undefeated in MMA and he's a pretty decorated Muay Thai fighter with a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and a 25-3 kickboxing record.

The only thing he needs to do, besides beating Njokuani, is not believe his own hype.

If he lets the fact of his undefeated streak go to his head, it could cloud his focus and cause him to make a wrong move or two, and with the momentum he's picked up so far from his UFC debut, it's to Barboza's benefit to keep a level head.

Couple that in with some improvements in his Jiu-Jitsu game as well as mixing up his already-dangerous striking game and Barboza could very well be at least a Top 10 Lightweight, if not a major Top 5 Lightweight name.

It's not going to be easy, but with a bit of time and a few adjustments, Barboza could catapult himself into the frontline of UFC Lightweights.

Once he does that, it'll be tough to ignore this young phenom any longer.

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