MMA: The 10 Best Flyweight Fighters That You've Never Heard Of

Lately, it's been an emerging truth that the lighter weights of the Mixed Martial Arts World have made for some of the sports most memorable affairs.

Jose Aldo, Marlon Sandro, Urijah Faber, Joseph Benavidez, Dominick Cruz, and even guys like Hatsu Hioki and Hiroyuki Takaya have all risen to prominence as some of the top names in lighter weight MMA.

Of course, that's just talking about Featherweights and Bantamweights, and in the course of about the past year or so, Flyweights like Ian McCall, Darrell Montague, Jussier da Silva, and Ulysses "Useless" Gomez have helped bring Flyweights into the mainstream's attention.

As an ode to the gents in the one weight class that neither Bellator nor Zuffa has, I've decided to take great pleasure in presenting you a total of 10 fighters in the 125-pounds-and-below division--all of whom you probably have never heard of.

While none of these folks are as familiar of names as some would like, all these men are very brutal, very devastating, and would make superb additions to any flyweight division...Stateside or elsewhere.

(These additions come courtesy of Fight Matrix, the rankings from which this list is based).

Darrell Montague

The No. 10 Flyweight in the world, Montague's name is on this list because although he's the Tachi Palace Fights Flyweight Champion of the World. Some people might not be familiar with Montague or Tachi Palace Fights.

(Just in case you were wondering, YES, you will be seeing more TPF Flyweights on here.)

Montague actually has one of the more impressive yet younger-looking records in the division, with nine wins and a loss by TKO in the third round of a Gladiator Challenge.bout with Robert Peralta.

His last win was arguably one of the two biggest wins in the Flyweight division when he defeated former TPF Champ Ulysses Gomez by a clean sweep, 50-45 across-the-board Unanimous Decision.

It's one of the only two fights of the career of "The Mongoose" that's ever gone to the judges, and it's responsible for his status as one of the best Flyweights in MMA today.

Mitsuhisa Sunabe

One of the best 125ers from The Land of the Rising Sun, Sunabe is known for being as vicious on the ground as he is on the feet.

He's been through Pancrase for most of his career, with one fight in DEEP and a fight in GCM's first Cage Force event, and he's built up a reputation for being gritty as a fighter, having gone to a draw four times in his career.

Add that he's only been finished once and he's only got four losses by the scorecards (in contrasts to the seven wins he has by the scorecards), and Sunabe serves as the type of fighter who's tough to finish unless you've got a great head kick.

If you don't, Sunabe will make your night a long one.

Yuki Shojo

Shojo, like Sunabe, has taken the majority of his wins by way of decision, and like Sunabe, he also dominates his victims when he gets them on the ground by raining down with short ground-and-pound that proves to be effective enough to where his foes can do little from off their backs, no matter how active they may appear to be.

The one thing he can say that no other Flyweight can?

He's the only guy to finish current No. 1-ranked Flyweight Yasuhiro Urushitani--a finish by way of mid-third-round Guillotine Choke at Shooto Tradition 3.

It's likely because he hasn't competed in a year that explains why Yuki Shojo is low on this list, but when he does return to action, fans of great Flyweight action will see one of the best Flyweight fighters in MMA doing what he does best.

Jussier Da Silva

One of the most notable Flyweights in the game and formerly the top-ranked Flyweight in Mixed Martial Arts, Jussier "Formiga" da Silva went on a tear when he started his career in July 2005, and although he shares a distinction of going to the judges more often than not with other 125ers, he also carries the one distinction that separates lighter weights from everyone else, which is that he is a very tough fighter to finish unless you have a very explosive strike in your repertoire.

Jussier went nine fights unbeaten and untouched, on his way towards a shot at then-champ Ulysses Gomez, but then two things happened.

One of those things just happened to be that Ian "Uncle Creepy" McCall had himself 10 good minutes as opposed to the expected 15 minutes in which he was "just lucky to be there".

No one can fault Formiga for that; every fighter has to face defeat every now and then.

It's just a matter of whether he can bounce back from the defeat he suffered this past February.

If he can, it shouldn't take him long to get his spot back.

Kiyotaka Shimizu

Shimizu is a rather interesting name, another product of the Japanese scene who has two draws--one to Takuma Ishii, who he later beat, and one to Mitsuhisa Sunabe, against whom he is 1-1-1.

Like Sunabe, he's a multi-time veteran of Pancrase and a one-time GCM Cage Force fighter, but Shimizu is younger and has fought less than his rival.

Nonetheless, the young sensation has acquired his current 7-3-2 record in just three years time, acquiring the seventh win of his career via Split Decision against one Ichiro Sugita at Sengoku's Soul of Fight.

You talk about a young man who could become one of the best of the best at 125, this is one of those guys.

Ian McCall

How do you go from being "that guy Dominick Cruz beat" to being "the No. 1 Flyweight in the US"?

If you're Ian McCall, who went 1-2 as a WEC Bantamweight, all you have to do is create 10 good minutes for yourself against Jussier da Silva at a Tachi Palace Fights card with the name "All of Nothing".

Very few saw it coming, but "create 10 good minutes for himself" is precisely what "Uncle Creepy" did, earning himself a Unanimous decision against the now-former No. 1 Flyweight in the sport and cementing himself as the best 125er you can find Stateside in MMA.

As far as "best in the world" goes?

On that, he still has a long way to go.

Alexis Vila

Vila isn't the most notable name in the world, but he is the type of guys who might be one of the top examples of a 125er that goes in to finish.

Just take note of the way he takes this guy down and rains down on him with a hailstorm of strikes; it's not very pretty, but Vila gets the job done every time.

That's precisely why Vila is ranked among the top four fighters in the world...and styles like his are why fans of Flyweight action are never disappointed when they learn that Vila is signed on to punching someone's face in.

Rambaa Somdet

I'll be honest, watching a few fights of Rambaa "M-16" Somdet was what caused me to come up with this list in the first place.

This fight with Hiroyuki Abe..."Abe 2.0", not the guy Urijah Faber cut open in King Of The Cage--is the one that made it official that I was going to add him on to this list.

He's a one-man chain of explosives when he fights, and unless you have great wrestling, you have a good chance of having one of your eyes becoming as closed shut as Abe's eye was after he faced Somdet for the Shooto Flyweight Belt.

Granted, Marcus Davis' eye after Nate Diaz's destruction of him at UFC 118 still looks the nastiest that I've seen an eye look after a fight, but if you look at the eye of Abe after this fight, there's not even a slight opening available for the ringside doctors to properly check the eye out.

This fight is only one of many in the career of the one-time K-1 J-MAX fighter that have showcased the bone-crushing Muay Thai of this dynamic Thai fighter.

Mamoru Yamaguchi

When a guy's nickname is his reputation of having "The Illest Afro in Asia," that's two signs in one form:

Sign No. 1. The dude has a killer Afro.

Sign No. 2. He can--and nine times out of ten, WILL slowly but painfully demolish you by any means necessary.

That's Mamoru Yamaguchi for you: he's an Asian dude with a killer Afro, a 25-5-3 record, and a streak of 22-5-3 against top-ranked fighters in his division.

Not only that, but he's King of The Cage's Junior Flyweight Champion, a title which he won by rear naked choke against Frank Baca at KOTC: Toryumon, which was KOTC's first card of 2010.

Still not convinced that this guy can kick ass?

Just ask Jesse Taitano, who gets his courtesy of some good GNP by this Afro-haired Flyweight, and tell me that this guy wouldn't at least be entertaining to watch in the cage.

If you still doubt Mamoru's skills, check him out when he faces John Dodson at Tachi Palace Fights 9 on May 6 and judge for yourself how good this guy really is.

Yasuhiro Urushitani

If Flyweights made "pound-for-pound" lists in MMA, Urushitani's name would be the first name you'd see representing that division.

After Jussier Formiga's defeat at the hands of Ian McCall at Tachi Palace Fights 8 this past February, Urushitani's name rose to the top of the ranks of the 125-pound division, despite his last fight being in November.

What helps his argument for being the best Flyweight in the sport is a 4-1 record in his past five fights, and of his four career losses, only one of them has been because of a submission.

Add the fact that he's gone 17-4-6 against Top 15 competition, and he's one of the top choices for a Flyweight to add to any organization's 125-pound division.