7 UFC Fighters Who Could Be Fool's Gold

Watching a fighter go from an up-and-coming prospect to a world champion is one of the most satisfying things to watch as an MMA fan.

As we’ve recently see with Jon Jones and Cain Velasquez, if a fighter is brought into the world title picture slowly and given time to harness his skills, it can be a thing of beauty when he finally steps in there with the best.

Every couple of months we see a guy who we think could be the next big thing in his weight class if only he had a little more time.

This list is comprised of prospects (one from each weight class) who have either hit that upper echelon of talent or are just getting their wings and are seen as future contenders.

The problem is there are still some unanswered questions about these guys, and we can’t yet be sure if they are quite ready to be in the championship conversation, let alone hold a championship belt.

Brendan Schaub

At the start of TUF 10 it was hard to distinguish Schuab from the several other former NFL players on the cast, though it was made a little easier when it was revealed he trained with his coach Rashad Evans at Greg Jackson’s camp in New Mexico.

Schaub started out well on TUF with back-to-back stoppage wins over Demico Rogers and Jon Madsen, but he was still the underdog to favorite Marcus Jones going into the semifinals.

Brendan wasted little time in shocking the viewers at home, knocking out Jones early in the first and securing his spot in the finals opposite Roy Nelson. That was where his luck ran out though, and Nelson sent him packing with a brutal first-round knockout of his own.

Schaub has rebounded from his first career loss with four straight wins, including a couple wins over UFC veterans Gabriel Gonzaga and Mirko Cro Cop.

The biggest test of Schaub’s career awaits him at UFC 134, when he takes on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in Brazil.

While Schaub has looked impressive as of late, it will be interesting to see how his ground game is. No one has really tested him in this area, and Nogueira has the tools to make it a short night for Schaub if he can get it to the mat.

Ryan Bader

Every once in a while there is a prospect that appears on TUF that you know is destined to win the competition.

Ryan Bader was too talented for the rest of the cast of TUF 8, winning the show with relative ease, and had fans excited to see how far he could go.

Bader won four straight fights after winning the show, with big wins over Keith Jardine and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in 2010.

At the start of 2011, the MMA world was watching Bader’s fight with Jon Jones extremely closely, as the winner was in line to be the future of MMA’s toughest division.

Turn out they were right, but unfortunately for Bader, he was on the wrong side of a Jon Jones beatdown. Jones went on to win the light heavyweight title, while Bader has been out of action since.

Jones showed that Bader’s wrestling wasn’t quite as strong as most assumed, taking him down with relative ease and pounding him before locking in a fight-ending submission.

Bader was also outclassed on the feet by "Bones," showing he has to improve in all aspects of his game if he is to reach the lofty goals that are expected of him, namely a world championship run.

Chris Weidman

More and more wrestlers are transitioning into MMA when their collegiate careers are over, and like so many before him, Chris Weidman has hit the ground running since starting to train MMA full-time.

Currently fighting as part of the Serra-Longo team, Weidman was regarded as a top prospect before he had even entered the UFC, with a strong wrestling background and four pro wins under his belt.

Weidman took his UFC debut on just two weeks' notice, and he was up against feared striker Alessio Sakara. Weidman was able to avoid any big shots from the Italian and won a lopsided decision.

Last weekend at UFC 131 was Weidman’s second fight inside the Octagon, and he looked even better than last time, catching Jesse Bongfeldt in a fight-ending guillotine choke just before the end of the first round.

While Weidman has looked indestructible in his first few fights, we need to see him fight another high-caliber wrestler to see how far he can go in the sport.

His standup has looked decent so far, but that might drastically change if his opponent doesn’t have to fear the takedown.

Rick Story

Although most of us seem to have forgotten it, Rick Story has lost a fight in the UFC.

It came in his UFC debut at UFC 99, where Story ended up on the wrong end of a unanimous decision to fellow prospect John Hathaway.

Since then, it’s been nothing but W’s for the newest contender at 170.

Currently on a six-fight win streak with big wins over Dustin Hazelett, Johny Hendricks and Thiago Alves in the last year, Story is all of a sudden one of the few contenders who hasn’t gone after GSP’s title yet.

A lot is going to be revealed about Story in the next 30 days since he has stepped in on short notice to battle Nate Marquardt at UFC Live 4 later this month.

This will be Story’s second fight in a less than a month, so ring rust won’t be a factor, but it will be interesting to see what happens if Marquardt stuffs his wrestling. Story looked good in the exchanges against Alves, but the Brazilian was throwing punches under the constant threat of a takedown.

If "Nate the Great" can stop a few shots early, we may see Story’s weakness revealed.

Charles Oliveira

Few fighters have had a debut as impressive as Charles Oliveira.

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt showed off some excellent submission skills in his UFC debut, needing only 41 seconds to take out Darren Elkins at UFC Live 2 with an armbar.

His follow-up performance was another standout performance against TUF 8 winner Efrain Escudero in a catchweight bout due to Escudero being unable to make the 155-lb. limit.

Oliveira surprised Escudero by being the superior fighter on the feet and showing some decent takedown defense, shutting down his opponent in all areas of the fight.

He has able to finish Escudero with a standing rear naked choke in the third round, and just like that the future of the division was supposedly here.

He returned on the main card of UFC 124 against his toughest test to date, top-10 lightweight Jim Miller.

Oliveira severely underestimated his opponent on the ground and got caught in a kneebar in the first two minutes of the bout, giving him the first loss of his professional career.

Even though the loss to Miller didn’t seem to be anything to be concerned about, he has some holes in both his ground game and his standup to fix if he wants to be a champion.

Diego Nunes

A win over a former champion in your UFC debut is a good way to start your career inside the octagon.

Nunes had gone 4-1 in the WEC and was on a two-fight win streak when he was booked to fight Mike Brown at UFC 125, and he made the most of his opportunity by outscoring Brown on the feet and winning a decision.

Taking out the man who beat Urijah Faber (twice) is enough to turn some heads, and Nunes was now on the short list to go after his friend and training partner Jose Aldo.

But before he got a shot at Aldo, Nunes was matched up against former lightweight title contender Kenny Florian at UFC 131.

Nunes won the first, even knocking Florian down with a big punch at the end of the round, but he was controlled on the ground and reached a stalemate on the feet for the second and third and lost the decision.

Diego has shown that he has plenty of talent on the feet, but until he improves his takedown defense and cardio, he will be in trouble. Florian isn’t exactly known for his wrestling, and he was able to take Nunes down at will late in the fight.

Demetrious Johnson

Since losing his WEC debut to Brad Pickett in April of 2010, Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson has been on a serious hot streak.

Johnson finished his WEC career with back-to-back wins over Nick Pace and Damacio Page, and at UFC 126 Johnson fought one of the most successful fighters in MMA history in Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto.

Almost immediately it became clear that Johnson’s takedowns were too fast for Yamamoto to stop, and "Mighty Mouse" easily won a decision.

An injury to Pickett earned Johnson a fight against former bantamweight champ Miguel Torres. In a close fight Johnson was able to secure the takedown and avoid Torres’ constant submission attempts, winning a very close decision.

While Johnson has looked great in his last two fights against stellar competition, he is still a bit small for 135, and it would be hard for him to get someone like Urijah Faber to the mat.

Unless he improves his striking dramatically or the UFC finally adds a flyweight division, it is hard to envision a scenario that would lead to Johnson holding a UFC title.