Fighters on the Rise 2026 | Part 2

He’s shown through his last two appearances that the skills remain, and his confidence and maturity have caught up to his talent, which makes him an intriguing dark horse in the ultra-competitive flyweight ranks.

Mario Pinto

We go from flyweight to heavyweight and the 27-year-old Pinto, who went 2-0 with a pair of stoppage wins during his 2025 rookie campaign in the UFC.

RELATED: Fighters On The Rise 2026 Part 1

Another member of the excellent Dana White’s Contender Series Class of ’24, Pinto has quickly established himself as one to watch in the big boy ranks after registering second-round stoppage wins over Austen Lane and Jhonata Diniz in his first two trips into the Octagon. After starching the former NFL defensive lineman with a right hook in his debut, the London-based fighter ventured to Rio de Janeiro in October and rained down punishment on Diniz from mount to secure his 11th consecutive win to open his pro career.

The son of UFC vet Gilbert Smith, the 23-year-old bantamweight earned a hard-fought decision win on Season 8 of Dana White’s Contender Series to earn a contract and did the same thing in a bout with Vince Morales to claim a win in his promotional debut. His sophomore appearance in the Octagon came in August against Toshiomi Kazama and resulted in Smith delivering one of the most emphatic finishes of the year, channeling “Rampage” Jackson by scoring a knockout win by powerbomb.

READ: The 10 Fights We Are Looking Forward To This Month

Watching Smith compete you can see the foundational elements are there for him to possibly develop into a threat in the 135-pound weight class; he’s athletic and well rounded, but also still has room to grow. We’re at the point in the life of the sport where second-generation talents are going to start making real noise, and the DWCS grad could very well be one of the people at the vanguard of that movement.

Jacobe Smith

If you’re looking for a welterweight that could force their way into the rankings in 2026, Smith profiles as a prime candidate to make such a move in the year ahead.

The Oklahoma State product is a couple weeks shy of turning 30 and enters his second year on the UFC roster sporting a perfect 11-0 record, which includes stoppage wins in each of his first two appearances inside the Octagon. After debuting on the first card of 2025 with a 73-second knockout win over Preston Parsons, “Cobe” submitted veteran Niko Price at UFC 317 as an encore, catapulting himself into the thick of things in the 170-pound weight class in the process.

Susurkaev, who turns 25 on January 8, is 11-0 overall, trains with a great crew at Kill Cliff FC, and clearly has a wealth of upside. He tends to be a little too carefree and confident in his ability to dial in when needed at this point, and it’s going to be interesting to see if he is able to rein that in as he continues climbing the divisional ladder and facing off with more seasoned competition. If he can, Susurkaev will be someone that holds down a place in the rankings for a long time in the not-too-distant future.

Payton Talbott

One of only a handful of athletes to feature in this series in consecutive years, Talbott enters 2026 stationed at No. 11 in the bantamweight rankings after besting former champ Henry Cejudo at UFC 323 last month.

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It was the second straight hard-fought win for the DWCS standout, who dropped his 2025 debut to Brazilian veteran Raoni Barcelos, but more importantly, it showed how much Talbott had improved since that first appearance of the year. After spending a good portion of that UFC 311 clash with Barcelos stuck on the canvas, it was the Reno native that was initiating and controlling the wrestling and grappling against the gold medalist Cejudo in December, including hitting him with his own inside trip takedown.

He just turned 27 in September, is already 5-1 in the UFC and continues to show growth each time out. Things are only going to get tougher for Talbott from here on out, but after the way he responded to adversity last year, seeing him make a push towards the Top 5 and title contention in the year ahead should not be out of the question.

Alexia Thainara

It only took Thainara two UFC appearances to claim a place in the Top 15 at strawweight, which should be all the justification need for including her in this collection.

The 28-year-old Brazilian — who is also part of the incredible DWCS Class of ’24 — debuted in London with a first-round submission win over beloved veteran Molly McCann in March and then followed it up with a unanimous decision win over Loma Lookboonmee in Perth towards the end of September. The victories pushed her winning streak to 11 and her record to 13-1 overall, with her lone loss coming several years ago against fellow UFC strawweight Bruna Brasil.

Through her first two appearances, Thainara has looked like a seasoned veteran inside the Octagon, playing to her strengths and navigating her way through a pair of tough assignments with aplomb.

What’s crazy is that prior to facing and defeating Rose Conceicao to earn her UFC contract, Thainara was scheduled to face Fatima Kline, who was pulled from the event and hustled into a short-notice opportunity against Jasmine Jasudavicius. Less than two years later, both are ranked in the Top 15 in the strawweight division and represent the future of the 115-pound weight class in the UFC.

Kevin Vallejos

It’s wild how much one performance can change the way a competitor is viewed.

RELATED: Featherweight Division Preview For 2026 

Vallejos had a ton of hype entering his rookie year in the UFC, with much of it stemming from his decision loss to Jean Silva on Season 7 of Dana White’s Contender Series. He won his debut against SeungWoo Choi by first-round stoppage, but his sophomore appearance against Danny Silva left more than a few people dialing back their expectations of the Argentinian prospect, as it was an ultra-competitive fight that could have went either way.

But Vallejos landed on the happy side of the scorecards and booked a bout against Giga Chikadze on the final fight card of 2025, where he proceeded to knock out the Georgian veteran in the second round to wrap up a perfect 3-0 inside the Octagon.

The adjustments Vallejos made in that contest — he dropped the first round while being stuck at Chikadze’s range — coupled with his just having turned 24 and the fact that he has an abundance of experience for someone so young have once again got people projecting “El Chino” for greatness in the featherweight division. Currently positioned at No. 13 in the rankings, Vallejos has a real opportunity to spend the next decade as a tenured member of the Top 15 in the 145-pound weight class.

Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev

The second DWCS Class of ’25 grad nicknamed “Hunter” on this list, Yakhyaev is the least experienced, but most intriguing member of this second pack of prospects that make up our Fighters on the Rise for 2026.

A perfect 8-0 to begin his career, the 24-year-old, who was born in Chechnya and represents Turkey in competition, has only been out of the first round twice to date, and has finished everyone else in three minutes and five seconds or less. In his Contender Series appearance at the end of August, Yakhyaev blew through Alik Lorenz in 30 seconds to earn a contract, and in his promotion debut in Doha, Qatar, he needed just three additional seconds in order to submit Rafael Cerquiera.

The combination of his competing at middleweight and having limited experience thus far should actually work in his favor, as there is no real need to hustle him along too quickly given the depth of talent in the division at the moment. But given what he’s shown thus far, Yakhyaev could very well force the UFC’s hand in the next 12-18 months by continuing to storm through the competition.