Athletes
Fighters on the Rise | UFC 321: Aspinall vs Gane
Shining A Spotlight On Three Ascending Talents Stepping Into The Octagon This Weekend
Saturday’s UFC 321 pay-per-view from Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi is one of the best fight cards of the year; a 13-fight smorgasbord of matchups spanning the entire spectrum of weight classes featured in the UFC including several critical bouts between talented contenders and a fascinating contest to crown a new strawweight champion, all capped by a must-see pairing between undisputed heavyweight titleholder Tom Aspinall and former interim champ Ciryl Gane.
While the big boys atop the marquee garner the lion’s share of the attention and their female contemporaries battling to claim the empty throne in the 115-pound weight class standing as strong co-stars, a couple tremendous talents that feel on the verge of potentially making serious waves are flying a little under the radar as they ready to step into battle this weekend.
Which is where I come in.
Order UFC 321: Aspinall vs Gane
Keep reading to learn a little more about the triumvirate of skill athletes that could make some serious noise at UFC 321 in the latest edition of Fighters on the Rise.
Mario Bautista
Just so we’re clear right out of the gates: it’s insane that Bautista is still a little bit in the shadows, a little bit on the fringes of the title conversation in the 135-pound weight class given that he enters UFC 321 riding an eight-fight winning streak and sporting a 9-1 record inside the Octagon since losing his short-notice debut to Cory Sandhagen.
Mario Bautista Beats Lopez With A Triangle Armbar Submission | UFC Fight Night: Rodriguez vs Lemos
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Mario Bautista Beats Lopez With A Triangle Armbar Submission | UFC Fight Night: Rodriguez vs Lemos
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But the discussion coming out of his UFC 316 win over Patchy Mix in June is a perfect representation of why the MMA Lab representative is still in this position heading into his showdown with recent title challenger Umar Nurmagomedov this weekend. Mix’s arrival was met with great fanfare and hype, as the former Bellator champion was viewed as someone that could roll into the UFC and be a contender straight away; all he had to was get through Bautista, and then we could start fantasy matchmaking him against the top names in the division.
Then Bautista went out and handed him a unanimous decision loss, outworking him in all three rounds. He kept him off balance with effective and efficient striking to all levels and from different ranges, never allowing Mix to get anywhere close to comfortable, but instead of talk being about how great Bautista looked and how beating the hyped newcomer elevates him into the title conversation, everything focused on Mix and trying to diagnosis what went wrong.
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One of the many things that makes Bautista such an interesting figure in the 135-pound weight class right now is regardless of whatever is going on around him, he just keeps his head down, puts in the work, and then goes and collects another win. He didn’t let the blowback he received for is grinding, “path of least resistance” approach against Jose Aldo last October change the way he fought against Mix, and he surely won’t make any drastic changes as he heads into another crucial showdown this weekend in Abu Dhabi.
Nurmagomedov returns for the first time since coming up short in his attempt to wrestle the bantamweight title away from Merab Dvalishvili in January, which resulted in his first professional loss. Healthy again after suffering a broken hand in that contest, the 18-1 Russian will be aiming to immediately and emphatically steady himself in the bantamweight hierarchy, and halting Bautista’s extended run of success would be a very good way to do so.
Mario Bautista Submits Brian Kelleher In First Round | UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs Gamrot
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Mario Bautista Submits Brian Kelleher In First Round | UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs Gamrot
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But that’s what the last seven fighters all thought too, and none of them have been able to stop his momentum, and a win this weekend over the recent title challenger who was favored heading into his fight with Dvalishvili at UFC 311 would put an end to his being underrated once and for all.
Truthfully, Bautista doesn’t need to win to force folks to give him his due — holding his own against the highly regarded Nurmagomedov would be enough to achieve that result — but you best believe he’s going to do everything in his power to leave no room for debate once he steps in there on Saturday.
Azamat Murzakanov
A member of the DWCS Class of ’21, the 36-year-old Murzakanov has gone 5-0 inside the Octagon heading into his main card meeting with Aleksandar Rakic, simultaneously making enough noise to earn a place in the rankings and a quality assignment on an outstanding fight card, but still hovering as someone on the periphery of the title picture in the fluid light heavyweight ranks.
UFC 321 Full Fight Card Preview
Part of that stems from the fact that after earning a pair of stoppage wins in is rookie year, “The Professional” has been limited to just three appearances, making one start in 2023, another in 2024, and one earlier this year. MMA isn’t just a “you’re only as good as your last fight” sport, but it’s also a “short attention span” sport as well, in that if a fighter goes too long without reminding everyone that they’re a threat, the interest around them starts to cool as others rush to the fore. That’s why it’s tremendous that Murzakanov is coming again this weekend, because his drubbing of Brendson Ribeiro in Chicago only took place four months ago and adding another impressive win to his resume would certainly force people to take a closer look at the undefeated New Jersey based Russian heading into the final couple months of the year.
Murzakanov’s nickname is quite apt because that’s exactly what he is inside the Octagon: professional. There is no flash, no spice, and he never looks like his heart rate gets above 60bpm, but every time out, he waltzes into the cage and collects another victory, usually by stoppage. He punches in, punches his opponent as much as needed, and punches out, and then waits until the phone rings again with another assignment for him to handle.
Rakic represents a nice step up after having run through Ribeiro, who was a replacement for Johnny Walker. The athletic Serbian comes in positioned a couple spot ahead of Murzakanov in the rankings and is looking to get things moving in the right direction again after suffering consecutive losses to former champions Jan Blachowicz, Jiri Prochazka, and Magomed Ankalaev. He went 6-1 over his first seven UFC appearances — and that loss was a debated split decision verdict — before suffering a knee injury in his fight with Blachowicz and stands as the most daunting challenge Murzakanov has faced to date, at least on paper.
There are a lot of moving pieces in the light heavyweight division at the moment and an impressive win over Rakic this weekend could propel the unbeaten Contender Series alum into a good spot to fight forward again to open his 2026 campaign.
Jose Miguel Delgado
It feels like every couple of weeks I’m talking about what an impressive rookie class we have in the UFC this year, and how the graduates from Season 8 of Dana White’s Contender Series have the potential to stand as the best collection of talent the show has produced to date once everything is all said and done.
And Delgado’s success thus far contributes to both of those things.
In the span of three years and three months as a professional, Delgado has gone 10-1, earning a place on the UFC roster a little over a year ago and establishing himself as a rising star in the featherweight division win first-round stoppage wins over Connor Matthews and Hyder Amil to extend his winning streak to seven heading into his UFC 321 meeting with British veteran Nathaniel Wood. Another ascending talent to emerge from the MMA Lab, the 27-year-old has a 100-percent finishing rate, at least seven wins in two minutes or less, and needed just 26 seconds to lay out Amil during International Fight Week, a performance that has been featured on a recent episode of UFC Connected.
Having navigated the “face fellow newcomers” stage with aplomb, Delgado now graduates to the “pass a veteran test” portion of things as he steps in opposite Wood on Saturday.
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The British stalwart has won 21 of 27 overall and gone 5-1 since moving up to featherweight midway through 2022, with his one loss coming in a foul-filled clash with Muhammad Naimov two years ago in the same place they’ll meet this weekend. Wood is technically sharp, has enough power in his hands to keep you honest, as well as very dangerous low kicks, and is the type of veteran fighter that know how to go out there and make sure he wins the fight, odd as that may sound to some.
He's a considerable step up in competition from Delgado’s first two opponents, but that’s what you get when you make an emphatic statement against someone with a little buzz of his own on a marquee fight card. And if he can do it again in Abu Dhabi, a date with a ranked opponent might be around the corner for the rookie standout.
UFC 321: Aspinall vs Gane took place live from Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on October 25, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!