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#4. Tyrell Fortune
Genuinely talented heavyweight prospects are few and far between in MMA, let alone outside of the UFC, and so Bellator’s Tyrell Fortune is a fighter who’s well worth watching. With his athletic gifts, he could almost certainly become a future UFC heavyweight title contender.
Like former UFC heavyweight stars such as Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez, Fortune’s background is in collegiate wrestling. Doing so out of the Grand Canyon University, Fortune was an NCAA Division II champion and narrowly missed out on a spot on the U.S. Olympic wrestling team in 2016.
And since arriving in Bellator that year after his wrestling dream didn’t pan out, he’s parlayed those skills in tremendous fashion and put together an impressive record of 11-1-1.
For a relatively inexperienced fighter – he made his professional debut in Bellator – Fortune is a remarkably composed fighter who blends his wrestling and striking together excellently. And unlike other athletically gifted heavyweights, such as, Greg Hardy, he doesn’t appear to have a penchant for gassing out.
Fortune’s most recent win, which was a crushing victory over UFC veteran Matt Mitrione, was arguably his most impressive, and it’s likely that he’ll be considered a Bellator heavyweight title contender soon.
So could he make the same noise in the UFC? Almost certainly. He’d be considered a blue chip prospect, if not a high-level contender in any promotion, and that includes the UFC. Hopefully he can make his way there in the future.
#3. Ryan Bader – current Bellator heavyweight champion
It almost seems odd to suggest that a man who left the UFC with little fanfare just a handful of years ago could return and be considered an instant title contender, but that’s definitely the case when it comes to Ryan Bader.
The winner of TUF 8’s light heavyweight bracket, Bader put together an impressive run in the UFC from 2008 to 2016, beating the likes of Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans, and only losing on five occasions.
In fact, he actually left the UFC off the back of two TKO victories, beating Ilir Latifi and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in vicious fashion. Few fans raised eyebrows when he jumped to Bellator, but since then, ‘Darth Bader’ has improved dramatically.
Bader has always had heavy hands and knockout power, but from a technical perspective, his stand-up is now far better than it was during his UFC run. Add in his already powerful wrestling, and he’s a dangerous fighter for any opponent to face.
More to the point, though, thanks to his wins over King Mo Lawal, Matt Mitrione and the great Fedor Emelianenko, Bader has proven that he can also compete at heavyweight, and so if he were to return to the UFC in that weight class, he’d almost certainly be an instant contender.
Could he now win a title in the UFC? It’s doubtful, but Bader was a title contender in his initial run with the promotion, and now he’s improved, he’d definitely be able to reach those heights again if he made the switch from Bellator.
