5 fighters from the UK who could emulate Michael Bisping and win UFC gold

#4. Casey O’Neill – UFC flyweight

Could Casey O'Neill be the fighter to dethrone flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko?

Right now, it’s arguable that the UFC’s most dominant champion is reigning flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko. ‘Bullet’ has held the title since December 2018. Since then, she’s turned back the challenge of five different opponents.

However, even Shevchenko is not invincible, nobody is. So there are a number of fighters who would hope to stand a chance against her in the octagon. One such contender is ‘King’ Casey O’Neill.

Sure, O’Neill is now based in Australia, but she was born and raised in Irvine, Scotland, meaning that if she did claim gold in the octagon, she’d definitely qualify as a UK-born champion, arguably moreso than Michael Bisping, who was actually born in Cyprus!

Whether O’Neill can really climb to the level that she’d need to be at to defeat Shevchenko is a major question mark. She looked fantastic in her wins over Shana Dobson, Lara Procopio and Antonina Shevchenko, but then only just edged veteran Roxanne Modafferi in her most recent bout.

However, with her skills on the feet and on the ground, ‘King Casey’ has as much of a chance at dethroning ‘Bullet’ as anyone. Given the thin nature of her division, she could find herself with a title shot sooner rather than later, making her one of the more likely entries on this list.

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#3. Darren Till – UFC middleweight

Despite his recent losses, Darren Till could still claim gold in the octagon in the future

Given that he’s coming off the back of two straight losses and is actually 1-4 in his last five bouts, it seems insane to suggest that Darren Till could be a future champion in the UFC, particularly at middleweight.

However, if you look a little deeper into things, then ‘The Gorilla’ making a title run might not actually be that far-fetched after all.

Since moving to 185 pounds, Till has defeated Kelvin Gastelum and dropped bouts to Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson. The loss to Whittaker was a very close call, while his defeat to Brunson came primarily from his lack of defensive wrestling skills.

Since that loss, though, ‘The Gorilla’ has been working hard with monstrous wrestler Khamzat Chimaev to close that hole in his game. If he succeeds in doing so, suddenly he’ll become very dangerous indeed.

It’s easy to forget, but Till was able to defeat point-fighter extraordinaire Stephen Thompson on the feet in 2018. If he’s capable of doing that, then he’d definitely stand a chance against current middleweight king Israel Adesanya.

Perhaps a title win for ‘The Gorilla’ isn’t likely, but stranger things have happened.