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#4. Bruno Silva – UFC middleweight contender
One of the most recent former M-1 Global titleholders to arrive on MMA's biggest stagew is current middleweight contender Bruno Silva. ‘Blindado’ made his octagon debut in 2021 and immediately made a huge impact by picking up three TKO victories in a row.
Prior to that, Silva had held the middleweight title in M-1 Global, defeating Artem Frolov in November 2018 for the then-vacant belt after making a successful debut in the promotion earlier that year by beating Bellator MMA veteran Alexander Shlemenko.
Fascinatingly, Silva didn’t make a single defense of his gold in the Russian promotion, instead signing with the UFC just six months after his title victory. The reason for his delayed octagon debut? 2019 saw him test positive for the banned substance boldenone, resulting in a two-year suspension.
Since then, though, ‘Blindado’ has made up for lost time by making a major impact in the octagon. While he was defeated by kickboxer extraordinaire Alex Pereira earlier this year, he seems likely to bounce back in style in his next bout.
#3. Marcin Tybura – UFC heavyweight contender
While he’s never quite reached heavyweight title contention in the UFC, Poland’s Marcin Tybura has definitely been one of the more consistent fighters in the division over the past decade. Right now, he’s ranked in the top 10.
Interestingly, prior to his arrival in the world’s biggest promotion, ‘Tybur’ not only claimed gold in M-1 Global’s heavyweight division, but he also won the 2013 heavyweight Grand Prix in the Russian promotion, too.
Overall, Tybura stands as one of the more accomplished M-1 Global fighters to arrive in the UFC, as he picked up a total of seven wins in the promotion, ending in his heavyweight title win over Damian Grabowski in 2014.
The Polish fighter moved to the big show in 2016. While he lost to Timothy Johnson in his octagon debut, he’s since picked up a total of nine wins in the promotion, including victories over Greg Hardy, Andrei Arlovski and Stefan Struve.
