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Momentum is a big thing in the world of MMA, particularly the UFC. It's always the more active fighters that get the attention and as the saying goes: "You're only as good as your last fight".
In the case of these fighters, it's all about the wins - big ones that have kept their momentum alive and they've mostly been fairly active as well, making sure that their names stayed fresh in the minds of fans.
Ultimately, it's all down to the wins, and in this list, we're going to be looking at five fighters in the UFC who have the most momentum going right now. However, MMA is a sport where anyone can lose at any time and stylistic match-ups make the biggest difference.
Four out of the five names on this list include active champions and in 2020, their momentum could be derailed significantly.
#5 Weili Zhang
At the start of the year, many predicted that Jessica Andrade would beat Rose Namajunas to become the Strawweight Champion of the world, but nobody anticipated Weili Zhang getting the title shot so quickly.
Her 3-fight win streak, including a decision win over Tecia Torres in March, earned her the opportunity and just shy of half a year later, she knocked Jessica Andrade out cold in round one to become the 115-pound champion.
Zhang is the biggest threat the division has seen in a long time and her first challenge is going to be against none other than Joanna Jedrzejczyk. It's expected to happen in early 2020 and Zhang has called for the fight.
Jedrzejczyk has openly avoided the fight before but after beating Michelle Waterson, she looks to be next in line. If Zhang goes through Jedrzejczyk, she'll have an even tougher challenge in Tatiana Suarez.
#4 Henry Cejudo
Henry Cejudo became a 2-weight World Champion in 2019 after beating Marlon Moraes for the vacant Championship. Earlier that year, he knocked out TJ Dillashaw in less than a minute and he had to undergo surgery and is expected to return in the first half of 2020.
It's a big question as to which title he plans to defend but he has shown more interest in fighting at 135.
However, the Bantamweight division is now a shark tank with the additions of Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar and the younger contenders are growing in quality too. He's at a big risk of losing the title and his momentum.
#3 Khabib Nurmagomedov
Khabib Nurmagomedov has reportedly replaced Conor McGregor as "the guy" in UFC, according to President Dana White. His popularity and PPV sales have exploded since 2018 and he had an 11-month layoff before defending the Lightweight title against Dustin Poirier at Abu Dabhi.
He cruised through to a 3rd round finish, but not before facing a little adversity from The Diamond. He faces the toughest challenge of his career next in Tony Ferguson and all we can hope is that both men stay in bubblewrap until April 18th because this fight should not be canceled a fifth time.
In the eyes of many, Ferguson poses the biggest threat to Nurmagomedov due to his unconventional style and we could see the end of Khabib's undefeated run as early as April.
#2 Israel Adesanya
Israel Adesanya has taken the MMA world by storm since he joined the UFC. He has always been a World Championship level kickboxer but in today's UFC, wrestling is the primary and most important skill to be a UFC Champion.
The fact that he fought 4 times in 2018 and 3 times in 2019 itself is incredible but to reach Championship level the way he did was unparalleled. He has shown no fear and takes on all comers. He was originally scheduled to face the dangerous Paulo Costa later in 2020 but due to the Brazilian's shoulder injury, he'll be passed over for a title shot.
Who did Adesanya call out? Yoel Romero - arguably the scariest man in the Middleweight division. It's an incredibly brave call-out from Adesanya and he could be one punch away from having his hype train entirely derailed.
#1 Jorge Masvidal
Jorge Masvidal was arguably the fighter of the year in 2019. With three finishes over Darren Till, Ben Askren (5 seconds) and Nate Diaz, nobody had a career resurgence that he did. The only name who could arguably match him for that title would be Israel Adesanya, but one would have to think that Masvidal had a more impressive year.
His popularity exploded and with his one-sided performance against Nate Diaz, any talks of a rematch have died down (though Dam Lambert believes the fight will happen again if Nate wishes for it). As of now, Masvidal has shown great personality and doesn't seem to care too much about fighting for the title, even though he's next in line for a shot at the 170-pound gold.
He has stated that his next fight will be the one with the "most zeroes" on his paycheque and the ramblings as of now is a fight against Nick Diaz. We expect Masvidal to have atleast two major fights in 2019 and he's one big loss away from losing his incredible momentum.
