UK fighter Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley announced his arrival in the UFC last Saturday in some style with a first round demolition of one of the Welterweight divisions top contenders Martin Kampmann.  With his impressive stand-up skills Daley is certainly a welcome addition to the UFC but should he now be considered the UK’s top fighter  in the organisation, or are there others ahead of him in the pecking order?  In this article fightofthenight.com looks at the five UK fighters most likely to succeed inside the octagon.

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Before we get to the top 5, a few honorable mentions.

Firstly it’s hard to ignore Paul ‘Relentless’ Taylor, who despite featuring mainly on the undercard of UFC events has managed to pick up three ‘Fight Of The Night’ awards thanks to his dynamic and exciting approach to every single fight.

With a 3-3 record in the organisation Taylor has some work to do to become of the top contenders in the welterweight division but he is undoubtedly a threat to anyone who stands across the cage from him.

Up and coming fighter John ‘Hitman’ Hathaway is another of the UK’s most promising young talents.  The 22 year old turned professional in 2006 and is currently undefeated after twelve fights, including two wins in the UFC.   His last win over Rick Story has now become more meaningful considering his opponent’s impressive ‘Fight of The Night’ victory at last weekends UFC 103.

Hathaway has shown maturity in his performances that belie his youth and his next fight against fellow brit Paul Taylor will indicate whether he is ready to take the next step up the ladder.

Of course a new crop of UK fighters has recently parachuted into the UFC by way of the Ultimate Fighter reality show.  Ross Pearson, winner of the Lightweight section of the show looks to be a solid, hard working Lightweight that lives up to his nickname ‘The Bulldog’ but it is still too early to tell if he can make a real impact in the division.  He won’t get an easy road however, his next opponent is Aaron Riley.

James Wilks won the welterweight section of TUF 9 and his performances on the show were notable  first for defeating Che Mills, another talented UK prospect, and secondly for a memorable fight in which he knocked out Frank Lester’s front teeth!

His most impressive win however came in the finale where he showed some excellent ground skills, dominating a seemingly helpless Demarques Johnson on his way to a first round submission victory.

With a professional record of 6-2 Wilks is  relatively inexperienced for a 31 year old  fighter but has shown potential and it will be interesting to see how he fares against the always tough Matt Brown in his next bout.

With that out the way, heres’ the top 5…

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5. Paul Kelly

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With a record of 3-1 inside the octagon Paul Kelly has made a solid start to his UFC career.  His first victory against  Paul Taylor was a three round classic that found it’s way onto the UFC’s Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights show.

Following a submission loss to Marcus Davies at UFC89 Kelly has rebounded, notching up  a dominant win over Troy Mandaloniz and then surviving a submission enslaught to claim a win over Rolando Delgado at UFC99.

The latter fight was his first at Lightweight and he will now be looking to make further inroads into the division with a win against Denis Siver at UFC 105.

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4. Terry Etim

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Perhaps the UK’s most exciting young prospect 23 year old Terry Etim has been plying his trade in the UFC since UFC 70.  After the Lightweight fighter won his first fight against Matt Grice, Etim then slumped to two back-to-back defeats at the hands of Gleison Tebau and Rich Clementi.

He has since bounced back in impressive style with three wins in a row to take his record to 4-2 (13-2 in his career to date).   In his last fight with Justin Buchholz, Etim survived an early scare when he knocked down from a punch that broke his nose.  He quickly regained his composure and went on to  win by submission – an impressive D’arche choke that earned him his second ‘Submission Of The Night’ award to date.

With strong kicks, good hands and dangerous submissions Etim is standing out as a promising talent in the lightweight division and importantly youth is still on his side.  His next test comes in the form of Shannon Gugerty at UFC 105 in November.

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3.  Paul Daley

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Thought UFC 103 marked his first fight in the UFC, Paul Daley is an experienced fighter having fought for a number of organisations including strikeforce, the ill-fated Elite XC and UK based promotion Cage Rage where he became one of their star attractions and won the Welterweight Championship belt.

Daley is undoubtedly the most feared UK striker operating in the UFC at this time with seventeen of his career wins coming by way of knockout.  He is more than a match for anyone in the 170lb division as far as the stand-up game goes as he clearly demonstrated in his win over Martin Kampmann at UFC 103 .

His achilles heel however is that he is vulnerable on the ground.  He knows it, and his opponents do too and that is likely to limit his chances of putting together a consistant challenge at the top of the division.

At the age of 26 there is still time for Daley to attempt to shore up some of his weaknesses and become a more well rounded fighter, but it is just as likely that he will opt to rely on his striking and put faith in his takedown defence to keep him out of danger.

It is a decision that may make the difference between him becoming one of the UK’s most successful fighters inside the octagon, or just one of the most exciting.

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2.  Dan ‘The Outlaw’ Hardy

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Nottingham’s Dan Hardy has made an immediate impact in the UFC’s Welterweight Division with wins over solid competition in Akhiro Gono and Rory Markham, the latter ending with an impressive K.O.

His next fight with Marcus Davis garnered considerable fan and media attention, largely due to Hardy’s pre-fight taunting of Davis which clearly got under the skin of ‘The Irish Hand Grenade’ who confessed “I spend a lot of every day thinking about how much I don’t like Dan Hardy.” Presumably Davis spends even more time on the subject these days since Hardy won the fight by split decision.

With good striking (recently tuned up by legendary boxing coach Freddie Roach) and an evolving ground game (training BJJ with Eddie Bravo who recently awarded him his purple belt) Hardy is equipped with enough tools to be a significant presence at welterweight but it remains to be seen whether his bark is as big as his bite against the divisions top contenders.

Edit: We’ll find out at UFC 105 as it’s just been announced that Hardy will face of against Mike Swick with the winner rumored to be next in line for a shot at George St Pierre’s welterweight title.

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1. Michael Bisping

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There is no doubt that after receiving one of the most brutal knockouts in recent memory from Dan Henderson at the historic UFC 100 event Michael Bisping’s stock plummeted.

Until that night he had been making headway in the Middleweight division notching up three victories in a row and a win over the former Pride champion would have set him up as the next contender in line for a title shot against one of the worlds top pound for pound fighters, Anderson Silva.

A right-hook followed up by a flying elbow from Henderson quickly silenced any thoughts of that though.

Much has been made of the loss since, with many people suggesting that the fighter had finally been ‘found out’ as being an average fighter.  It is however worth remembering that one knockout does not consign a fighter to mediocrity.  Especially not a fighter with a professional career that still reads an impressive 17-2 (7-2 in the UFC).

When you consider that his only other loss was to former Light Heavyweight champion Rashad Evans who he took to a decision at 205lbs  before moving down to a more manageable 185lb weight class, then it is fair to say that this fighter perhaps deserves more credit than he has received.

Bisping, the winner of The Ultimate Fighter season 3, is a well-rounded fighter.  Though he lacks genuine K.O power he puts together good combos from a solid arsenal of kicks and punches, has excellent cardio and is comfortable on the ground too having trained in BJJ from an early age.

Now 30, Michael Bisping has become one of the most recognisable fighters in the UFC and there is still time for him to learn from his mistakes (fundamental errors in his fight with Henderson for example can easily be corrected) and take another run at the title.

In November ‘The Count’ will face off against Canadian Denis Kang and will have the opportunity to prove his doubters wrong.  In the mean time he remains the best the UK has to offer and the one with the most realistic chance of competing for a title in the UFC.

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Article By RossC

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If you have an opinion on this article or would like to suggest your top 5 then we’d love to hear from you, please respond in the comments section below.