Welcome to another year of On the Rise, where every fight week, I’ll shine a spotlight on a trio of new and emerging talents set to step into the Octagon for your viewing enjoyment.
A ton of great fighters have appeared in this series over the last couple years – contenders like Brian Ortega and Jimmie Rivera, intriguing upstarts like Curtis Blaydes and Paulo Costa and title challengers Francis Ngannou and Volkan Oezdemir – and the plan is to introduce you to another crop of similarly talented athletes over the next 12 months, starting with the kickoff event for the 2018 campaign.