Issue 221
September 2025
E. Spencer Kyte explores what it truly means to be called the next big thing in MMA, and how fighters carry, crack under, or thrive on that label.
Potential is intoxicating. Emerging talents are often declared the next big thing, but this label has a fleeting status. Still, we wondered how this feels, as these gifted competitors are thrust into the spotlight, sometimes before they’ve even set foot inside the Octagon. We checked in with the athletes who have carried these expectations to learn what the experience was like for them and how they cope with the pressures of being forecasted for greatness.
YOUSSEF ZALAL: OLDER, WISER THIS TIME AROUND
He debuted in the opening bout of UFC 247, a Jon Jones fight card, defeating fellow newcomer Austin Lingo. This victory was followed by two more wins, which saw ‘The Moroccan Devil’ getting ticketed as the featherweight needed to watch.
“‘I might be the next thing,’ that was my mentality,” said Zalal, who followed up his three straight wins with three losses and a draw before being released by the UFC. “Not ‘I am the next thing’ and I feel like, as a young kid with no experience, I took that in as comfort. You’re filling me with all this ego and all this stuff, and you forget about the real thing that gets you up there. You think you’re this. You’re that. And that’s the thing that, for me, at a young age, that was the bad part of the pressure. A pressure cooker can create a fantastic meal, but if you mess with the pressure, it’s over, and you have to start again, and I feel like that’s what I did. I was that young, dumb kid that was told, ‘Don’t touch the burner,’ and I touched the burner. That was me at 23 years old. ‘Lemme go touch this! Lemme go f*** with this!’ and then the thing exploded.”
Zalal spent 18 months competing on the regional circuit following his release, then he got the call to return to the UFC in March 2024, turning a short-notice assignment against Billy Quarantillo into a second-round submission win. This time, he knew what he was getting into.
“It was definitely a learning experience, and I kept messing with the recipe,” said Zalal, who has won four straight to climb to No. 9 in the rankings and has a date with veteran Josh Emmett at UFC 320 on October 4. “I’m trying to get to that point where it’s like, ‘This is grandma’s recipe, it’s 30 years old. You don’t mess with the recipe.’ Before, I was a young, dumb kid that was messing with the recipe. It’s like coach said about wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Knowledge is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. That’s what I’m learning and growing towards.”
And the growth is evident in his performances.
“(Daniel Cormier) said this in a couple of my fights, ‘Youssef fights with confidence now. You can see it in his fighting style,” he said proudly, his smile expanding even wider across his face. “For me to go through that and see that our bodies can adapt and change based on how you see yourself, how you handle yourself, how you speak to yourself. It’s crazy what it does to you.”
TATIANA SUAREZ: BLOCKING OUT THE NOISE
From the second Tatiana Suarez rolled into Season 23 of The Ultimate Fighter, she was earmarked for greatness. A neck injury and cancer diagnosis dashed her Olympic dreams, but she stormed through the competition, and a future champion was written all over her prospects.
“I’ve never,” began Suarez, pausing to find the right words. “I don’t feel pressure like that. I don’t feel pressure from outside sources or any of that stuff. That’s just my personality because I’ve always been super-confident because I work so damn hard and I know my abilities, how great I am.”
Despite injuries and setbacks, Suarez continued to stack the wins but then lost to Zhang Weili for the strawweight title earlier this year at UFC 312. Although she came away on the losing side of the results, her belief in herself has never waned.
“I go to practice every day, I spar every day, I grapple every day, so only I know what I’m fully capable of. No one else does, unless you go to the gym with me. The reason I have all these things is because I’ve worked so damn hard in the gym. Every day.”
JEAN SILVA: THERE IS NO PRESSURE
It’s been a rough few weeks for The Fighting Nerds. The São Paulo-based team had an outstanding winning percentage, but unbeaten runs rarely last. Over the last few months, each member of the team has suffered a setback. Before the contest, I asked Silva what it was like dealing with the pressure that came from rampaging his way to a 5-0 record to start his UFC career and being favored to beat Lopes.
“Ruffy and Caio unfortunately experienced defeat, and we suffer together,” he offered. “I suffered a lot on Saturday, but there is no pressure. There has never been any pressure, there never will be any pressure.”
Some will want to argue against Silva’s comment based on the outcome of his fight with Lopes. Still, the reality is that individual results aren’t the full measure of things. What outsiders may see as a pressure-filled situation is a dream come true for the 28-year-old who is a devoted husband, fighter, and teammate.
“It’s many, many years of fighting outside of the UFC and now fulfilling this dream that so many people have,” he said.“This dream is coming true to me and my wife, and that post that I made when I saw the posters and stuff, it all comes down to this moment of fulfilling this dream and this being something that is actually happening.”
Regarding making these dreams come true, the thoughtful featherweight was without explanation for how it felt to be called the next big thing.
“I would like to have an exact answer for that question, and I’ve been searching for an exact answer for that question, but the more I look for an answer for that question, the more it tells me I don’t need an answer for that. I just need to really live this moment. It’s as if the Earth and the seas and everything is moving in my favor. And to those that have been watching me, saying to keep an eye on me, those people are right, because I am going to be the next champion.”
ERIN BLANCHFIELD: WHERE IS IT COMING FROM
Erin Blanchfield learned relatively early that, as folks in the MMA space will change their opinions about you very quickly when you stumble.
“Since I got into MMA, I kind of had that pressure from winning EBI and being so young when I did first start,” said the 26-year-old flyweight who has been heralded as a future champion since arriving in the UFC. “I won a couple fights and then I lost that fight to Tracy (Cortez), and I feel like when you lose a fight, everybody is kind of like, ‘Were they really like that?’ and they 180 really quick.”
She’s slated to face Cortez at UFC 322 at Madison Square Garden on November 15, and while she admits that she hears all the chatter about what she may and may not be, Blanchfield is far more focused on what her coaches and teammates think.
“I see it, but I really do just focus on my cornermen, my coaches, what they think about me, what they feel like I need because people switch up so quick,” she laughed. “I don’t know about other sports, but definitely in MMA, people switch up so quick depending on your last performance. It’s quick to love you and quick to hate you, so I try not to focus on that. It’s part of the sport and part of being on a platform like the UFC. Consider where it’s coming from. People that know what they’re talking about versus people that they don’t know. They’re just fans, watching, judging from their perspectives, but they don’t know.”
FATIMA KLINE: EXCITED BY THE ATTENTION
Fatima got the ‘You need to pay attention to this one’ treatment when she first arrived. Despite it being her debut and outside of her natural weight class, many gave the New Yorker a serious shot in her first outing.
“I feel like because I am young, it’s almost exciting and refreshing that I have so many people watching me, people that have a lot of hope in me,” admitted Kline. “Honestly, instead of scaring me away, making me really nervous, I feel like I’m the opposite way. I’m really excited when I see the odds come out, and I’m -1000, and people are like, ‘I can’t bet on you. I’m not gonna make anything!’ I’m excited that people wanna watch me. It’s exciting and motivating.”
For Kline, who will compete alongside Blanchfield at UFC 322, the expectations are no different than the expectations she places upon herself. Rather than tuning it or turning away from it, the 25-year-old is trying to give fans the kind of performances they are coming to expect from her.
“I’ve always been somebody that strives to be better and better and better, and even with the great performances I’ve had, I talk to everybody around me and ask, ‘What could I have done better? I know it was a great performance, but I know I made mistakes. Let’s look at it and fix it. That makes me who I am, makes me excited to be better, and I think that helps me deal with the pressure. Because I expect this of myself, it’s obvious that people expect it out of me. It’s not like people are expecting me to do things that I know I can’t do, so I think. I love the pressure. I love knowing that people are watching, people are expecting me to win, and I plan on giving that to people every time I fight.”
NEXT BIG THING OR JUST A QUICK FLING
Getting the billing as the next big thing can be a bit like a headline IPO. The bell rings. The price spikes. Everyone declares you’re the future. Then the market opens, and reality starts to trade in. The steady ones build in slow progressive quarters, not viral spikes based on flashy moments. The fragile ones chase the chart and gas out. The smart ones stop watching the ticker and get back to the boring compounding of reps, recovery, and small upgrades. Hype makes noise. Habits make numbers. Survive the dips and keep adding value, and pretty soon they’re no longer a prospect. They’re the blue chip that started as a whispered rumour.
