UFC chaos agents: Fighters who could shake up MMA in 2025

Every sport loves itself a little bit of drama — a little bit of chaos. Mixed martial arts is certainly no exception.

In fact, 2025 started with UFC lightweight Renato Moicano accepting a title shot on 24 hours’ notice after lightweight title challenger Arman Tsarukyan withdrew from his fight against Islam Makhachev the day before UFC 311. Moicano wasn’t able to capitalize on the opportunity, but can you imagine if he had? This is a sport in which the status quo can be turned on its head at any moment.

As we head further into the year, here are some names I believe could emerge as agents of chaos. These are not meant to be championship predictions or naming the best fighters of each weight class. These are the fighters in each division who are both uniquely positioned and talented enough to greatly alter the landscape of the weight class.

Strawweight: Tatiana Suarez

Suarez is the obvious answer, but she’s also the only answer. Let’s just be real: There is no bona fide, can’t-miss prospect at strawweight right now. There’s young talent, of course, but this is a division that right now operates on the strength of familiar names. Suarez has always been that wild card — not only in this division, but in women’s MMA overall. We truly don’t know her ceiling. There are a lot of similarities between her career and Khamzat Chimaev‘s. She’s absolutely dominant when she’s able to compete, which unfortunately hasn’t been often. If she stays healthy, she might create a lot of chaos, starting at UFC 312 on Feb. 9 by unseating the No. 1 pound-for-pound women’s fighter in the world, Zhang Weili.

Men’s flyweight: Kai Asakura

Last year, my choice for chaos agent in this division was Tatsuro Taira, and I almost went with him again. Taira has been amazing throughout his 16-1 professional career. And the fact he’s only 24 years old makes him all the more amazing. But this list is about chaos, and his countryman Asakura has more potential for creating that. Taira has a better chance at winning a UFC championship in 2025, but Asakura has a better chance at commanding attention with his entertaining style and charisma. He surely is going to get fights against highly ranked opponents, and he carries a media presence that, frankly, Taira doesn’t quite yet. Even though Asakura already has lost to champ Alexandre Pantoja, he might shake up this division in more ways than one.

Women’s flyweight: Manon Fiorot

For the second year in a row, Fiorot is my potential chaos agent of this division. There really wasn’t much chaos at women’s flyweight in 2024. There was only one title fight and only one No. 1 contender fight (in which Fiorot beat Erin Blanchfield). This year, the 125-pound division finds itself at status quo: Valentina Shevchenko is at the top, awaiting her next challenger. Fiorot is legit. She’s a problem. She just beat arguably the best grappler in the division in Blanchfield. She has championship-level experience from her 2023 win over Rose Namajunas. She’s physical and a dynamic striker. And she’s carrying the torch for French MMA. Fiorot could find herself at the center of attention in this division.

Men’s bantamweight: Raul Rosas Jr.

For the record, I am not predicting this to be Rosas’ big year. At 20 years old, he’s still got nothing but time on his hands, and the UFC knows that. I expect him to get more experience this year against a measured level of competition. I don’t expect him to break into the top 10. But in terms of chaos, no one in this division carries as much potential for it as Rosas. He is a complete anomaly in the sport. He’s already 4-1 in the UFC, and no one stacks up this many wins against UFC-caliber opposition before their 21st birthday. It’s incredible. If he’s given an opportunity against the top of the division, it will be must-watch because it will be so remarkably rare.

Women’s bantamweight: Amanda Nunes

This division is still finding its identity, more than a year and a half after Nunes’ departure. It’s taking on the identity of “Kayla Harrison‘s division,” even though Julianna Peña is the one holding the belt. It’s telling, though, that Peña has been calling for Nunes to come out of retirement — and if Harrison beats Peña when they fight later this year, expect her to do the same thing. This division misses Nunes and wants her back. And I think Harrison could actually talk her into returning. If the best women’s fighter of all time comes out of retirement to face Harrison, her ex-teammate, then yeah, nothing more chaotic is gonna happen than that.

Featherweight: Youssef Zalal

Look, we know how good Ilia Topuria is, right? He’s ranked No. 4 on ESPN’s pound-for-pound rankings. We know how good Alexander Volkanovski is. Diego Lopes, Yair Rodriguez, Movsar Evloev — all of those guys at the top of the division have been there for a while, and any of them seems capable of winning a championship. So, if you’re looking for chaos, it’ll most likely come from younger talent, guys who could potentially upend the top-10 rankings. Farid Basharat, Felipe Lima, Jean Silva … and Zalal. He went 3-3-1 in an earlier stint in the UFC (including a loss to Topuria in 2020), but since re-signing last year, he is 3-0 with three finishes. He’s very good, and his style stands out.

Lightweight: Paddy Pimblett

This is a big year for Pimblett. He’s been in the UFC for three years, and he’s done his job. He’s a household name and his record with the promotion is 6-0. He’s won four performance bonuses. He’s taken out a veteran/legend in Tony Ferguson. This year we will see how real or not real Pimblett is. A big step up in competition is coming. Right now, it looks like he could face Michael Chandler, but nothing has been announced. Whoever it is, he’s going to fight someone of massive significance in the division, and he’s going to do it on a big-time card. I expect to see him fight at the UFC’s International Fight Week event in Las Vegas in the summer. If Pimblett continues to finish opponents in 2025, he’ll have a massive impact on the landscape of this weight class.

Welterweight: Carlos Prates

Prates is a standout amongst a team of standouts. The Fighting Nerds gym is taking the sport by storm, and Prates has the most upside at the moment. Middleweight Caio Borralho and featherweight Jean Silva are also “chaos agent” candidates from this team, but Prates has starched four tough opponents in 2024. And he earned four Performance of the Night bonuses in a single year. Do you know how difficult that is? He has a serious “it factor” going into 2025, and if his talent holds up as the competition gets harder, he could turn into one of the bigger chaos agents across the entire sport, regardless of weight class.

Middleweight: Bo Nickal

It’s just impossible to put anyone other than Nickal in this spot. Nickal’s most recent performance — a decision win over Paul Craig in November — was perceived by many fans as the most underwhelming of his career. That’s what happens sometimes amid the level of expectations he is under. He’s expected to be perfect and dominant, so anything less can be considered a failure. But Nickal has the type of potential that could see him go from unranked (as he is currently) to champion within 12 months. That’s far from likely but not impossible — and no one else in this division can claim that kind of unpredictability and potential for chaos.

Light heavyweight: Carlos Ulberg

This division still feels like it’s reloading on talent. All divisions go through waves in terms of depth, especially the heavier ones. We are not in the golden era of light heavyweights, when you compare it to a decade ago when Jon Jones was running a gauntlet of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort, Alexander Gustafsson, Glover Teixeira and Daniel Cormier. That said, one of the recent bright spots of this division has been Ulberg. And given the fact he’s a standout striker, if he beats an established name in Jan Blachowicz when they meet in March and moves on to a potential title shot against fellow kickboxer and the division champion Alex Pereira, Ulberg could turn into a superstar overnight.

Heavyweight: Tom Aspinall

This might be cheating, since I’m picking someone as a “chaos agent” who is already holding an interim belt. But my reason for doing so is simple and indisputable. Aspinall has a shot at beating Jon Jones in 2025. The UFC has to successfully book the fight first, and then Aspinall has to actually get the job done. But if he does it, he will become the first man to legitimately beat Jones inside the Octagon (Jones’ only loss came via disqualification in 2009), which would be the most significant and chaotic thing to happen in the sport all year.

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