Outside Source
Movsar Evloev continues to stack wins in the UFC. | Getty/UFC
If in the first 20 years of the UFC Brazil and the United States alternated in the position of greatest MMA powerhouse, from 2025 onwards Russia and countries from the former Soviet Union have changed this picture.
Even with a much smaller percentage of representatives on the roster, these fighters today hold five of the 11 UFC belts: Petr Yan (Russia), bantamweight; Ilia Topuria (Georgia), lightweight; Islam Makhachev (Dagestan), welterweight; Khamzat Chimaev (Chechnya), middleweight and Valentina Shevchenko (Kygistan), flyweight). Meanwhile, today Brazil has one belt (Alex Pereira) and the United States two (Mackenzie Dern and Kayla Harrison).
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In the opinion of American Top Team head coach Conan Silveira, the trend is that this Russian dominance will expand in 2026 with Movsar Evloev winning the featherweight belt.
“Jean [Silva] can do whatever he wants, but he won’t get ahead of Evloev,” the Brazilian coach told Sherdog.com.
Silveira believes Evloev brings the complete package to defeat reigning champion Alexander Volkanovski.
“I see him train every day at the gym. It’s the complete MMA package. Volkanovski won’t be able to stop him,” Silveira said.
Silveira predicts that Evloev will have the most dominant reign among the current champions from that part of the world.
“He’s only 32 years old and undefeated (20-0), being in a clear process of physical and technical evolution,” Silveira said. “I think that after winning the belt he will remain dominant and active for a long time. I see champions like Chimaev and Islam clearly in a process of slowing down. Movsar is only at the beginning of his trajectory.”
Recovery Forecasts
Regarding his two champions who are currently sidelined, Harrison and Alexandre Pantoja, Conan believes that both will be back between July and September.
“It’s impossible to be precise,” he said. “Their case depends on the doctors’ feedback. For us, the most important thing is that they are fully recovered and healthy. Pantoja is already slowly returning to training and I think that, at the latest, between August and September he will be fighting for his belt. I believe Kayla will also be back around August or September.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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