Every year, the wonderfully unpredictable sport of mixed martial arts gives us a handful of fighters breaking through to new competitive heights and stardom. Sometimes it’s like a bolt from the blue: Conor McGregor and Israel Adesanya entered 2014 and 2018, respectively, as promising prospects and by the end of the year were headliners, title contenders and among the most talked-about fighters in the sport. In other cases, a fighter we once wrote off — or had at least come to regard as a known quantity — shows us the error of our ways. Look no further than Jorge Masvidal, who seemed to have settled into the role of an action fighter and hardcore fan favorite with a penchant for dropping split decisions at the worst possible times, only to author one of the most remarkable mid-career reinventions in MMA history, emerging as the signature star of 2019.
Sherdog's 2021 Breakthrough Fighter of the Year
