During this MMA hiatus, we’ve taken to scouting world and selecting five favorite prospects from each country for the most part.
When we launched this series yesterday, it was Australia and New Zealand in the spotlight. Today it’s the MMA hotbed of Canada, which has brought you the likes of the legendary Georges St. Pierre, Rory MacDonald, and current UFC women’s featherweight title challenger Felicia Spencer, among many, many other top fighters.
Featherweight, TJ Laramie (11-3)
Although TJ Laramie is only 22 years old, he’s well experienced and has fought good quality competition. In fact, Laramie has never fought anyone with a losing record. He’s the former TKO featherweight champion, and dominated Charles Jourdain who is doing very well in the UFC. Laramie is a former Kickboxing and jiu-jitsu champion and utilizes a wide skill set, making him an all-around solid fighter. Laramie owns excellent wrestling, a smooth ground game, and one-punch knockout power on the feet. “The Truth” also has excellent cardio going five rounds three times. He’s probably the best prospect out of Canada and one of the best worldwide. His brother Tony (5-2) is no slouch either.
Welterweight, Christien Savoie (8-0)
Christien Savoie has competed at both middleweight and welterweight. He’s won titles in both weight classes inside Canadian promotion Elite 1 MMA. Savoie is mainly a grinder who will push the pace in close quarters. He wants to take the fight to the mat where his ground and pound is excellent landing at a solid rate with good shots from a short amount of distance. The undefeated record says it all.
Flyweight, Malcolm Gordon (12-3)
A fighter by of the name of Yoni Sherbatov was a top prospect in 2017. Last August, Malcolm Gordon stopped Sherbatov early in round one. Gordon is a former WXC champ and the current TKO flyweight champion with two title defenses. With the current problems with the promotion TKO, Gordon may become available sooner rather than later. Gordon is a good wrestler with very strong Jiu-Jitsu. He’s very aggressive with his submission attack and for hunting to finish in general. Gordon has a 100% finishing rate to top it all off.
Bantamweight, Jamie Siraj (8-2)
Jamie Siraj is underrated, but still one of Canada’s best prospects. His last loss came to UFC fighter Cole Smith, but since then, he’s on a five-fight win streak. Siraj is well-rounded getting it done on the feet and on the mat. The Canadian has won the Unified MMA bantamweight championship.
Siraj has trained with one of the best camps in Tristar Gym out of Montreal, and last year signed on with Iridium Sports Agency. Siraj is well-rounded getting it done on the feet and on the mat. He has a nice flow of output with outstanding shot selection. “The Gremlin” has speed and it really shines when he lets his hands go. He has some solid wrestling as well and that comes with ground and pound and a strong submission base.
Strawweight, Jasmine Jasudavicius (4-0)
St. Catharines, Ontario’s Jasmine Jasudavicius has fought mostly in the US, most notably for CFFC in her last bout. 4-0 as a pro, Jasudavicius also went 4-0 as an amateur as well as compiling a 3-0 record in boxing. She has looked really good and has improved leaps and bounds with each fight. Aggressive is one way to put it (look back to her BTC 8 bout). She’s a finisher as well and that is what everyone wants to see. While jumping straight to the big leagues might be a little much with only four fights, a spot on Dana White’s Contender Series this season would certainly seem reasonable.
