4 Regional MMA Cards with Fighters for the Future!

This week is absolutely packed with high profile MMA from PFL Chicago to UFC Edmonton, both cards are full of prospects. the Regional MMA is also stacked this week too with cards from Rkena vs PFL to a fun Italian Cage Warriors card. However there are a few cards that might go under the radar, that happen to have tons of prospects. I wanted to make sure you didn’t skim past these four cards that have some great prospects on them.

Lemin Shooto 9 (Monday)

Kyle Mayocchi 5-0 – Bantamweight 

Kyle Mayocchi is one of the two extremely promising Mayocchi brothers out of Australia. This 6-0, 135er is quite the prospect and is taking his talent to Japan. At just 23, Mayocchi has a bucket of experience. He started his amateur career back in 2020. His amateur career was a good one. In fact, he only lost two fights and competed at a high level in IMMAF. Now pro, and training out of City Kickboxing, Mayocchi has racked up six wins. Notably, he has done that in just a little over two years.

This Bantamweight prospect is no doubt one of the top Aussie talents in the regionals at the moment. With a few more wins you could easily see him debuting on a UFC card in Australia. Alternatively, he could also be a contestant on Road To UFC. This fight is likely his toughest test yet. He faces ONE FC and Rizin veteran, Hikaru Yoshino (15-6).

Shimon Suzuki 7-1-1 – Flyweight 

This 26 year old flyweight is currently on a 7-fight win streak after his career started out with a loss and a draw. Shimon has good striking which I think leads his opponents to try and grapple but that isn’t a good idea either. He has great striking footwork however is also great in the nitty gritty aspects of the sport. He seems to have a good clinch game and is obviously pretty good on the ground with all of his finishes. Last time out he beat an 8-1 fighter who had never been finished in just under two minutes. Shimon will fight a pretty good 10-4 Wataru Yamauchi, who has fought in Rizin. With a quick finish from Shimon here, he’ll be a great fighter to fill out next season’s Road To UFC or be apart of the long awaited Japan card for the UFC.

Honorable mention prospects from this card:

Takeru Suzuki 5-1 – Flyweight

Riku Nakajima 6-1-1 – Flyweight 

Bellum Fighting Championship 6 – Germany

Joshua Homberg 0-0 (6-1 AM) – Heavyweight

Joshua Homberg is a 26-year-old from Germany set to make his pro debut on this extremely stacked regional Germany card. I’m hopeful that he can be the next big European heavyweight prospect. He went 6-1 as a amateur with his only loss coming in 2024 against Cary Miller. Importantly, Miller, at the time, had seven times more amateur fights then Homberg. Homberg would lose a decision and moved to 2-1. However, he has not looked back since picking up 4 consecutive wins. At 26 and seeming to be athletic, there is hope in Germany for a heavyweight star.

Bilal Saliev 1-0 – Light Heavyweight

Saliev has proven to be a force in his short career. Going 4-0 as amateur, Saliev never saw the second round. Impressively, he racked up two TKOS and two submissions. He went pro back in January of last year and finally returns to action this weekend. I’m not sure on his age, however his tapology photo seems to indicate he’s young. He trains at Spitfire which is a top European gym. That gym has tons of big bodies for him to properly train. With that team backing him, there is definitely a good chance this guy could be the real deal.

Muhammad Kafkas 1-0 – Featherweight

At just 20, Kafkas has already had 11 total MMA fights. He is perfect with a combined record of 11-0 and is definitely one of the better names on the card. While he hasn’t seemed to fight the best competition, and doesn’t seem to be a finisher, its is undeniable that he’s experienced. Importantly, born in Dagestan, Kafkas trains in Germany out of small gym. Moreover, he gets work in at much bigger BJJ gym as well. He isn’t fighting the best opponent this weekend. However, he made his debut against a 2-0 fighter which is a good start to his career. So, he’s had plenty of time to work on his finishing ability. That will be a big factor in weather or not he will be able to make it to the next level.

Bedirhan Kabak 2-0 – Welterweight 

Back in May of this year Bedirhan Kabak won via 1st round ground and pound in his Oktagon debut against a 4-0 fighter. This win would make you think he would stay in Oktagon but instead has begun looking to fight outside of the big European promotion now. After a fight fell through in July for GMC, he is now back at this fun German regional event. Kabak who represents Turkey had two bouts cancelled in 2024 for but has no amateur record. He is 25 and coming off this big upset win in a major promotion, makes me confident he is someone to keep an eye on. He basically made the 4-0 Imran Daurbekov gas and end up in a seated position taking shots on the cage from Kabak where the ref would then step in.