Top 10 Amateur MMA Prospects in Australia & New Zealand

#2 Zane Martin (5-0)

Lightweight

20 Years Old – Freestyle MMA

 

Zane Martin is someone who’s really shot up my rankings recently, having somewhat known who he was, but not really seen much of him due to difficulties in finding quality tape. Without Benny P helping me find tape on Martin, I wouldn’t have been able to either write this piece on him or include him in this list beyond an honourable mention. I honestly have fallen in love with Martin as a prospect to the point he’s my top amateur fighter across Australia & New Zealand.

 

This guy has absolutely everything I want to see in a fighter. He’s still incredibly young at 20, has finishing upside both on the feet and the mat. He trains with really quality coaches and training partners at Freestyle MMA, amongst so many other things that I’d be sitting here all day writing a thesis. He has a deep arsenal of tools at his disposal and is capable wherever the fight takes place – his rounded skill set allows him to just pick apart whatever holes his opponents may have and dictate the terms in which the fight plays out.

 

Martin is a talented wrestler with strong natural timing and understanding of technical fundamentals, and to pair with, he is slick at wrapping up a large variety of submissions from really anywhere. He is quick flowing from position-to-position, quick at addressing the takedown threat, and then scrambles well to his feet if he is taken down. I’ve never seen Martin settle for position on the bottom – he always either scrambles effectively before it gets there, or reverses position, finding top control and ultimately unleashing some nasty ground-and-pound..

 

While I’d say Martin’s grappling is probably better than his striking, that’s not to take away from the weapons he possesses on the feet. Martin strings together combinations nicely, implementing a lot of general movement into his style that manipulates range and confuses opponents. His head movement is really effective, and his ability to turn defense into offense often leaves opponents vulnerable to a takedown or a damaging counter strike.

 

The cherry on top of all of this is that Martin is only 20, so he’ll continue to exponentially develop as he matures his skillset and in his overall physicality. He’s also much more experienced than his Tapology record suggests, being 5-0 rather than 2-0. It was going to take something special to jump up like he has, and I really feel like I’ve seen it in Martin, which is why he’s shot up to my #2 regional prospect across Australia & New Zealand from pretty much out of nowhere.

 

While I can’t say I’ve seen every minute of his fighting career, everything I have seen leads me to believe that Zane Martin is someone with the ceiling to do some really special things in the sport, and a name you’ll want to remember in the coming years.