Top 10 Amateur MMA Prospects in Australia & New Zealand

#3 Nixon Suddens (6-0)

Featherweight

19 Years Old – City Kickboxing

 

I got put onto Nixon Suddens in early 2025 by @fightnightaus as a 1-0 amateur out of CKB with nice wrestling and developing striking. The development Suddens has had in 2025 has been outstanding to the point he is, at least to me, now clearly one of the top amateur prospects across Australia & New Zealand.

 

A lightning-quick wrestler, Suddens grew up as an accomplished grappler and BJJ artist, competing in tournaments across both New Zealand & Australia, making a name for himself. These experiences put him in good standing to transition to MMA, where he started focusing primarily on developing his striking and integrating his existing skill set into a more MMA-focused style.

 

As expected, Suddens showcases slick technical grappling that can really frustrate his opponents and put them in dangerous positions. He can control, submit, or attack with some really vicious ground-and-pound that has stopped fights; ultimately proving to be a real handful to deal with in all aspects of grappling. On top of this, Suddens also mixes his takedowns in with his striking well, which not only further opens up his attacks on the feet, but also provides him opportunities to get in deep on a double leg and secure dominant position in the centre of the cage.

 

So, you’d think naturally you might want to avoid the grappling exchanges with Suddens, but the problem is his striking has already developed to the point that he can easily win in that realm, too. His hands possess real power that has put people out. His kicks are precise, sharp, and well-timed. He has real length and is physically big for the weight class, even as he continues to build size onto his frame. There’s so much to like about Suddens as a fighter, and I continue to be impressed with the rapid rate of improvement he’s shown from fight-to-fight.

 

The only criticism you could have of Suddens is that he hasn’t fought the strongest level of competition. His win over Tyrone Arvan was against quality opposition and particularly impressive. His first two fights were against 3-1 opponents. With that said, you could put that down to Suddens just trying to quickly gain experience. I’d expect him to start to take those types of fights this year so he can truly test where he stands in relation to the other talented amateur prospects in his weight class.

 

At only 19 years old, I’m so excited to see Suddens further develop his skillset because he has the world at his feet. While being from CKB, he will have the opportunity to fight in the UFC one day, assuming he can keep up his end of the bargain.