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Steveson is arguably the best prospect to come along since Pico — an Olympic gold medalist and two-time NCAA Division-I national champion who won the Dan Hodge Trophy twice, was a four-time All-American at the University of Minnesota, and is so athletically gifted that he had a brief run with the WWE and got a look from the Buffalo Bills despite never having played a lick of football in the past. This weekend, he makes his UFC debut opposite Elisha Ellison in a bout originally ticketed for the main card, but now shuffled back to the prelims.

The 26-year-old heavyweight is already 3-0 in MMA, but there is no way to put any real stock in those results as they came against a collection of weekend warriors in their late 30s who haven’t beaten a soul since facing Steveson. To be clear: that’s who he should have been facing, but the results are also as they should have been.

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The bar is set impossibly high for Steveson heading into his debut, to the point where it feels like if he doesn’t win the title before he turns 30 (May 31, 2030), he will have underachieved. That’s a brutal spot to be in because it’s ridiculously difficult to have lasting success at this level, and very few people genuinely achieve contender or champion status, and we don’t have any idea how he’ll handle getting punched in the face by a legitimate heavyweight.

He has immense upside and should get an expedited opportunity to shine if he passes this initial test and perhaps one more before the year is out. Steveson is about to be one of the most talked-about fighters on the roster, and now you have a chance to get on board the bandwagon armed with a little info before he steps into the Octagon for the first time on Saturday.

Luke Riley

Unbeaten in 13 professional appearances and 17 fights overall, including his brief amateur run, Riley is the latest ascending talent to emerge from Liverpool’s Next Gen MMA and land on the UFC stage. He’s earned wins in each of his first two UFC appearances — a second-round stoppage of Bogdan Grad in November, and a unanimous decision nod over Michael Aswell Jr. in March — and gets a slight step up with a veteran test this weekend against Kai Kamaka III at UFC 329.