In this three-part series, I will choose my top UFC men’s prospects for 2021. They all got the first taste of life in the UFC last year, so I will detail their background and explain why, in my opinion, they are the ones to keep your eyes on during 2021.
2nd: Duško Todorović
UFC record: 1-0 – TKO. One Performance of the Night (POTN) bonus. Now 10-0 overall.
Age 26. Serbian. Middleweight.
Duško Todorović is the former Serbian Battle Championship middleweight champion. In 2019 he was given the opportunity to compete on the Contender Series and faced Teddy Ash, winning by unanimous decision and securing a UFC contract.
Dusko Todorovic 🇷🇸 stays undefeated and earns himself a UFC contract on #DWCS!
📺 Watch in full on @UFCFightPass now! pic.twitter.com/OYORIFkkQi
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) August 28, 2019
The bout with Ash was the first time Todorović had gone the distance or even had to face the bell for round three – he had only twice had to fight past the first round before in his professional career.
Most of his 2020 were spent trying to arrange a UFC debut against John Phillips but this contest was cancelled three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, the fight could not be scheduled and Todorović was instead booked to face Dequan Townsend in October on the main card of a UFC Fight Night.
Todorović managed to secure a takedown in the second round of the fight and ground and pound strikes called a stop to the fight 3:15 into round two as he was declared the winner by TKO.
GROUND AND POUND FTW!!!
Dusko Todorovic just poured it on and gets the 2nd round TKO! 💥#UFCFightIsland4 pic.twitter.com/Lb9hGxUKT1
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) October 4, 2020
Todorović’s statistics now stand at six TKO, three submissions, and one unanimous decision victory from his ten contests, and he has finished six of these in the first round.
Following his impressive start to life in the UFC, “Thunder” has been booked onto the main card of the first UFC event of 2021 on January 16th. His opponent is Punahele Soriano who also carries a perfect professional record of 7-0 and has only been taken into the second round once (a Contender Series decision win).
Soriano also has one UFC fight under his belt – a first-round KO win against Oskar Piechota in 2019 – so this match promises to be one not to miss.
1️⃣0️⃣ – 0️⃣
–#Undefeated #UFC pic.twitter.com/jAUE21tTL9— Duško Todorović (@todorovic_ufc) October 18, 2020
Follow Rob Bartle on Twitter
Other articles by Rob Bartle via his Medium page
