5. Robert Whittaker
The recent champion and current top contender lands at No. 6, but he certainly has plenty of opportunity to improve this ranking in the coming years. Whittaker has already enjoyed a stellar career, with knockout wins over Brad Tavares, Derek Brunson and Ronaldo Souza to go along with fine decision victories over Jared Cannonier, Uriah Hall, Kelvin Gastelum and Yoel Romero the first time. In the interest of complete honesty, I believe Romero won the rematch against him, as did many others, and he also took a contentious decision from Darren Till. While he was knocked out in his first encounter against Israel Adesanya, the rematch could have gone either way. Whittaker is supremely talented as a striker and grappler, with the highest levels of intelligence and dedication to the sport, so I would not be surprised to see him continue to improve and finally defeat Adesanya on his third try; that would certainly propel him up this list. Recall that Whittaker is still only 31 years old.
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