On Saturday night, Aleksandar Rakic entered his name into discussion as one of the top light heavyweight contenders in the UFC, controlling and dominating Anthony “Lionheart” Smith for three full rounds. It wasn’t particularly exciting, but it was impressive, and I’ll have something tomorrow on the fight, its implications, and coming weeks that will shape the new UFC landscape at 205.

But, as usual, I want to highlight three fighters outside of the main event who made big impressions over the past couple days. Here’s this week’s Three on the Rise:

Sean Brady

Man, at the end of the day, I’m just a mark for prospects with nice-looking records. At 13-0, Philadelphia native Sean Brady fits that bill. A Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and training partner of UFC veteran and commentator Paul Felder – who spent the entirety of Saturday night’s fight absolutely gushing about how much he loved Brady – the 27-year-old welterweight moved to 3-0 in the UFC after putting Christian Aguilera completely to sleep with a second-round guillotine choke.

The Brady-Aguilera fight was billed as a matchup of promising prospects, as the 28-year-old Aguilera was coming off of knocking out Anthony Ivy in less than a minute in his UFC debut in June. Although Aguilera was expected to have the advantage on the feet, Brady acquitted himself well, bloodying Aguilera’s face and working some strong leg kicks before taking him down to end the first.

In the second, Brady took Aguilera down before advancing to mount, and held on after a brief scramble to completely turn Aguilera’s lights out with a guillotine. Felder said that Brady has the strongest guillotine squeeze he’s ever felt in his life, and after watching that, I’d believe it. Guillotines are one of the most commonly attempted submissions but the conversion rate can be relatively low – putting a guy out with a one-armed guillotine from mount is extremely impressive, and really shows some crazy strength.

Brady’s rapidly building a name as one of the top prospects in the UFC welterweight division. He debuted with an impressive unanimous decision win over seasoned vet Court McGee last year, very much looking like the swifter, sharper man and showcasing improved kickboxing. Then, in February, he used his grappling to outpoint another interesting prospect, Ismail Naurdiev.

Brady is athletic, quick and strong, and although he’s considered to be better on the ground, none of his UFC opponents have been able to find a way to exploit any striking weakness. He’s looked impressive, but he hadn’t yet been finishing people. Now, he’s scored his first UFC finish, and he left his opponent unconscious to boot. After last night, you have to figure that Sean Brady’s earned the attention of the MMA world.

Alex Caceres

“Bruce Leeroy” has been around so long – he debuted in the UFC in 2011 and has since fought 23 times in the Octagon – that it’s easy to forget that he’s still only 32 years old. And while Alex Caceres has since settled into a long-term role as one of the lower-level gatekeepers at 145, he should theoretically have some great years ahead of him.

And sometimes, when a guy hangs around long enough, eventually you’ll look up and find that they’re on a little bit of a run. And right now, Alex Caceres is on a little bit of a run. He’s now won four of five and three in a row after dispatching Austin Springer with a rear-naked choke in the first round Saturday night, representing his best stretch since 2013-14, when he briefly turned himself into a bantamweight contender before he was slapped back to Earth with consecutive losses to Urijah Faber, Masanori Kanehara and Francisco Rivera.

Caceres is one of those guys you completely forget about until they pop up on a UFC undercard and you remember both why you like them and why they’ll never get anywhere. Caceres has always been fun, with his big Afro haircut, quirky mannerisms and penchant for finding himself in entertaining fights, but his terrible submission defense has always held him back.

But there’s no reason he can’t improve and find a new gear. Few fighters in the UFC are as battle-tested as Caceres, who’s been in that Octagon more than all but a few fighters in the world. And against Springer, a late replacement for Georgian prospect Giga Chikadze, a newly-shorn Caceres got the job done again, hurting Springer with some big shots before quickly taking his back and putting him away with a rear-naked choke in the first round.

The win came a few months after Caceres absolutely dominated hyped prospect Chase Hooper, battering Hooper on the feet and completely nullifying the game of a very skilled grappler. Caceres has looked very impressive in recent fights – he seems to have developed a really genuine and positive attitude, and he might be turning a corner.

But honestly, I’m just imagining how fun it would be if after years hovering around .500, Bruce Leeroy went on a run and made himself a name at 145. He’s showing some signs, and I’m rooting for him really hard.

Mohammed Usman

Did you know that Kamaru Usman has a younger brother who is also a pro MMA fighter? Now you do! His name is Mohammed Usman, and he looks just like Kamaru if you gave him the inflatable muscles from that one SpongeBob episode. “Motor” is a hulking, powerful heavyweight still operating in the shadow of the UFC welterweight champ, but now 7-1 in his pro career after dominating Terrance Hodges in the main event of Titan FC’s Friday night card on UFC Fight Pass.

With Kamaru in his corner, the younger Usman put on a performance somewhat resembling his brother: he planted Hodges on his back and kept him there for 15 minutes, winning a lopsided decision. And though the competition Usman has faced so far in his career has been relatively light – Hodges was just 2-6 in his career before Friday night – you should expect to see Usman on your TV screen because of, if nothing else, his last name.

Usman got a much later start in MMA than his more famous brother, making his pro debut in 2017 after playing college football as a defensive end for Houston and Arizona. And while he still looks like far from a finished product, he’s shown some interesting tools: he’s extremely muscular and strong, has some explosiveness, and, like his brother, appears to have a solid wrestling and top control game. You might worry about the gas tank of a heavyweight that wide and thick, but he stayed active throughout 15 minutes against Hodges and didn’t look particularly tired. And while his striking still looks somewhat rudimentary, he has some power in those fists.

You want to see prospects like that handle business against lower-level competition, and Usman certainly did that on Friday night. Hodges wasn’t in the fight for a moment. So, like I said, expect to see Usman around. He signed a deal with the PFL earlier this year over reported interest from the UFC and Bellator – according to him, he was attracted to the PFL’s mainstream sports-like structure that guaranteed at least three or four fights a year, and the big payouts given to the champions at the end of the season.

COVID-19 has left all of that up in the air: the PFL is the only major MMA promotion to completely write off running shows in 2020, and its future appears somewhat murky. I’d love to get Usman on a Dana White’s Contender Series or something, and get him an opponent seasoned enough to test some of the holes in his game. Mo Usman’s profile may be mostly because of who his brother is, but I’ve seen enough to be intrigued.