Flash Jungle: The Sports Desk – The Fighters UFC 3 Needs To Add

This week my esteemed colleague Brian Shea is here to dive more in-depth with the UFC 3 roster, analyzing its relevance and how it can improve going forward.

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EA Sports UFC 3 launched earlier and, as I said in my review, it is a terrific MMA game. The new career mode adds depth to the single-player suite, while the other modes – both online and offline – make strides to improve the experience. EA Vancouver made a strong effort to include as many top-ranked and popular fighters from the current UFC landscape as possible, but it isn't feasible to include every fighter – especially not at launch.

After nearly a month of being available to players, I wanted to take a look to see how EA Vancouver did with its inaugural lineup of fighters, and where exactly it could improve. Check out my findings below, as well as my top 10 fighters I'd like to see added to the roster at the bottom.

Strawweight (W)

UFC 3 Grade: 14/16 - 87.5%

Missing Ranked Fighters: 2

#12 Cortney Casey
#15 Tatiana Suarez

Non-Ranked Fighters Included in Division: 9

Flyweight (W)*

UFC 3 Grade: 6/16 - 37.5%

Missing Ranked Fighters: 10

C: Nicco Montano
#2 Sijara Eubanks
#5 Roxanne Modafferi
#6 Barb Honchak
#8 Katlyn Chookagian
#9 Jessica-Rose Clark
#11 Montana De La Rosa
#12 Rachael Ostovich
#13 Mara Romero Borella
#15 Shana Dobson

Non-Ranked Fighters Included in Division: 0

* The UFC Women's Flyweight division is not officially in UFC 3. The division crowned its first champion on December 1, 2017, so the weight class has been deemed too new to make it into the game for launch. The UFC 3 team tells me it hasn't ruled out adding it post-launch. Many of the fighters from the Women's Flyweight division are included in the other women's divisions.

Bantamweight (W)

UFC Grade: 11/16 - 68.75%

Missing Ranked Fighters: 5

#5 Ketlen Vieira
#8 Marion Reneau
#12 Aspen Ladd
#13 Sarah Moras
#14 Irene Aldana

Non-Ranked Fighters Included in Division: 7

Featherweight (W)*

UFC 3 Grade: 3/6 - 50%

Missing Fighters Who Have Appeared: 3

Megan Anderson
Tonya Evinger
Yana Kunitskaya

* The UFC Women's Featherweight division is not officially in UFC 3. The division crowned its first champion on February 11, 2017, but the weight class does not have any official rankings due to a small pool of fighters. Cris Cyborg is the current champion, but appears in Women's Bantamweight for the purpose of her inclusion on the roster. To calculate the grade, I looked at the small pool of fighters who have appeared in this division during its short history.

Flyweight (M)

UFC 3 Grade: 12/16 - 75%

Missing Ranked Fighters: 4

#11 Matheus Nicolau
#13 Alexandre Pantoja
#14 Deiveson Figueiredo
#15 Magomed Bibulatov

Non-Ranked Fighters Included in Division: 3

Bantamweight (M)

UFC 3 Grade: 12/16 - 75%

Missing Ranked Fighters: 4

#10 Pedro Munhoz
#11 Rob Font
#14 Brett Johns
#15 Matthew Lopez

Non-ranked Fighters Included in Division: 9

Featherweight (M)

UFC 3 Grade: 13/16 - 81.25%

Missing Ranked Fighters: 3

#4 Josh Emmett
#11 Renato Moicano
#15 Calvin Kattar

Non-ranked Fighters Included in Division: 17

Lightweight

UFC 3 Grade: 15/16 - 93.75%

Missing Ranked Fighters: 1

#14 Francisco Trinaldo

Non-ranked Fighters Included in Division: 27

Welterweight

UFC 3 Grade

Missing Ranked Fighters: 14/16 - 87.5%

#3 Colby Covington
#15 Yancy Medeiros*

Non-ranked Fighters Included in Division: 30

* This fighter does not appear in this division in UFC 3, but he appears under the Lightweight division.

Middleweight

UFC 3 Grade: 13/16 - 81.25%

Missing Ranked Fighters: 3

#8 David Branch
#11 Thiago Santos
#14 Paulo Costa

Non-ranked Fighters Included in Division: 16

Light Heavyweight

UFC 3 Grade: 13/16 - 81.25%

Missing Ranked Fighters: 3

#12 Tyson Pedro
#13 Gadzhimurad Antigulov
#15 Jared Cannonier

Non-ranked Fighters Included in Division: 13

Heavyweight

UFC 3 Grade:

Missing Ranked Fighters: 4

#5 Curtis Blaydes
#9 Marcin Tybura
#14 Junior Albini
#15 Tai Tuivasa

Non-ranked Fighters Included in Division: 8

Image Credit: Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG

My 10 Most Wanted Roster Additions:
UFC 3 features an impressive roster of fighters, but as you probably saw above, it's not without its gaps and blindspots. These are the fighters I most want to see in a future roster update.

Nicco Montano – I understand the Women's Flyweight division just got its start, but it's strange not having a current champion in the game. She has #1 contender Valentina Shevchenko waiting to give her the highest-profile fight of her career.

Josh Emmett – Following his brutal knockout of Ricardo Lamas, Emmett is a top-ranked Featherweight who is headlining UFC events, including this past weekend's loss to Jeremy Stephens.

Colby Covington – Tolerate him or hate him, Colby Covington is one of the top-ranked Welterweights who is possibly one win away from a title shot.

Curtis Millender (above) – Octagon debuts don't get much more impressive than Millender's recent fight.

David Branch – The dangerous David Branch recently fought the current #3 Middleweight Luke Rockhold, and was weeks away from fighting the current #1 Middleweight before Romero had to replace champion Robert Whittaker in a PPV main event.

Paulo Costa – Following his domination of longtime favorite Johny Hendricks, the undefeated knockout artist Costa has sprung forward and looks like a true threat in the Middleweight division.

Mike Perry – He may have had a rough go as of late, losing to Santiago Ponzinibbio and Max Griffin, but you can't deny his forward-moving, in-your-face style is fun to watch – and would probably be even more fun to control.

Tai Tuivasa – After winning his first two UFC fights by way of devastating knockout, Tuivasa has earned a spot in the rankings, and in the public consciousness.

Israel Adesanya – One of the biggest UFC prospects at the moment, Adesanya thrilled and impressed in his debut victory over Rob Wilkinson, which earned him a Performance of the Night bonus.

Brock Lesnar – This is for sure the biggest longshot on this list thanks to his inactive status as a UFC fighter and his contract with the WWE, but you can't deny how fun it was to smash fighters with this mountain of a man in older UFC games.

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