Bilal Hasan has gained 71 Combat Edge Elo points since this time last year. No flyweight in the top 30 of our ladder has gained more.
The closest is the champion. Joshua Van added 60 over the same stretch, and he did it by beating Alexandre Pantoja twice and Tatsuro Taira in between.
Hasan, 10-0 and 25 years old, sits 14th in the flyweight rankings at 1724. He meets Luis Gurule on the main card of UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. It is his second UFC fight.
The fastest climbers at 125
We measured every fighter in the flyweight top 30 from their rating on November 11, 2025 to today. Six gained 45 points or more. Hasan leads, Van is second, and nobody else is within 15 points of Hasan.
| Fighter | Rank | 12-month Elo change | Fights | Elo now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilal Hasan | #14 | +71 | 3-0 | 1724 |
| Joshua Van | #1 | +60 | 3-0 | 1818 |
| Imanol Rodriguez | #16 | +53 | 2-0 | 1716 |
| Alessandro Costa | #18 | +50 | 3-0 | 1705 |
| Antônio César | #15 | +49 | 4-0 | 1717 |
| Manel Kape | #10 | +45 | 2-0 | 1752 |
Combat Edge calculation from each fighter's published Elo history, November 11, 2025 to November 11, 2026.
Rodriguez deserves a line of his own. He is also unbeaten, at 8-0, and both of his wins this year were stoppages. If anyone takes this list from Hasan in 2027, it is probably him.
How Hasan got here
Hasan built his record on the regional scene. Eight of his 10 wins came under the CFFC banner, and nine of the 10 ended inside the distance: eight knockouts and a rear-naked choke. The only decision was his December 2022 debut, a split call over Xhelal Lleshi.
The method stands out. His last three regional finishes all came from body work: a punch to the body against Brian Hauser, a front kick to the body against Jason Eastman and another body punch against Renaldy Manse in December 2025.
Then came August. On Week 1 of Dana White's Contender Series, he stopped Mridul Saikia in 45 seconds, out-landing him 21 to 3 in significant strikes. Eighteen days later he was in the UFC, and he knocked out Nilson Rojas in the second round.
That second fight matters more than the first. Rojas came in 9-0 and rated 1685, just 12 points below Hasan, so on Elo alone it was close to even. Hasan took the first round 38 to 17 in significant strikes, scored a knockdown in the second and finished it at 2:27.
The Saikia and Rojas wins were worth +27 and +28. The Rojas win is the largest single-fight gain of his career.
Same slope, different hill
Hasan and Van were born three months apart in 2001. Both are 25, both finish fights, and both have spent the last year going in one direction.
Here is where the comparison needs an asterisk.
Van's 60 points came against the best flyweights in the world. Pantoja was rated 1827 when Van stopped him last December. Taira was at 1816. Yet each of those wins moved Van less than Hasan's August wins moved Hasan: +23, +21 and +16.
Two things explain the difference. Combat Edge Elo gives bigger swings to fighters early in their rated careers, and it pays extra for finishes. Hasan has been both. The Rojas fight was his 10th rated bout, which is where the system stops treating a fighter as a newcomer. From Saturday on, each win will move him less.
Opposition is the other gap. Saikia was rated 1649 and Rojas 1685. Hasan has yet to face anyone currently in the flyweight top 30.
The underlying numbers are still loud. Across the three rounds we have charted for him, Hasan lands 4.93 significant strikes per minute, absorbs 2.40, and has scored a knockdown in each fight. His +2.53 per-minute differential would top the division, ahead of Van's +2.24. But three rounds is not a sample. Van's number comes from 37.
What Saturday is worth
The Combat Edge model makes Hasan an 83.1% favorite over Gurule. Elo alone has it at 61.5%, so the model is leaning hard on form and striking data that Elo does not see.
Gurule, 11-4, is rated 1643 and has lost four of his last five. The most recent was a first-round submission loss to Rei Tsuruya in May.
| Outcome | Hasan's Elo | Flyweight rank |
|---|---|---|
| Hasan by finish | 1739 (+15) | #12 |
| Hasan by decision | 1736 (+12) | #12 |
| Gurule by decision | 1704 (-20) | #20 |
| Gurule by finish | 1700 (-24) | #23 |
Any win moves Hasan past André Lima and Ramazan Temirov into 12th. A loss costs him up to 25 points and drops him behind Rodriguez. The full breakdown is on the fight page.
Combat Edge's Take
Hasan's year is real, and by our numbers it is the best at flyweight. The only fighter keeping pace is the man holding the belt, which is about as good a sentence as a 25-year-old prospect can earn.
But the two climbs are not the same thing. Van's rating rose because he kept beating fighters rated above 1800. Hasan's rose because he kept finishing people quickly while the system was still learning who he is. That newcomer boost is gone now. If he keeps gaining at anything like this rate once he faces ranked opposition, it will tell us far more than another 45-second stoppage.
Gurule is not that test. His first top-15 opponent will be.
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