LAS VEGAS – The women's strawweight division is quickly shaping up as one of the most intriguing in the UFC.
It features a dominant champion, an equally dominant No. 1 contender and a slew of intriguing contenders.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk routed Carla Esparza in March to win the championship, and staked a claim to 2015 Fighter of the Year honors by successfully defending the title twice in one-sided fashion.
Top contender Claudia Gadelha, whose physique is so hard that UFC president Dana White has frequently referred to her as "the girl with the abs," will be next in line. Given that there was plenty of controversy about the result in the first Jedrzejczyk-Gadelha match last year, it is no given that Jedrzejczyk will come out on top when they meet for the belt in the first part of next year.
But the fighter with the largest following is a 21-year-old who could become the youngest UFC champion in history as long as she wins the belt before Nov. 25, 2017.
That gives Paige VanZant plenty of time to develop and prepare for the deep talent pool at strawweight.
VanZant will face former title contender Rose Namajunas on Thursday at The Cosmopolitan on the UFC's Fight Pass live streaming service.
If VanZant wins the title on or before Nov. 24, 2017, it would make her the youngest champion in UFC history, surpassing Jon Jones, who was 23 years, 8 months when he won the light heavyweight belt in 2011.
There is, though, the small matter of actually winning it, though, and VanZant first has to get through a very stiff test in Namajunas.
UFC president Dana White raved about Namajunas when she was a cast member on "The Ultimate Fighter," and referred to her as the next Ronda Rousey in reference to the former women's bantamweight champ.
Namajunas was beaten in the finale for the inaugural women's strawweight belt by Carla Esparza on Dec. 12, 2014. Roughly a year later, she's rebounded by quickly submitting Angela Hill and is eager to take on VanZant in what is a battle between two of the UFC's best young fighters.
VanZant has also been compared to Rousey, though she hopes to create her own identity.
But the one way VanZant is very much like the ex-champion in here aggressiveness. VanZant comes out hard and pushes the pace. It's led her to impressive UFC wins over Kailin Curran, Felice Herrig and Alex Chambers.
Namajunas is a cut above those three, and is No. 3 in the division, four slots above VanZant.
VanZant can see what will happen with a victory.
"I'm young in the sport [and] I'm the new athlete," she said. "I've always been an athlete but as far as competing in MMA, I only had one amateur fight and then I went straight pro. So, I don't know. I just kind of listened to the UFC, I listened to my managers and I let the cards unfold.
"Right now, [Namajunas] is a perfect fight for me. And I'm going to focus on this fight. But obviously after beating someone ranked No. 3, there's not very many people above them to get to the champ."
VanZant is a terrific athlete with great conditioning. She recently completed a Tough Mudder with featherweight contender Chad Mendes, one of her teammates at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, Calif., as her partner. The Tough Mudder is a 10-to-12-mile run through various obstacles and her performance left Mendes impressed.
"She's right on point, I believe," Mendes said of VanZant. "I mean, she trains with us and she's in there working with all of these top-level guys, one of the best teams in the world. And, you know, I have total confidence in Paige. The big turning point with me and her is when she did the Tough Mudder with me. I was going as hard as I possibly could and she was right there with me the entire time."
Namajunas is no easy out, and their fight figures to be one of the best on the entire three-card show the UFC is putting on this week.
Despite her growing celebrity, though, VanZant insists she's handling the pressure like, well, a champ.
The Namajunas fight should go a long way toward determining whether she actually will become a champ, though.
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