What a startling statistic it is that, since the turn of 2015, the number of European fighters to have won UFC titles over the course of its 22-year history has doubled.

When Poland’s Joanna Jedrzejczyk dethroned Carla Esparza as the women’s strawweight champion of UFC 185’s co-main event in March, she became the continent’s third titleholder. It had been just shy of a decade since Andrei Arlovski had beaten Paul Buentello to unify the promotion’s heavyweight title all the way back at UFC 55.

Prior to the exploits of the lately resurgent Arlovski, recent UFC Hall of Fame inductee Bas Ruten was the only European to have worn UFC gold. In March 1999 at UFC 20, the Dutchman overcame Kevin Randleman to clinch the heavyweight crown previously vacated by Randy Couture.

Then, this past weekend, to cap off what had already been an epic UFC 189 event, Dubliner Conor McGregor claimed the interim featherweight title by defeating Chad Mendes by TKO in the dying embers of the second round in their main event matchup.

As for continued success in the short term, Swede Alexander Gustafsson – who previously failed to usurp then champion Jon Jones at UFC 165 – has been slated to face light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier before year’s end. Additionally, many believe it’s only a matter of time before Dagestan’s Khabib Nurmagomedov is top of the heap at lightweight.

Moreover, a glance just a little further of the horizon reveals there’s a plethora of promising European fighters making their way up the UFC’s ranks who, in the coming years, might emulate McGregor and Jedrzejczyk.

Here we’ve selected five:

Possibly an obvious choice, though certainly a timely one. The 27-year-old (13-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) native of Donegal in the northwest of Ireland faces fellow lightweight Ivan Jorge on today’s UFC Fight Night 72 main card in Glasgow.

The bout, which airs on FOX Sports 1, is Duffy’s sophomore promotional appearance, having defeated Jake Lindsey via first round TKO on a UFC Fight Pass prelim at UFC 185.

Unquestionably best known for being the last man to defeat McGregor, Duffy is likely to have made his way to the UFC sooner had he not taken a three-year hiatus from MMA to pursue a pro boxing career After amassing a perfect 7-0 record as a boxer, Duffy returned to MMA late last year and notched two victories in Cage Warriors before Zuffa signed him.

Somewhat of a nomad, Duffy was born in Ireland, raised in Wales and then moved to London. Continuing the trend, he has relocated to Montreal, where he lives and trains full-time out of the famed Tristar gym.

Although he is yet to feature on a main card during his brief time with the UFC, the undefeated Bektic is a coming force in the featherweight division. Bektic (10-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) and his family left their homeland of Bosnia when he was 3 to escape the war plaguing the country at the time.

After five years living in Germany, the Bektic clan made its way to Lincoln, Neb., where Mirsad spent an alienated youth street-fighting. He found solace in sport, and he soon dedicated himself fully to MMA. In 2011, as a means of maximizing his potential, Bektic moved to Florida to join American Top Team and hasn’t looked back since.

The 24-year-old is a potent power-puncher and smothering grappler. He earned his first two UFC victories by decision against Chas Skelly and Paul Redmond, before, most recently, steamrolling Lucas Martins with an explosive TKO just 30 seconds into the second round of their preliminary card bout at UFC Fight Night 67.

He may have suffered an ignominious loss at the hands of Michel Prazeres in his octagon debut at UFC Fight Night 38, but Chechen lightweight Taisumov (24-5 MMA, 3-1 UFC) has been on a tear ever since.

Not one of his subsequent three opponents has made it past the second round as the Austrian-based 26-year-old has utilized a destructive standup arsenal to dispatch of – all via knockout or TKO – Marcin Bandel, Anthony Christodoulou and Alan Patrick.

Taisumov studies under former UFC lightweight Roger Heurta at Tiger Muay Thai and, having turned pro in 2007, can draw on a wealth of experience as he seeks to make further inroads into arguably the promotion’s most talent-laden division.

Similar to Bektic, Finland’s Amirkhani (14-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC) was uprooted from his place of birth in order to escape the ravages of war. Extremely proud of his Kurdish heritage, the Iranian-born 24-year-old arrived in Finland with his family in the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq conflict. On the advice of his brothers, he took up wrestling as a youngster and went on to amass multiple Finish national titles in both the freestyle and Greco-Roman disciplines.

Interestingly, and for far less sinister reasons, Amirkhani shares parallels with another European UFC featherweight. Apart from their penchant for finishing opponents in devastating fashion, he and McGregor also have an unabashed desire for the spotlight and an excessively high self-regard in common.

However, Amirkhani has been nothing short of flawless since arriving in the UFC. He earned a “Performance of the Night” bonus for his spectacular flying-knee TKO of Andy Ogle just eight seconds into their bout at UFC on FOX 14 in Stockholm. He followed that up in June with a first-round submission win over Massio Fullen in the final prelim at UFC Fight Night 69 in Berlin.

Unquestionably, Birmingham’s Breese is one of the most exciting talents to emerge from the U.K. in years. A teammate of Duffy at Tristar, the 23-year-old Breese has been a full-time resident in Montreal for more than two years.

As a welterweight, he’s been fortunate enough to train alongside two of the world’s best at 170 pounds: longtime UFC champion Georges St-Pierre and recent title challenger Rory MacDonald.

At a hulking 6-3, Breese is a bruiser for the weight class, and decidedly powerful to boot. He provided an ample demonstration of this power in his recent promotional debut when he earned a first-round TKO victory over Luiz Dutra at UFC Fight Night 67.

Despite never tasting defeat, Breese is an obsessive student and is known to be one of the most diligent trainers at Tristar. When his schedule permits, the former BAMMA chamoion ravels to New York to hone his grappling skills under John Danaher and Renzo Gracie.

For more on UFC Fight Night 72, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.