Early in his mixed martial arts career, UFC featherweight Ryan Hall nearly retired due to a lack of opponents. He faces that same predicament now.

Hall (6-1) hasn't fought since he defeated Gray Maynard via unanimous decision in December 2016, and he can't guarantee he will again.

The 33-year-old has not suffered any serious injury during that time, or fallen into some muddled contract dispute.

Hall's issue is he is only willing to fight someone he believes is a legitimate, high-level challenge. And in the past 15 months, the UFC hasn't been able to offer that.

"It's not for lack of interest on my part," Hall told ESPN's Five Rounds podcast. "I don't have 10 years in this sport. I am looking to face the most challenging opposition available.

"After facing a really tough guy like Gray Maynard and coming out more or less unscathed, I would have hoped for someone [ranked] in the top 15."

As a well-known grappling expert coming up the regional scene, Hall guesses he once had 10 consecutive fights fall through -- simply because opponents felt it was too high risk, little reward.

Lately (from what he has been told, at least), the same is true of ranked featherweights.

Hall has only fought twice in the UFC and is far from a household name. His tricky, unorthodox style makes him difficult to prepare for.

According to FightMetric, he has absorbed just 14 total strikes over the course of 30 minutes in the Octagon. Maynard was visibly frustrated by Hall's style when they fought, and was ultimately shut out on two of the three judges' scorecards.

Hall understands why ranked featherweights may not want to fight him, but he believes it's the UFC's responsibility to push those fights.

"I view the UFC's job, in its promoting role, is to facilitate that -- to create the opportunities for people to fight," Hall said. "Ultimately, if we are going to take ourselves seriously as a sport and athletes, I think it's the promoter's job to facilitate that, and not the athletes' job to peck at each other and try to create some degree of public fervor."

Traditionally in MMA, there are two ways to book a bout against the best fighters in the world: trash talk or a winning streak.

Ryan Hall defeated Artem Lobov in 2015 to claim "The Ultimate Fighter 22" title. Al Powers for ESPN

Hall says he'll never default to the former. He respects the guys at the top of his division, and that's the whole reason he wants to fight them. As far as stringing together wins, Hall won't do that either if it means facing opponents not on his level. He's simply not interested in doing so, and isn't convinced it would get him where he wants anyway.

"I know how good I am and I know what I can do," Hall said. "I know I made Gray Maynard look like he doesn't know how to fight and I know I got through an entire fight with Artem Lobov getting punched one time.

"If I go and fight 10 randoms -- and everyone in the UFC is very tough obviously, but there are significant levels between tiers -- there is no correlation between winning fights against randoms and fighting top-tier people. Look at [lightweight] James Vick. People still won't fight James Vick [9-1 in the UFC].

"They know I'll say yes to anyone who is tough and dangerous. So if they call, they call. If they don't, I will carry on."