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Last night’s UFC Fight Night event featured not only a ton of entertaining finishes, but it also saw some fighters step up, too.
A number of fighters in action at last night’s UFC event will be hopeful of moving into title contention in 2023, meaning their next bouts could be pivotal. So, with major wins for contenders in the middleweight, welterweight, flyweight and heavyweight divisions, there are plenty of big fights to be made in the future.
With that in mind, here are five fights to make after UFC Fight Night: Stephen Thompson vs. Kevin Holland.
#5. UFC welterweight division: Rafael dos Anjos vs. Michel Pereira
Rafael dos Anjos was one of last night’s big winners. The former UFC lightweight champion returned to 170 pounds for the first time since January 2020 and was largely flawless in his submission win over tough brawler Bryan Barberena.
The win should be enough to net ‘RDA’ a date with a ranked foe next, as his only losses in his last win at 170 pounds came to elite opponents like Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman. With that said, we know the 38-year-old struggles against strong wrestlers, so why not match him with a striker?
One name that comes to mind instantly in terms of a fun match for sos Anjos is fellow Brazilian Michel Pereira. ‘Demolidor’ is currently ranked at No.14 and has won his last five in a row. He’s improved massively in recent years, making his game less wild and much more effective.
However, quite how he’d deal with the grappling skills of ‘RDA’ is anyone’s guess. Barberena, as we saw last night, couldn’t deal with them at all.
With that said, Pereira is a huge welterweight, and so whether dos Anjos could even get him down would be a fair question to ask. Overall, this would simply be an excellent fight, and could work well for the UFC’s return to Brazil next year.
#4. UFC middleweight bout: Roman Dolidze vs. Derek Brunson
Last night’s UFC Fight Night was initially supposed to feature a meeting of top-10 middleweights, with Derek Brunson facing Jack Hermansson. In the end, though, that changed on relatively late notice.
Brunson ended up sidelined with an undisclosed injury. So, rising star Roman Dolidze stepped in and promptly dealt with Hermansson with true style. The Georgian used a calf slicer to take back mount on ‘The Joker’, then smashed him with ground-and-pound for a TKO win.
Given Hermansson was ranked at No.8 in the division going in, we can expect Dolidze to steal that spot next week. Therefore, why not make the logical booking and match him against Brunson upon his return?
Brunson might be a flawed fighter, but he’s also a brutally powerful wrestler with finishing power in his hands. He’s definitely got the kind of skills that could test Dolidze. Essentially, he’s the best gatekeeper at 185 pounds.
Dolidze has claimed to be a threat to the UFC middleweight title on numerous occasions in the past. So, if he wants to prove it, then beating Brunson would be the perfect way to go about it.
#3. UFC flyweight bout: Matheus Nicolau vs. Alexandre Pantoja
One fighter who definitely moved himself into UFC title contention last night was Matheus Nicolau. The flyweight prospect was ranked at No.6 coming into his bout with Matt Schnell, and promptly showed why he deserves such a high ranking, knocking out ‘Danger’ in the second round.
With current champion Deiveson Figueiredo and interim titleholder Brandon Moreno set to do battle for a fourth time in the New Year, Nicolau obviously won’t get an immediate shot at the gold.
However, he might well warrant a top contender’s bout, and so the best opponent for him in that sense would be the No.3-ranked Alexandre Pantoja.
‘The Cannibal’ has won four of his last five bouts, and actually holds a win over Moreno. He’s probably the flyweight division’s most underrated fighter, in fact. But could he deal with the kind of striking heat that Nicolau brought last night?
It’d be a genuinely difficult question to answer, and that’s why this fight would be so good to make. If the UFC could put it together for early 2023, then the winner could definitely make a run at the title later in the year.
#2. UFC heavyweight bout: Sergei Pavlovich vs. Ciryl Gane
Perhaps the biggest winner at last night’s event was Sergei Pavlovich, who needed less than a minute to dispatch Tai Tuivasa in a key heavyweight bout. Tuivasa was coming off a loss to Ciryl Gane, but was still ranked at No.4 prior to last night. More to the point, he’d always shown an iron chin.
That wasn’t the case when Pavlovich hit him, though. The Russian’s brick-like hands simply obliterated ‘Bam Bam’, leaving him a bloody mess when all was said and done.
Who should be next for Pavlovich, then? The UFC’s heavyweight division is in an odd spot right now, primarily because of the question marks around current champion Francis Ngannou.
Assuming ‘The Predator’ remains with the promotion, then you could easily argue for Pavlovich getting the next shot at him based on this win and his previous one over Derrick Lewis. However, due to his lack of name value, that seems unlikely.
Instead, then, the UFC should probably match him with Gane, with the winner going on to fight for the title later in 2023. Whether Pavlovich’s heavy hands would be able to get him past ‘Bon Gamin’ would be a definite question mark, but then the Russian could easily cause Gane plenty of issues.
Overall, this fight would be fantastic and could easily headline a big European show in early 2023.
#1. UFC welterweight bout: Stephen Thompson vs. Sean Brady
Last night’s $50k bonus for the Fight of the Night deservedly went to Stephen Thompson and Kevin Holland, who went to war in the main event. However, in the end, it was the quality striking of former UFC welterweight title challenger ‘Wonderboy’ that came through.
The bout, which was stopped by Holland’s corner after the fourth round, could easily have been called off earlier than it was. Thompson took a number of heavy shots in this fight, but gave far more nasty ones back. By the time proceedings ended, it was only going one way.
‘Wonderboy’ isn’t likely to challenge for gold again, but he remains a very tricky gatekeeper. With that said, we’ve seen him struggle against grapplers recently, as he lost to both Gilbert Burns and Belal Muhammad prior to this fight.
With that in mind, for his next fight, why not let him attempt to overcome a grappler in the form of Sean Brady? Brady is coming off a loss of his own to Muhammad, but prior to that, he looked like a surefire future title contender thanks to his stifling grappling.
If Brady could beat ‘Wonderboy’, then it’d get him back on track in terms of title contention. However, if Thompson could win, it could put him back in line for another big fight and an unlikely resurgence into the title picture, too.
This might not sound like fireworks on paper like Thompson vs. Holland did, but it’d definitely be a fine test for ‘Wonderboy’ in his next trip to the octagon.
