This will be my last post regarding UFC 269 finally. I'm going to do a combined post for both Josh Emmett vs Dan Ige and Geoff Neal vs Santiago Ponzinibbio because I don't think I have enough to say about each in order to do a full write up for each fight. Both of these fights took place within the rankings though, so they do have an effect on the future of their respective divisions.
I'll start with Ige and Emmett. This was actually a pretty big fight in the featherweight division, especially after Josh Emmett got the win. Emmett was returning after an injury and surgeries kept him out for well over a year and he bounced back nicely. That wasn't the best version of Josh Emmett I've ever seen, but he did enough to get the win and he looked very powerful. This puts him in the top 6 and with the Holloway and Volkanovski saga looking like it's finally nearing it's conclusion, the division is going to need some future contenders. Giga Chikadze is one guying making that push and now Josh Emmett is making a push to be another. I want to see him fight Chan Sung Jung, The Korean Zombie, next. I think that is clearly the fight to make for Emmett and a win there would realistically position him for a title opportunity.
For Ige, he's been a mixed bag of late. He's lost his last 2 and 3 of his last 4, with the only win coming over Gavin Tucker. Those losses are Josh Emmett, Calvin Kattar, and The Korean Zombie. It's been a little hard for Ige to get over the hump. He's way too good for unranked opponents and can handle everyone outside the top 10, but whenever he gets that step up, he has come up short. That's not to say that he's destined to continue that forever, but that's just his career path so far. I think a fight against Sodiq Yusuff makes sense as they're both coming off of a loss. If not limiting him to fighters coming off a loss, I think Bryce Mitchell and Shane Burgos also make some sense for Ige. From an entertainment perspective, the Burgos matchup sounds like the most fun to me.
The Neal vs Ponzinibbio fight was strangely the most uninteresting fight to watch on the entire card. Neither guy looked bad, but I didn't walk away especially impressed or excited for them either. Geoff Neal has had some of the same problems that I talked about above with Dan Ige. He's been able to dispatch of his competition outside the top 10 (including a win over Belal Muhammand before his latest run into the top 5), but has struggled when he's gotten that step up. Before this, he had lost 2 in a row to Neil Magny and Stephen Thompson. Welterweight is so tough to project because it seems like no one towards the top actually wants to fight. Leon has more than earned his title shot at this point, so I don't blame him. Colby is still in the recovery process from the Usman fight, but he only fought once between his two title shots. Masvidal was booked but then suffered an injury, so I can't blame him too much. I expect him to fight Colby next by the way. That fight just makes itself. Obviously Belal and Wonderboy just fought. I don't really know what Burns and Luque are waiting for though. Maybe Geoff Neal matches up with Sean Brady next. I think that's a solid fight for both guys coming off of a win.
Santiago Ponzinibbio has had a rough go of it lately. He fought 3 times in 2021 after not fighting since 2018 due to some really serious health issues. He's gone 1-2 in those fights defeating Miguel Baeza and losing to Neal and Li Jingliang. I think Ponzinibbio just needs a step down in competition. His health had him away from the cage for 3 years for a reason. He's still in the recovery process in terms of really feeling himself from a competitive standpoint. I think it seems likely that Ponzinibbio fights someone outside the rankings and also coming off of a loss themselves. If I had to throw out some names, I would say Jake Matthews, Nicolas Dalby, and Alex Oliveira make varying degrees of sense. If not limited to someone coming off of a loss, I think Daniel Rodriguez and Alex Morono can fit what the UFC is looking for in his next opponent. There's other options like Khaos Williams and Randy Brown, but I'm not sure they're really ready for that heavy of a push just yet.
What do you guys think? How many fights away from a title shot is Josh Emmett? The Korean Zombie is way too obvious for his next fight right? What do you do with Dan Ige? Who would you like to see him fight next? What about Geoff Neal? Who makes sense for him within the welterweight rankings? Where does Santiago Ponzinibbio go from here? What makes sense for him going forward? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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