Last week was the first time I ever did a post in this format and I liked it quite a bit. It was a good way to discuss the future for some of the winners from the card without having to dedicate an entire post to someone. I don't know that the regular fight night cards are deep enough for these, but these bigger ones and definitely the PPVs should have enough interesting fighters to make these a somewhat regular occurrence. We'll start from the opening of the card and work our way to later in the night.
That means Matheus Nicolau is the first one up. This is another fight where he was able to do just enough, but he keeps on winning. This has him set up for a pretty big fight next time. I said yesterday that I thought he could be an option for Askar Askarov because of the timelines matching, but that is probably a best case scenario for him. More likely options are Brandon Royval and Alex Perez. Perez hasn't fought in awhile and has to be looking to return as soon as possible. I think a matchup between Perez and Nicolau makes a fair bit of sense for both. The UFC was trying to book Perez against Matt Schnell, who is only 2 spots below Nicolau, so that seems to be the type of fight they were looking for with Perez in the first place.
The next big winner was Manon Fiorot. She jumps 6 spots in the rankings after defeating Jennifer Maia, but weirdly enough, they put her directly behind Maia in the rankings. Women's flyweight is in desperate need of fresh faces for Valentina Shevchenko to fight, so there is some outside chance that she gets a title shot next, but I doubt it. Valentina is booked to fight Taila Santos next, so there's at least some time before we have to worry about another opponent, should she get the win against Santos. She called out Katlyn Chookagian after the fight and I think that would be the perfect step for her. They're similar fighters with styles that mirror each other in a lot of ways. A win over Chookagian would be the ideal way for Fiorot to cement her status as the next number one contender. If not Chookagian, Alexa Grasso would be the next best option. Fiorot and Grasso are probably the two fighters making the hardest push for number one contender status right now, so the winner between those two would also make a clear next title challenger.
Chris Gutierrez is in a weird spot. He always wins his fights, but he never seems to get a real push forward. He's getting very small, incremental steps up, but nothing that is really going to push him any time soon. Given his style, I don't think it is outrageous to think he could hold his own and get wins over some ranked opponents. However, I don't think he'll make that jump next time. I think he is more in line for someone who is just on the outside looking in. I think a Cody Stamman or Casey Kenney type fight is the range of where he is looking and that win would have him set up for a potential shot at the rankings. One fun matchup that I would be down to see for Gutierrez would be Raoni Barcelos. If it was up to me, that is the fight I would be looking to make.
Sara McMann picked up a big win to maintain her spot within the top 10. They had her fighting down in the rankings this time, but I think it is possible that she fights someone above her next time out. Given that a lot of the fighters above her in the rankings are booked over the next few months, her options are a tad limited unless she takes a little bit of a longer time off. Given her age, I don't think that is a bad strategy. In any case, the two names that present the clearest options right now are Pannie Kianzad and Yana Kunitskaya. It isn't clear if the UFC will have her fight down again or fight up in the rankings, but either option seems reasonable right now.
The Neil Magny vs Max Griffin fight was one of the better ones on the card. I said in my picks that I thought it was a weird fight to make and I stand by that. The UFC doesn't normally have fighters make huge leaps in the rankings, but they had Griffin go from unranked to a top 10 opponent. Unfortunately it hurt his momentum, but I expect he'll have his next fight come within the 16-20 range of fighters. Neil Magny is allergic to an easy fight, not that there is any in the UFC, but he goes out of his way to fight the toughest guys possible. He called out Khamzat Chimaev, but that ship seems to have sailed for the time being. Shavkat Rahkmonov called him out either earlier today or yesterday and I don't doubt that we might see it next. Personally, I would like to see him fight up in the rankings for a change and I think Sean Brady would be a great fight for both. Magny gets to fight someone above him and Brady would get the chance to add a nice veteran name to his resume as he's sort of on the outside of the next tier of welterweight right now.
We'll stay in the welterweight division and talk about Bryan Barberena. I don't know that Barberena is particularly close to the rankings, but I do hope that the UFC gives him a new contract. Give him an opponent that is willing to stand and bang with him and it is an almost guaranteed fight of the night contender. There's plenty of options for Barberena and I'll list off a few here. Takashi Sato, Jack Della Maddalena, and Matthew Semelsberger all would make for some fun fights. Put one of those matchups on the prelims of a PPV and watch the fans go crazy when they start trading.
The last big winner, other than Kai Kara-France and Curtis Blaydes who got their own post, is Alexa Grasso. She got a huge win and made a big statement in doing so. For someone who is known for their boxing to go out and get a first round submission, that is the kind of statement that puts someone on title shot trajectory. She's propelled herself all the way into the top 5 and like I said about Fiorot, I think there's some outside chance of her getting a title shot without fighting again, however unlikely that may be. I said that a matchup with Fiorot would be a pretty clear number one contender fight, but I think the UFC may decide against halting the momentum of one of their fresh faces in women's flyweight. In that case, I said Fiorot vs Chookagian would be my choice. For Grasso, the fight that I would look at is Jennifer Maia. Jessica Andrade is going back to strawweight and Lauren Murphy is fighting Miesha Tate in May. I think Murphy would have been a solid option and still can be if they can find a date that works for the both of them. Maia is a former title challenger and would be a nice name for Grasso to add to her resume in route for a potential title shot and for Maia, it would offer her a chance to get a win over a title hopeful and insert her name back into the mix.
Those are all the winners that I wanted to cover for this card. What do you guys think? Did anyone stand out to you? Who do you want to see some of these fighters against in their next appearance? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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