This has quickly become one of my favorite formats to do. It is a quick way to give some shine to some of the fighters who won't get talked about too much coming out of a big card. Everyone will talk about the final three fights and rightfully so, but I like giving the other fighters their respect as well. A lot of the big sites can get away with that, but I'm hoping my niche in all of this could be to just tip my hat to the majority of the fighters, but they don't get talked about as much. I'm going to start at the top of the card and talk about some of the key wins from the earlier portion of the card and who some of those fighters could and should fight next.
The first fighter that I want to talk about is Loopy Godinez. She might have had the most impressive performance of the night for me. Obviously Oliveira and Chandler were great, but Loopy dominated her fight from start to finish. She's only a few fights into her UFC career, but I think she could get someone towards the backend of the rankings at strawweight. Jessica Penne is scheduled to fight Brianna Fortino in a couple of months, so maybe one of those two could make some sense for her. Luana Pinheiro could be an option as well. The final option could be the loser of the Angela Hill vs Virna Jandiroba fight this weekend. I think she's ready for ranked competition and would be slightly disappointed if she was fighting outside the rankings in her next fight.
The next one I want to discuss is newly ranked flyweight Tracy Cortez. She has her weak spots as we saw her almost caught in submissions again, but she's still looking improved every time we see her. If she can get her activity levels up, then she could rise quickly in a division that certainly needs some fresh blood at the top. The easy match making would put her against Maycee Barber, who is one spot ahead of her. I'm not sure if there is another ranked opponent available in the immediate future for her. Joanne Wood would be a pretty large step up in my estimation, but maybe they give her the big push.
I don't have a ton to say about Andre Fialho right now, but he does have some potential. I'm still not sure that we've seen him against an appropriate level of competition. He was given a really tough test against Pereira in his debut, but then got Andrew VanCamp this past weekend. One easy match to make could be Francisco Trinaldo. Obviously the timelines match up and I think that is more of the level of competition that I want to see Fialho against next. Maybe a Trevin Giles or Alex Morono could work as well. Niko Price would be fun, but I think that might be pushing him a little too quickly. I do have a feeling that he'll get another lower level fight like a Mickey Gall perhaps. Mike Malott would kind of be fun, but I see no reason to match those guys together at this stage.
Blagoy Ivanov returned after his long layoff and he still looked pretty solid. I'm not really sure if or when we should expect to see him again, but I think Andrei Arlovski would be almost the perfect fight. Arlovski is on a nice winning streak and I think he's earned another shot at the rankings, which Blagoy provides. While Blagoy did look pretty good, I don't think it was enough to earn him a push up. These are two older guys who are still clinging on and I think giving them an opponent around their own age and skill level will allow them to show what they have left.
Brandon Royval is simply one of the most entertaining fighters on the roster. He turns all of his fights from a clean, standard MMA fight into chaos as quickly as possible and he thrives in that environment. It is truly a joy to watch because he's never going to slow down either. I think what hurts him is that he's already fought so many of the other top flyweights. The best fresh matchups for him are Alex Perez and Matheus Nicolau and I don't see really where else the UFC would go with him. I don't think it will happen, but David Dvorak would be a fun fight to do down the line. I think Perez may be the way to go as Nicolau is a very slow paced fighter, so I'm not sure how that fight would go. I'll always be excited to see Brandon Royval on the schedule, so I'm looking forward to whenever he returns.
When it comes to Macy Chiasson, it depends what weight she's fighting at next. I think she may want to stick at featherweight and if so, the options are obviously pretty limited. However, if she can still make bantamweight, things open up much more. I think in either case, Aspen Ladd may be the move for her. I don't know if I can articulate why, but that just seems like the next logical step for the both of them in my mind. I would like to see that fight happen at featherweight, but Ladd is still convinced she's a 135 lbs fighter despite how badly she struggles and the almost 50/50 shot that the fight won't even happen because she passes out after the cut. Anyways, I think that is the direction for the both of them to go next.
Randy Brown is a guy that I am really a fan of and I wish he could really get the consistency ironed out. At his best, Brown could easily be in the rankings and beat more than a couple ranked opponents, but he struggles to put out consistently great performances. We got the good version of Randy Brown Saturday and maybe he is turning a corner. I don't think he's particularly far off from a ranked opponent either. I think someone like a Max Griffin or Alex Morono is probably the type of fight I would be looking to make for him next. I think those guys would be the type of test I need to see Brown pass before I really start to buy in. Maybe Gunnar Nelson could be an option as well, but whoever it is, I want to see someone who can really push Randy for three full rounds at a consistently hard pace. If he gets one of those wins, then he can start to be taken really seriously in the division.
The final guys to cover are Ovince St. Preux and Shogun Rua. I'm going to group them together because they're basically in the same spot. Even though OSP won, may takeaway from the fight is that they're both basically at the end and might be looking for only one or two more fights. Shogun has said his next is his last and I wouldn't expect that we see a ton more OSP either. Considering their age and the damage they've taken, I don't think they looked all that bad, but they're clearly not the fighters they used to be. I hope they can get out before they take too much unnecessary damage. I can't speak to OSP's career plans, but for Shogun's last fight I think he needs someone in his own age range much like this fight was. There aren't many 40 year olds on the roster, but I think an older opponent like an Alexander Gustafsson should be on the short list, depending on how he looks in his return fight coming up. Beyond that, the only name that really stands out to me as making some level of sense would be Ed Herman. I think that is a fairly appropriate fight for Shogun to go out on. I really hope that they don't feed him to the wolves as that would be a very uncomfortable watch.
What do you guys think? What was your favorite fight from the card other than the top three? Who do you want to see some of these fighters get in their next fights? Do you have any predictions? Leave your thoughts and comments below. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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