I say it every week, but this is truly becoming maybe my favorite thing to do on this blog. I love making the picks and doing the write ups for that because I feel like it has given me a greater understanding of the sport overall. The more I look into these fights and try to break them down to give you guys a pick or possibly a bet to make, the better I feel about the direction of this blog. So many cites will talk about the big fights, but I think giving attention to most fights equally (some get the big previews) is a lane that not a ton of people take. I'm sure there are some out there that break down every fight in as much or even more detail than I do, I'm just not particularly familiar with them. With as long as it takes me to put those together, I don't really have time to even go out and look for other picks even if I wanted to. To be honest, I really wouldn't even want to copy someone else's picks even if it made more successful at it. The process is fun to me and I would be interested to see how my picks align with someone else's and how my thought process either matches or disagrees with theirs. Anyways, let's talk about some of the winners from this past weekend and try to project what may be next for them.
The first fighter to talk about is Erin Blanchfield. It is no secret that after he fight against Miranda Maverick that I became a huge fan of hers and think she might be able to push for a title one day. She did get a fair bit of resistance in the early going against Aldrich though and that is something to watch for. Blanchfield needs to continue to improve her striking as she doesn't always look fluid, but she is still good enough to pick up quality wins. Her real strength is in the grappling and we saw her get a submission win without even getting the fight to the ground. I don't see how she doesn't get a ranked opponent in her next fight. She called out the winner of Jessica Eye and Maycee Barber and I think either the winner or loser would be an appropriate opponent for her next fight. Other fighters who are towards the bottom of the top 15 would work as well. Tracy Cortez and Cynthia Calvillo could be options and maybe even Joanne Wood. Wood is sitting at 10 right now though, so maybe that would be too large of a jump. The Cortez fight would be pretty fun, but the Maycee Barber matchup is the one that really stands out to me.
Jeff Molina continues to pick up wins and he's going to force himself into an important fight much sooner than later. Ode Osbourne called him out after his fight and while that would be fun, I think Molina can get bigger fights than that. I think Molina could be getting someone ranked next and he will have earned it. To my knowledge, Sumudaerji doesn't have an opponent and I think that is a fight that Molina has earned. The fight that I would be really interested in seeing is the David Dvorak matchup, but he may be too high in the rankings to make that fight a reality at this stage. Molina is going to be in a fun fight no matter what, so I don't think there is a wrong choice, but I think he is ready for a shot at the rankings.
Tony Gravely finds himself on a nice winning streak now and he should be in line for a pretty solid opponent next time out. He brings a solid combination of wrestling and striking that isn't an easy or fun night out for anyone. He got a quick win this time, so maybe he will be up for a quick turn around. He said he wanted two more fights this year, so he would probably need to fight again by August at the latest. I think someone like Javid Basharat could make some sense for him. Maybe someone like John Castaneda, Jonathan Martinez, or Julio Arce could also work. I think the Castaneda matchup would be a decent one to watch, so that's what I would look at first.
The next fighter that I want to talk about is Damon Jackson. I think it is about time that he starts to get a push. He's putting together a lot of wins and just needs a higher level of opponent to test where he is at during this current stretch. His grappling, size, and cardio is a really tough combination for a lot of these lower level fighters to deal with. I would like to see him against someone like Alex Caceres, Joanderson Brito, Gavin Tucker, or Ryan Hall just to get a better feel for where he stands in the featherweight division. I have a feeling that his chin may hold him back from ever making a real push, but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve one either. His results are dictating that he needs better competition, regardless of how I or anyone else project him to do when he gets it.
I'm sort of torn on what to think about Joe Solecki. His grappling is clearly pretty good, but I'm not really sure what else he really has. He did look better in the striking this fight, but he looked very uncomfortable. He's a decent athlete and showed decent power, but he just looked tight and a tad robotic. What really concerns me is that when his takedowns aren't working, he's just content to pull guard and try to fight off his back. I don't think his submission game is all that impressive and he really hasn't hit sweeps with any degree of consistency, so I can see him losing a lot of decisions because he ends up on bottom for long stretches of fights. He keeps winning for now, but he's soon going to get into a tier of fighter that he won't be able to win against from bottom position. I think next time out he could see someone in the tier of Nasrat Haqparast, Grant Dawson, or Mark Madsen. Any of those fights are perfectly fine to me and should be a real test for Solecki on his way up the division.
Karolina Kowalkiewicz got back into the win column after a long down stretch. Now that she got that out of the way, maybe she looks to make one last run. She looked energized and pretty solid this time out. She was striking with good volume and at least impactful power. It is women's strawweight, so the power can only be so much, but still. I think the perfect next fight for her would be Angela Hill. They're both veterans who have had a rough recent history who need someone to give them the style of fight they want. Both women will look to stand and fight it out on the feet and I think it would be a good indication for where both currently are in their careers. I said this in the update, but congratulations to Felice Herrig on a great career. She retired at the end of the fight after making it all the way back from multiple surgeries to go out on her own terms. Best of luck with whatever plans she has for her life after fighting.
Alonzo Menifield dominated, as he should've. That was a fight that was just beneath his skill level and I don't know how someone that raw gets to fight Menifield in their debut, but that is the kind of result that was expected. I think Menifield is a pretty solid fighter overall. He's not amazing and probably won't fight for a title, but he's a solid member of the roster and should have multiple contracts ahead of him. 205 is a weird division as it doesn't have as many fighters as a lot of the weight classes directly beneath it. That kind of leaves it without a true middle class. There's the top 15 and then there's another 5-7 fighters who are right on the cusp of getting into those rankings and then there's the guys who are fighting for a roster spot. Menifield is a member of the very small group that isn't really close to being ranked, but is also safe in their standing in the organization, which makes finding him an opponent a bit difficult. I think someone like Tyson Pedro could make the most sense for Menifield. That is probably the best combination of hype, name value, and skill that he could get right now. Maybe he would be the opponent for Shogun Rua's final fight, but I don't know that it would make a ton of sense either. He's probably too good to have a competitive fight with Shogun, but doesn't create the spectacle of a name from Shogun's era. I think the Pedro fight might be what Menifield is looking at next.
Ode Osbourne is an interesting fighter. He clearly has the talent, but it is the consistency that has prevented him from really shooting up the flyweight division. When he looks good, he looks like he could potentially be a top 5 guy one day. When he looks bad, he looks like someone who could be on the fringe of the roster. He has to work that out of his game, but I think he can. Flyweight is always tough to make fights due to how small the roster is, but I liked his callout of Jeff Molina. I think that fight would make a fair amount of success for the both of them. I think a Muhammad Mokaev fight would also make sense after Mokaev fights next month. They need to get him better competition as well and Osbourne would represent just that.
The final fighter that I want to talk about is Movsar Evloev. What a performance he put on. It seemed like the writing was on the wall that he would use his wrestling to dominate Dan Ige in a way that we've seen him lose in the past, but that wasn't completely true. He did take him down and control him from top position late, but for much of the first two rounds, the fight stayed standing. Not only did Evloev hold his own, but he was noticeably better than Ige on the feet, which I didn't fully expect. Ige looked a tad faster, but Evloev was landing flush and hard almost every exchange. It was a really eye opening fight for me and I think Evloev might be on his way to a title fight sooner than later. Featherweight is really tough, but we haven't really seen a contender separate themselves beyond Max Holloway. With Movsar now at 10, it is going to be tough to deny him some of these big fights. Bryce Mitchell, Giga Chikadze, and the loser of Kattar/Emmett are all sitting right there and I think those may be the next step for him. I don't think any of them are perfect, but they're all fun for different reasons. Mitchell will be able to match up with his grappling, but will struggle on the feet. Giga can match him on the feet, but would probably get run over in the grappling. Kattar or Emmett would be a huge step up and he would have to jump a few guys who are also deserving of that opportunity. I think the fight with Giga is probably a little more interesting than the Bryce Mitchell fight. We just saw Evloev out strike Dan Ige, so what he would do to Mitchell on the feet might get ugly. Giga did get wrestled by Calvin Kattar, which isn't great, but I think it may just be a slightly more interesting fight to watch. I would go with the Giga fight for Movsar, but Bryce Mitchell or Kattar/Emmett would be great as well.
Those are all of the fights I wanted to talk about today. What do you guys think? What performance stood out to you? Who do you want to see these fighters get in their next appearances? Leave any and all thoughts and comments. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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