This past Saturday's UFC San Diego event turned out to pretty solid event. I was a bit worried that it wouldn't quite work out as there were some weird matchups, but it turned out to be really fun. The crowd was absolutely fantastic as well and really had all of the fights feeling important. I do hope we are trending towards getting most events in front of a live audience at this point because it makes the events so much fun. Part of me likes the apex, but I think it is a bit played out. We got a really good mix of results and styles on Saturday as well, which was a nice change of pace. It feels like some recent events just have all felt the same the whole way through. We got all of those decisions in London and then had a full card of finishes a couple of weeks ago. This provided a nice balance of finishes and decisions with different styles and matchup dynamics. Beyond just Chito Vera positioning himself for a potential title shot, there were some winners who did a nice job of elevating themselves to another tier of fighter. I'm just going to go through those winners and give some brief thoughts on how I thought they looked and who their next opponent could be.
The first fight of the night ended in a majority draw. I thought Blackshear showed some solid ability considering it was his debut. He grappled pretty well, but then started getting beaten up pretty badly once he slowed down. I think someone like Saimon Oliveira, Brady Hiestand, or Chad Anheliger is the type of fighter he'll be looking at next time out. Youssef Zalal looked ok, but he didn't fight a very intelligent game plan in my opinion. He opted to grapple Blackshear when I thought he had a clear striking advantage. He put that on display in round 3, but lost the first 2 because he just wanted to try and grapple Blackshear. I think a fight against Ricky Turcios would be kind of interesting for Zalal.
The first winner of the night was Josh Quinlan in devastating fashion. Quinlan has big power and when he landed a left hand right on Jason Witt's chin, it put him out cold on the spot. Quinlan showed his power and his ability to land it, but he also showed that he is able to get up after being taken down. The next evolution in his game would be to improve his overall takedown defense, but for his real UFC debut, I thought he showed his skills somewhat nicely. It may have been a matchup that favored him, but he still went out and got it done and there's something to be said for that. I think a potential Ian Garry fight would be interesting, but I don't think it's likely. I do think they'll want Quinlan to fight someone with his relative amount of experience unless they give him another veteran that is a favorable matchup though. I think fighters like Rinat Fakhretdinov and Mike Malott kind of fit that description.
Tyson Nam picked up a really nice knockout win over Ode Osbourne to get himself back on track. It is sort of hard to gauge exactly where Nam is at in his career at this point. He's starting to get up there in age, but isn't exactly close to the title picture either. At 125, it realistically wouldn't take more than a few wins to be right on the brink of that shot, but Nam doesn't have a lot of time. I think just based on where he is, that him getting an Allan Nascimento type would work, but maybe if he wants to take one last run at the title, he could fight someone at the bottom of the rankings like Jeff Molina or the winner of Amir Albazi vs Francisco Figueiredo this weekend.
Gabriel Benitez got back in the win column after having a bit of a downward slide. He was in a favorable matchup here and he found the knockout in the middle portion of the first round. Benitez did what he needed to do and now he can focus on getting back to where he was before the losing streak. I expect him to get a considerably better opponent this time out as well. I think someone like Jai Herbert, Ludovit Klein, or even Terrance McKinney would make sense for him.
Nina Nunes won't have to worry about who she's fighting next as she announced her retirement after picking up a win over Cynthia Calvillo. Nunes obviously isn't quite the fighter she was in her prime, but she still put on a solid performance and picked up a win. She was able to stop most of the takedowns and then use her kickboxing to win the first and third rounds. She said she is walking away to spend more time with her family and potentially expand it, which is great. Congratulations to Nina Nunes on a fantastic career and best of luck with everything she has planned for the future.
Martin Buday was able to just barely edge out a decision win. Buday didn't fight his normal style, which probably should have cost him. I didn't think he won the fight and I wasn't even really convinced that he won a round. Buday is typically pretty reliable, so I am surprised that we got such a weird performance out of him. At the end of the day, he did pick up the win and that is what really matters in this business. I think he may fit as the next opponent for Hamdy Abdelwahab.
Angela Hill got back in the win column after a stretch of some really tough luck. She even came out on the right side of a decision for a change. Hill was able to prevent Loopy Godinez from getting her wrestling going, which we learned may have been partially due to injury. However, the shots that Loopy did take, Hill mostly stopped, so she deserves credit for that. When they were standing, Hill was pretty consistently getting the better of the exchanges outside of being hurt very early in the first round. In my opinion, Emily Ducote is the fight to make for Hill. Ducote was placed into the rankings after her debut win and Hill was just removed not too long ago. I think that fight would be pretty fun style wise as well.
Gerald Meerschaert put on a phenomenal performance in a win that was probably his best fight from start to finish in awhile. He pretty much controlled the fight from start to finish and had success in all phases. It wasn't surprising to see him have the advantage on the ground as that is where he is always most dangerous, but he had more success on the feet than I imagined. Normally, GM3 is someone who will get hit and take damage and he really wasn't hit all that much this time. His movement and defense looked good, which is where Meerschaert can struggle when he's at his worst. He even dropped the very durable Silva with a left hand and it seemed like he had him knocked out for a moment. In typical Gerald fashion, he had to grab onto the submission, but that was as good as he's looked in some time. I'm not sure where Gerald really sits overall in the division, so picking out an opponent for him isn't the easiest thing to do. He's not on enough of a run to really push towards the rankings, but at the same time, they're not going to give him someone that is only a borderline UFC caliber fighter either. I think someone like Brendan Allen or Anthony Hernandez would be the kind of fight Gerald is looking at.
Priscila Cachoeira notched a quick knockout win after having her fight moved from the week prior. She fought her normal style of going forward and causing chaos, but when she found the chin of Lipski clean, she went down. Cachoeira is the type of fighter who is always going to put on exciting fights unless she's matched up with a lay and pray style grappler. I thought she would have been an ideal opponent for Molly McCann given the run that she is on, even though they did fight once before a few years ago. I think someone like a JJ Aldrich, Montana De La Rosa, or Natalia Silva could potentially make some sense.
Azamat Murzakanov registered another knockout win, but this time it was much more dominant. He pretty much had Devin Clark where he wanted him from start to finish as anything Clark was able to do well just didn't happen nearly frequently enough. Murzakanov eventually hit Clark with a body shot that dropped him and led to the finish. I'm still not exactly sure what Murzakanov's ceiling is in this division, but he turned in a much more impressive performance here than in his debut. I think that a Tyson Pedro fight (assuming he wins this weekend) would be a solid fight for both parties. Otherwise, I think someone like Alonzo Menifield or Khalil Rountree would make a lot of sense for where Murzakanov is in his career.
Yazmin Jauregui picked up a win in her debut in what turned out to be a really fun fight. Both her and her opponent, Iasmin Lucindo, are both in their early 20s and came to fight despite their limited experience. Jauregui was able to fight to a pretty clean 29-28, but both had their moments and really put themselves on the map in the eyes of fans from the jump. My best guess is that the UFC will want to continue giving Jauregui favorable matchups, at least stylistically and experience wise, until she becomes more experienced herself. I think the best possible fit for those would be someone like Elise Reed. Jinh Yu Frey presents a style matchup that would work well, but she brings a lot more experience to the table. The same goes for Silvana Gomez-Juarez. I think those are all probably options going forward though.
The last fighter to go over today is Nate Landwehr and we got a pretty typical performance from him. Landwehr wins never come easy, but they're always pretty exciting. He got hit pretty hard and was in a bit of trouble in the first, but his pressure, cardio, and pace really put it on Onama late. It looked like he was going to finish the fight at multiple different points, but just never quite got Onama out of there, which is a testament to his toughness and heart as well. Landwehr is a guy who will have a job in the UFC for as long as he wants one because he is someone who they can reliably put on cards to have guaranteed fun fights as long as they don't give him an opponent that tries to nullify that too much. Matchup him up with someone like Billy Quarantillo or Bill Algeo next and let the crowd go wild. Both Nathaniel Wood and Charles Jourdain have a fight booked against each other, but those are two guys that they should look to match Nate up with sometime in the future as well for guaranteed bangers.
That will wrap it up for me on this card. What did you guys think? What was your favorite fight? Who was your biggest winner? Who do you want to see them fight next? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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