Despite being kind of a weird card on paper, UFC Vegas 61 ended up being a pretty interesting watch. There was a lot of weirdness surrounding the Mark Zuckerberg stuff, but I think the action ended up being the thing that most people were talking about after the event came to an end. We got a lot of good fights even though most of the main card went to decisions. I do have some things that I want to say, so I'm just going to get right into it.
Guido Cannetti picked up another win, this time in a much tougher matchup. Cannetti is getting up there in age, but he's still turning in solid performances. He's a bit limited at this point, but he's finding a way to win as long as they give him opponents in his own tier. His kicks still looked powerful and once he got in dominant position after Randy Costa slipped, he finished the choke pretty quickly. As an aside, that was a really bad look for Costa, but it doesn't take away from what Cannetti did well. Some opponents that make sense for Cannetti, to me, are Aoriqileng and Chad Anheliger. Maybe a Danaa Batgerel or Tony Gravely type would make sense as well.
Chelsea Chandler looked really good in her UFC debut against Julija Stoliarenko. You guys know I'm not the one to be hyperbolic, but given the state of women's featherweight, she may not be more than a few more wins away from a title shot. I don't think there's any real rush to give Chandler someone like Norma Dumont or Macy Chiasson just because she is so inexperienced and a win in that fight would set her up for a shot at Amanda Nunes that we just know she's not ready for. I think someone like Ramona Pascual, Danyelle Wolf, and Leah Letson are appropriate for her next fight.
Brendan Allen is a fighter that tortures me when it comes to picks and bets. He'll get fights that seem like bad matchups for him and he'll pick up easy wins. Then he'll get opponents that seem like good matchups and they give him a really hard time. I thought Jotko was a tough fight for him and he made it look everything but. Allen has a lot of skills, especially offensively, but his defense still worries me. He gets taken down too easily for my liking and he doesn't defend strikes well either. I think that is really the only major thing that holds Allen back, at least in my mind, and even then, he should probably be getting a ranked opponent next. I think his best course of action for now would be to wait it out. A lot of fighters in his tier are already booked, so he should probably wait a few months and let the dust settle a bit. If he really wants to collect one more paycheck before the end of the year, the two options are Anthony Hernandez and Andre Muniz. The fluffy Hernandez fight would be fantastic and I'm here for it, but I don't know that it is the smartest move for Allen. The Muniz fight would be a huge step up and I kind of doubt he is just going to get a top 10 opponent off the bat. The UFC will probably want Muniz fighting up in the rankings anyways. Over the next few months, we have Joaquin Buckley vs Chris Curtis, Brad Tavares vs Gregory Rodrigues, Dricus Du Plessis vs Darren Till, and Nassourdine Imavov vs Kelvin Gastelum all happening. I think waiting for one or some of those fights to play out and picking up someone from those matchups is the way to go. The winner of Buckley/Curtis seems most likely in my mind.
Joaquim Silva picked up a nice win over Jesse Ronson via second round knockout. Clearly Ronson isn't the same guy he used to be after the suspension, but I don't think that takes away from Silva's win. Silva just looked to be the better fighter in this case. He was more active, faster, and more powerful. He took some shots and seemed to do so fairly well considering the very real questions some were asking about the state of his durability. There's no shortage of options at lightweight as there are killers throughout the entire division and Silva is at least in the mix for a recognizable name next. Ludovit Klein, Benoit St. Denis, Fares Ziam, Mike Davis, Jai Herbert, Uros Medic, and Ignacio Bahamondes are just some of the potential options for Silva next. The Davis fight makes the most sense timeline was, so maybe that is the direction.
Ilir Latifi registered a pretty standard looking Latifi win. He had a lot of top time and minimized any danger that Oleinik presented. That was the first time that I've seen Oleinik look just done and while that may finally be the case for him, I think Latifi deserves a lot of credit. He took him down and prevented Oleinik from ever even getting him into a compromising position. On the feet, Latifi landed some pretty solid shots as well and even was competitive on volume, which isn't normally his forte. Latifi said in the cage that it was the last fight on his deal and seemed like he kind of knew that the UFC might not be bringing him back. If that really is the end of the road for him, it was a great run. Congratulations to him on a great career. If he does come back, there are fights for him out there, even though I'm not sure they're all that interesting. Maybe he could get a Parker Porter fight or someone like Hamdy Abdelwahab and Martin Buday.
Daniel Santos turned in an incredible fight against John Castaneda and withstood a ton of damage to find his own finish. This was the clear fight of the night and I think Castaneda even proved some things in that fight. Santos proved that he is just a very solid all around fighter. Obvious toughness, great cardio, and legitimate power as well were on full display. I was kind of down on Castaneda coming into the fight despite picking him to win and even in a loss, he showed some more ability than I gave him credit for. There's no easy fights at bantamweight, so Santos will have his work cut out for him after this win. Some potential opponents that I like the sound of for him are Aiemann Zahabi, Kyang Ho Kang, and Alatengheili.
Mike Davis looked really good, especially considering all of the long layoffs recently. It was nice to see him back and he's an incredibly exciting fighter when he's right. Even if that wasn't Davis at 100%, he was just clearly a better fighter than Slava. He was able to wrestle him pretty easily and was doing pretty severe damage when he was on top. He was even getting the better of the striking exchanges, at least when he was fresh. He did slow down late in the fight and I'll chalk that up to the time away. Davis should see a pretty sizeable step up in competition next time out. In general, a lot of who I listed for Silva earlier also makes sense for Davis in my opinion. Beyond those names, maybe Terrance McKinney would also be a fit. I really like the sound of Davis vs Jai Herbert though.
Sodiq Yusuff quickly dispatched of his short notice opponent Don Shainis. Shainis really didn't stand much of a chance as he was stepping in with only two weeks notice against a ranked opponent, but Sodiq did a good job of making the gap clear from the jump. He even decided to show off his submission skills, which isn't something we normally associate with Sodiq. I hope they decide to rebook the original fight, which was supposed to be against Giga Chikadze. That was a huge opportunity for Sodiq and I would like to see him get it. Dan Ige or The Korean Zombie are other potential opponents, but I thought I saw a rumor about Zombie getting a retirement fight sometime next year in Korea. In that case, I would hope it's someone who is more of an OG and of his era instead of just another young, top contender. Just remake the Giga fight.
Raoni Barcelos is back in the win column after a bit of a slide. I've been pretty clear on here in the past that I really like Barcelos. His style is almost guaranteed to put on fun fights and I've felt he has flown a bit under the radar as well. Back to back losses had his stock down coming into this one, but he was just too much for Trevin Jones. Barcelos does take a lot of damage and that isn't likely to be too kind to him as he continues to age, but I think he still has some good fights in him. I like a potential Cody Stamann fight for him next. If not him, maybe someone like Casey Kenney or Cody Garbrandt would even fit.
Finally, that brings us to Randy Brown, who gave us a pretty typical Randy Brown performance. Brown is a guy that, at his best, feels like he could compete with almost anyone in the division. At the same time, Brown also feels like a guy who could go to a split decision with fighters who are way less talented than he is. This inconsistency showed itself again as a lot of people thought he lost this fight to Trinaldo. I thought Brown just slightly edged it out 29-28, but that isn't the kind of result that you expect from someone who goes in a -300 favorite against someone in their mid 40s. With that said, the guy keeps winning and he can't be too far off of a ranked opponent at this point. I think he's one win away and will probably have to go through someone like Jake Matthews, Li Jingliang, or Niko Price in order to get that ranked opponent.
That's it from me on this card. What do you guys think? What was you favorite fight? Who was your standout winner? Who do you want to see them fight next? Leave your thoughts and comments below. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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