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Jailton Almeida vs Alexander Volkov – I skip over the Spivak fight for Jailton, just because I want to see him fight an immediate contender – and Volkov, at #6, with most of the other guys tied up in title fights (interim or otherwise), is that man. Brazil vs Russia classic, two monsters but for very different reasons. Perhaps Almeida can’t steamroll huge heavyweights, but his class and ability make him a legit favourite in most match ups. It needs to be a on an important PPV main card with visibility at the forefront of the booking, rather than a Fight Night main event that will draw fewer eyeballs in my opinion. Stakes are super high with Volkov’s 3 fight win streak against Almeida’s 5 fight mountain climb.
Derrick Lewis vs Jairzinho Rozenstruik – How many times does this fight need to make sense before the UFC pull the trigger? It might be the low-output, slow slopfest the UFC must be fearing, but we do need to see it – there’s a real possibility of a good ol' KO here if someone takes the bull by the horns.
Nicolas Dalby vs Kevin Holland – You can’t refuse to give Dalby his day in the sun now, everyone who is everyone assumed he wasn’t at the same level as Bonfim, but Dalby not only took Gabriel’s best, he bested him with a finish. Sure, a lot of that is heart, toughness and perseverance rather than an outright skill advantage, but that’s part of the game! Kevin Holland, a finisher, another ultra-experienced UFC veteran, simply should have a fight with Dalby on his record – but this is about as close to a 50-50 as I can think of, and couldn’t come at a better time with Holland ranked #12 and Dalby claiming the most impressive scalps of his career.
Gabriel Bonfim vs Khaos Williams – Let’s not step Gabriel down too far, the guy is a monster and looked great early as he almost always does. Let’s give him a very credible opponent who probably suffers when worn down, but who is more adept at going 15 minutes than a lethal dude like Bonfim. I think Bonfim still comes in as a favourite, but this is a pretty damn solid opponent who will likely wage the kind of war we all want to see!
Rodrigo Nascimento vs Alexander Romanov – It’s an odd thing to say about the UFC heavyweight division, but when you’ve got a guy that’s now 11-1 but is a bit boring and a decision machine, you’d expect him to be shut out of fights in the top 15. Yet a fight with Alexander Romanov kinda makes more sense than feeding Rodrigo someone like Justin Tafa, another heavyweight on a winning streak. I suppose it is what it is. When heavyweights lose, they can look really flawed, and when Romanov has lost his cardio has been the stand out flaw – his logical next opponent even after beating Blagoy is someone with cardio who wins decisions and is on a roll. That would be Nacimento.
Don’Tale Mayes vs Justin Tafa – Justin Tafa has a very small record as a result of entering the UFC at just 3-0, so he still needs a little bit of work to build up. 3 wins in a row (excluding the eye poke NC against Austen Lane) have Tafa looking like first round bulldozer, but for me there’s no question Mayes is a step up. Mayes has experience, he’s shown a good chin, and he also tends to finish fights when he wins, so right now, this looks a good fight to make where the winner legitimately benefits – unlike with Mayes-Nascimento II.
Caio Borralho vs Anthony Hernandez – Caio is 5-0 in the UFC, Hernandez is on a four-fight winning streak, and both have accounted for some really serious competition. The only reason I wouldn’t give Caio anything higher than the current #15 is because the Abus fight was just a little bit lacking – but then this is the guy that caused Strickland some issues for a round, and Abus is no joke. Let’s put these two well-rounded, high-momentum guys face off in a battle between a ‘Fight Nerd’ and a dude who apparently doesn’t watch too much tape – or even many UFC fights… Intrigued? I am!
Abus Magomedov vs Nursulton Ruziboev - Prediction: in the not too distant future, we’ll all be asking ourselves how a win over Dustin Stoltzfus can possibly earn a fight against a future UFC champion (Strickland) and a fight against a future top contender (Caio) back-to-back…. That’s gnarly, man. Give the man a more realistic level of opposition, like 1-0 UFC dude with another big record from a far flung corner of the Earth in Nursulton. Ruziboev was lined up to face Caio Borralho, but I felt like Abus, that was just a little bit of a rush job. These two dudes are FINISHERS – but for Abus, his ceiling has been found – but it’s a pretty high ceiling without further evidence!
Elves Brener vs L’udovit Klein – Another great UFC performance for Brener, now 3-0, and he seems to make headlines every time he fights! He isn’t defensively perfect, as Guram Kutateladze showed us, but he has heart and can execute a gameplan under extreme pressure. Give him L’udovit Klein next. L’udovit is 3-0-1 in his last 4 UFC fights, and has emerged as a pretty serious middle-of-the-pack scrapper. I imagine these two will give us the kind of fight we crave – a good old back-and-forth striking battle with a good chance of a finish!
Kaynan Kruschewsky vs Jai Herbert – I want to see some more of Kaynan at a reasonable level, I don’t necessarily want to see him fighting another 0-1 guy in the UFC. The guy has been around the block on the Brazilian scene, is 15-2, and I think he can command a little bit more respect. Jai Herbert is a dangerous, but slightly flawed fighter, and I’d love to see this take place anywhere – UK, Brazil, USA, doesn’t really matter, just a nice range-finder for both these guys. Both can hang in the UFC, but who can prove they really belong?
Elizeu Zaleski vs Gunnar Nelson – Zaleski is tough as nails, and he simply won’t roll out the red carpet for anybody. Rinat was a huge favourite but ultimately couldn’t get it done and came close to getting finished late on tonight, which shows Elizeu is still super tough and super dangerous even at 36 and with a lot of mileage. I’d love to see him fight Gunnar Nelson in London, to be honest, two talented fighters who can frustrate their opponents even at their own game from time-to-time. Nelson would be a great name to go alongside the likes of Benoit St Denis and Abubakar Nurmargomedov, and if he wins here, who knows? A late run at the rankings might just present itself, as it would have done tonight had he won!
Rinat Fakhretdinov vs Michael Chiesa – Rinat keeps his pretty sexy-looking record courtesy of a draw, but there are still a lot of questions about the depth and legitimacy of that 22-2-1 record. You can often only beat what’s put in front of you though, so it’s time to give him another name that is having a bit of a wobble lately in Michael Chiesa. A good follow up to the win over Kevin Lee, Chiesa would need to bring something extra to avoid falling to a fourth straight defeat – and possibly getting cut… The stakes could not be higher in a #15 vs #14 fight!
Vitor Petrino vs Ion Cutelaba – 3 wins in 2023 have generated a little bit of a buzz about the undefeated Vitor Petrino, and after tonight’s very credible win over Bukauskas, it’s time to ride the crest of a wave here. Put him against the perennially unpredictable Ion Cutelaba, who saw a fight with Philipe Lins fall through most recently. I might be more interested in protecting Cutelaba in his next fight, but since they seem insistent on giving him a high-level fight, that opens the door for Petrino. Gonna be a war, right?
Modestas Bukauskas vs Kennedy Nzechukwu – Two guys who generally always come to fight, but are both finishable, with both having suffered 3 finishes in their last 4 defeats. That makes for a fun little powder keg of a fight, in my opinion, and since we all love violence and stoppages, these two look pretty much guaranteed to give us a mid-card banger.
Angela Hill vs Marina Rodriguez – Yeah, I think so, why not? Hill, at #12, has been defending her rankings spot for a little while and has won 3 of her last 4. Of course, she’s the kind of fighter that loses against higher ranked opponents pretty regularly, but we haven’t actually seen her in a striking battle with Rodriguez yet, so I’m all for the fresh match up between #12 and #8. At one point, Marina was way ahead of Hill, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore. Let them (point) fight!
Denise Gomes vs Vanessa Demopoulos – You’ve got to be legit to beat Gomes, it seems, as only Hill and Loma have got it done so far – her finishing ability has taken her past lesser fighters like Bruna Brasil and Yazmin Jauregui, so I guess right now she occupies a gatekeeper role just outside the rankings. Vanessa Demopoulos may have ridden her luck at times, but is 4-2 in the UFC, and she’s always at least game and aggressive… Can Gomes get back in the win column and turn her lights out? I don’t know, but there are worse fights at strawweight to occupy a preliminary card.
Eduarda Moura vs So Yul Kim – Moura won, but 3.5 lbs over is a disgrace. Run the fight with 8-1 Korean So Yul Kim that she was supposed to get, and if she isn’t professional enough to make weight, she’s moving to 125. Time to get a grip of these weight cheats.
Montserrat Ruiz vs Marnic Mann – I’ll assume the UFC give Ruiz one more fight after losing three in a row, if only because she beat their poster girl (at one time) in Cheyanne Vlismas. Ruiz never really showed a well-rounded skill set, though, so it’s bottom rung stuff against 0-1 Marnic Mann.
Marc Diakiese vs Fares Ziam – French stand out Fares Ziam has beaten a couple of English-based prospects back-to-back in Michal Figlak and Jai Herbert, both by decision. In fact, all Ziam’s wins in the UFC are by decision, so I think at this stage matching him with Diakiese makes a ton of sense. These boys have great cardio but perhaps lack a little bit of killer instinct: rack up another France vs England fight in either London or Paris. Both dudes are legit, but perhaps just slightly shy of a top 15 opponent.
Kaue Fernandes vs Brendon Marotte – Sometimes your UFC debut just doesn’t go your way, but when you’re Brendon Marotte and you’re pitched against Terrance McKinney, what chance have you got?! Give him Fernandes, let’s run these two 8-2 up-and-comers against each other.
Derrick Lewis vs Jairzinho Rozenstruik – How many times does this fight need to make sense before the UFC pull the trigger? It might be the low-output, slow slopfest the UFC must be fearing, but we do need to see it – there’s a real possibility of a good ol' KO here if someone takes the bull by the horns.
Nicolas Dalby vs Kevin Holland – You can’t refuse to give Dalby his day in the sun now, everyone who is everyone assumed he wasn’t at the same level as Bonfim, but Dalby not only took Gabriel’s best, he bested him with a finish. Sure, a lot of that is heart, toughness and perseverance rather than an outright skill advantage, but that’s part of the game! Kevin Holland, a finisher, another ultra-experienced UFC veteran, simply should have a fight with Dalby on his record – but this is about as close to a 50-50 as I can think of, and couldn’t come at a better time with Holland ranked #12 and Dalby claiming the most impressive scalps of his career.
Gabriel Bonfim vs Khaos Williams – Let’s not step Gabriel down too far, the guy is a monster and looked great early as he almost always does. Let’s give him a very credible opponent who probably suffers when worn down, but who is more adept at going 15 minutes than a lethal dude like Bonfim. I think Bonfim still comes in as a favourite, but this is a pretty damn solid opponent who will likely wage the kind of war we all want to see!
Rodrigo Nascimento vs Alexander Romanov – It’s an odd thing to say about the UFC heavyweight division, but when you’ve got a guy that’s now 11-1 but is a bit boring and a decision machine, you’d expect him to be shut out of fights in the top 15. Yet a fight with Alexander Romanov kinda makes more sense than feeding Rodrigo someone like Justin Tafa, another heavyweight on a winning streak. I suppose it is what it is. When heavyweights lose, they can look really flawed, and when Romanov has lost his cardio has been the stand out flaw – his logical next opponent even after beating Blagoy is someone with cardio who wins decisions and is on a roll. That would be Nacimento.
Don’Tale Mayes vs Justin Tafa – Justin Tafa has a very small record as a result of entering the UFC at just 3-0, so he still needs a little bit of work to build up. 3 wins in a row (excluding the eye poke NC against Austen Lane) have Tafa looking like first round bulldozer, but for me there’s no question Mayes is a step up. Mayes has experience, he’s shown a good chin, and he also tends to finish fights when he wins, so right now, this looks a good fight to make where the winner legitimately benefits – unlike with Mayes-Nascimento II.
Caio Borralho vs Anthony Hernandez – Caio is 5-0 in the UFC, Hernandez is on a four-fight winning streak, and both have accounted for some really serious competition. The only reason I wouldn’t give Caio anything higher than the current #15 is because the Abus fight was just a little bit lacking – but then this is the guy that caused Strickland some issues for a round, and Abus is no joke. Let’s put these two well-rounded, high-momentum guys face off in a battle between a ‘Fight Nerd’ and a dude who apparently doesn’t watch too much tape – or even many UFC fights… Intrigued? I am!
Abus Magomedov vs Nursulton Ruziboev - Prediction: in the not too distant future, we’ll all be asking ourselves how a win over Dustin Stoltzfus can possibly earn a fight against a future UFC champion (Strickland) and a fight against a future top contender (Caio) back-to-back…. That’s gnarly, man. Give the man a more realistic level of opposition, like 1-0 UFC dude with another big record from a far flung corner of the Earth in Nursulton. Ruziboev was lined up to face Caio Borralho, but I felt like Abus, that was just a little bit of a rush job. These two dudes are FINISHERS – but for Abus, his ceiling has been found – but it’s a pretty high ceiling without further evidence!
Elves Brener vs L’udovit Klein – Another great UFC performance for Brener, now 3-0, and he seems to make headlines every time he fights! He isn’t defensively perfect, as Guram Kutateladze showed us, but he has heart and can execute a gameplan under extreme pressure. Give him L’udovit Klein next. L’udovit is 3-0-1 in his last 4 UFC fights, and has emerged as a pretty serious middle-of-the-pack scrapper. I imagine these two will give us the kind of fight we crave – a good old back-and-forth striking battle with a good chance of a finish!
Kaynan Kruschewsky vs Jai Herbert – I want to see some more of Kaynan at a reasonable level, I don’t necessarily want to see him fighting another 0-1 guy in the UFC. The guy has been around the block on the Brazilian scene, is 15-2, and I think he can command a little bit more respect. Jai Herbert is a dangerous, but slightly flawed fighter, and I’d love to see this take place anywhere – UK, Brazil, USA, doesn’t really matter, just a nice range-finder for both these guys. Both can hang in the UFC, but who can prove they really belong?
Elizeu Zaleski vs Gunnar Nelson – Zaleski is tough as nails, and he simply won’t roll out the red carpet for anybody. Rinat was a huge favourite but ultimately couldn’t get it done and came close to getting finished late on tonight, which shows Elizeu is still super tough and super dangerous even at 36 and with a lot of mileage. I’d love to see him fight Gunnar Nelson in London, to be honest, two talented fighters who can frustrate their opponents even at their own game from time-to-time. Nelson would be a great name to go alongside the likes of Benoit St Denis and Abubakar Nurmargomedov, and if he wins here, who knows? A late run at the rankings might just present itself, as it would have done tonight had he won!
Rinat Fakhretdinov vs Michael Chiesa – Rinat keeps his pretty sexy-looking record courtesy of a draw, but there are still a lot of questions about the depth and legitimacy of that 22-2-1 record. You can often only beat what’s put in front of you though, so it’s time to give him another name that is having a bit of a wobble lately in Michael Chiesa. A good follow up to the win over Kevin Lee, Chiesa would need to bring something extra to avoid falling to a fourth straight defeat – and possibly getting cut… The stakes could not be higher in a #15 vs #14 fight!
Vitor Petrino vs Ion Cutelaba – 3 wins in 2023 have generated a little bit of a buzz about the undefeated Vitor Petrino, and after tonight’s very credible win over Bukauskas, it’s time to ride the crest of a wave here. Put him against the perennially unpredictable Ion Cutelaba, who saw a fight with Philipe Lins fall through most recently. I might be more interested in protecting Cutelaba in his next fight, but since they seem insistent on giving him a high-level fight, that opens the door for Petrino. Gonna be a war, right?
Modestas Bukauskas vs Kennedy Nzechukwu – Two guys who generally always come to fight, but are both finishable, with both having suffered 3 finishes in their last 4 defeats. That makes for a fun little powder keg of a fight, in my opinion, and since we all love violence and stoppages, these two look pretty much guaranteed to give us a mid-card banger.
Angela Hill vs Marina Rodriguez – Yeah, I think so, why not? Hill, at #12, has been defending her rankings spot for a little while and has won 3 of her last 4. Of course, she’s the kind of fighter that loses against higher ranked opponents pretty regularly, but we haven’t actually seen her in a striking battle with Rodriguez yet, so I’m all for the fresh match up between #12 and #8. At one point, Marina was way ahead of Hill, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore. Let them (point) fight!
Denise Gomes vs Vanessa Demopoulos – You’ve got to be legit to beat Gomes, it seems, as only Hill and Loma have got it done so far – her finishing ability has taken her past lesser fighters like Bruna Brasil and Yazmin Jauregui, so I guess right now she occupies a gatekeeper role just outside the rankings. Vanessa Demopoulos may have ridden her luck at times, but is 4-2 in the UFC, and she’s always at least game and aggressive… Can Gomes get back in the win column and turn her lights out? I don’t know, but there are worse fights at strawweight to occupy a preliminary card.
Eduarda Moura vs So Yul Kim – Moura won, but 3.5 lbs over is a disgrace. Run the fight with 8-1 Korean So Yul Kim that she was supposed to get, and if she isn’t professional enough to make weight, she’s moving to 125. Time to get a grip of these weight cheats.
Montserrat Ruiz vs Marnic Mann – I’ll assume the UFC give Ruiz one more fight after losing three in a row, if only because she beat their poster girl (at one time) in Cheyanne Vlismas. Ruiz never really showed a well-rounded skill set, though, so it’s bottom rung stuff against 0-1 Marnic Mann.
Marc Diakiese vs Fares Ziam – French stand out Fares Ziam has beaten a couple of English-based prospects back-to-back in Michal Figlak and Jai Herbert, both by decision. In fact, all Ziam’s wins in the UFC are by decision, so I think at this stage matching him with Diakiese makes a ton of sense. These boys have great cardio but perhaps lack a little bit of killer instinct: rack up another France vs England fight in either London or Paris. Both dudes are legit, but perhaps just slightly shy of a top 15 opponent.
Kaue Fernandes vs Brendon Marotte – Sometimes your UFC debut just doesn’t go your way, but when you’re Brendon Marotte and you’re pitched against Terrance McKinney, what chance have you got?! Give him Fernandes, let’s run these two 8-2 up-and-comers against each other.
