Lerone Murphy vs. Loser of Volk/Lopes - The official FW Top 15 has a lot of slots that are filled with names that don't really belong there. Ortega, Topuria, and Holloway are likely all moving up to 155. Meanwhile, Pitbull is about to be dropped into the mix. I think the winner of Evloev/Pico will be the obvious #1 contender to fight the newly-crowned champ. Arnold Allen is still rebuilding. Meanwhile, neither Pitbull nor Yair have put in enough work to really warrant a title shot and I think Murphy needs one more solid ranked win to get towards title contention.
Josh Emmett vs. Yousseff Zalal - Zalal has a lot of momentum right now. He's the highest-ranked guy at FW coming off a win. Emmett may not like the idea of having to try and chase another high-volume striker who moves around on the outside, but if he's going to keep fighting these are the type of gatekeeper fights that await him.
Pat Sabatini vs. Hyder Amil - Pat has had his ups-and-downs. He's on a two-fight winning streak and the loss to Lopes isn't looking so bad in hindsight now. I think he needs one more solid win against a dude with momentum before he's ready to make another run at the Top 15. Hyder Amil is a dangerous hurdle to clear, but would fit the bill.
Joanderson Brito vs. Kyle Nelson - Joanderson Brito seemed destined to break into the Top 15, but that razor-thin Split Decision loss (which many consider a robbery) to Gomis cost him, especially since it led to him getting dominated by Sabtini. Now he's in a weird spot. I think a fight with Nelson would be fitting, especially since he's another guy who weirdly managed to put on a great streak until recently getting derailed and has a similarly gritty & physical fighting style.
Cub Swanson would be a good alternative, though.
Chang Ho Lee vs. Carlos Vera - I struggled with this one and frankly any number of fighters could work as an opponent for Chang. But Vera won't be relevant at 135 for much longer at his age and I'm eager to see how Lee deals with a veteran who has such a tricky, dynamic style.
Cortavious Romious vs. AJ Cunningham - I'll be honest, I think Romious is a bust. I'm not sure what he does well. He seems very raw in pretty much every area. I was about to say "This kid needs to go the LFA and refine his skill set" but then I realized that holy shit he's 31 years old. Luckily, Cunningham exists on the roster and is also really bad at MMA... so I guess the two of them can get together and have a "loser leaves town" match-up.
Brad Tavares vs. Jacob Malkoun - This would be the ultimate "unstoppable force meets immovable object" match-up. I'm not sure what injury caused Malkoun to drop out of his last fight, but if he's healthy I'd love to see it.
Failing that, I think Eryk Anders or Chris Curtis would also be reasonable next opponents for Brad.
Gerald Meerschaert vs. Rodolfo Vieira - Both guys coming off losses and needing to put together a little momentum. I'd like to see them grapple, but even a herky-jerky striking match might be hilarious in this case.
Ode Osbourne vs. Alessandro Costa - Ode has had a career full of ups-and-downs in the UFC and looked to be on the verge of getting cut, but managed to derail the prospect in Gurulle. Costa is another guy who has been hit-or-miss in the UFC, having done very well against low-level competition but struggled a bit against future contenders. Both are coming off wins. This one makes sense to me.
Luis Gurule vs. Nyamjargal Tumendemberel - I considered a few options here. I thought about throwing Kiru Sahota here as a way of building up Luis's confidence... but I think he would smoke him and learn nothing in the process. Then I considered Jose Ochoa because he's a fellow 0-1 prospect, but that dude is tough as nails and could potentially just hand him another bad loss.
I think Tumendemberel is a good middle ground. He's a scrappy Mongolian Sambo/Judo guy who doesn't mind getting in your face and indulging in a brawl, but on the mat he's a chain-wrestler who will constantly scramble for dominant positions and try to snatch up opportunistic subs. His cardio is suspect, but he's tough & durable. I think these two would be well-matched in a fight of two rebuilding prospects.
Torrez Finney vs. Aliaskhab Khizriev - There were again several names I considered here, but I like this one the most. Khizriev is fat, undisciplined, and inactive as fuck... but he's pretty good. Outscrambled Palhares on the mat and pounded him out. His wins over Shiguemoto and Enomoto have also aged pretty well. He's the epitome of the "Dagestani Sambo guy with some Sanda-style striking". Like Finney, he's got an undefeated record.
If we're being honest, Finney's current style isn't going to generate any fans on its own. Why not throw together an "Undefeated American D1 wrestler vs. Undefeated Dagestani Sambo dude" fight high up on the Prelims to generate artificial hype that way? I'd be genuinely curious to see if Finney could do to someone like Khizriev (undersized though he may be) what he does to everyone else. And if he does, well... color me impressed.
Robert Valentin vs. Robert Bryczek - I was going to be mean and throw Jose Medina to him, but I think this is better. Bryczek was a highly-touted prospect out of Poland until Ihor pieced him up. He hasn't taken another fight since and I think the time has long passed for him to get back in there. This is sink or swim for both guys.
Dione Barbosa vs. Gabriella Fernandes - Again, tons of options here. This one just interests me because both of these girls use similar gameplans and have similar "archetypes". Both are big, physical Muay Thai strikers who walk their opponents down and land with power while intermittently looking for opportunities to implement their power-wrestling.
Diana Belbita vs. Brogan Walker - Realistically, you can cut Belbita now... but if they insist on keeping her around, throw her another out-of-place journeyman in Brogan Walker in a fight to see who gets their walking papers I guess.
Stoliarenko would be another option.
Rhys McKee vs. Bassil Hafez - Some people are acting like this is the resurgence of McKee, but I think we need to slow our roll. McKee beat up and unproven regional-level prospect who likes to throw bombs in the pocket (i.e. someone willing to play into his wheelhouse). We don't really know if McKee has shored up some of the biggest holes in his game, most notably his grappling. I think Hafez is someone who has had similarly "mixed results" lately and will test McKee in multiple areas.
Daniel Frunza vs. Darrius Flowers - Many options for Frunza. I thought about giving him someone who would indulge him with a brawl like Kinoshita or Crosbie, but I think Flowers is the better choice here even if it's a blatant lay-up on paper. I want him to take some time off and come back against a well-rounded veteran who can box a little bit, wrestle a little bit, and who at least in an MMA setting isn't really known for getting KO'd.
You could also throw Prado at him, but I think that kid might end up going back to 155 before long.
Loma Lookboonme vs. Loser of Pinheiro/Pennington - Loma is on a four-fight winning streak and her last loss was against Loopy, who's ranked. She deserves to get into the Top 15. I considered giving Loma a shot at Ricci, but doing so would let her leapfrog Loopy who holds that aforementioned win over her. That wouldn't seem right, especially since Loma looked pretty bad in her win over Nunes, despite that being a pretty blatant lay-up.
Istela Nunes vs. Marnic Mann - Istela is almost certainly going to be part of the next round of cuts. She's 0-5 in the UFC. None of her losses were robberies and she got stopped in several of them. She simply isn't UFC-caliber. But, if by some miracle she sticks around, there's only one person she might be competitive with...
Victor Henry vs. Raul Rosas Jr. - At his age, Victor isn't long for the sport. Right now he is uniquely placed to serve in the gatekeeper/litmus test role for Raul Rosas, who is trying to move steadily up the division. Victor excels at employing his TDD, scrambles, and defensive BJJ in order to keep a fight standing so that he can employ his volume striking and win battles of attrition. I would be interested to see if his style is able to make Rosas struggle.
Pedro Falcao vs. Dan Argueta - I really struggled with this one. I think both of these guys are better than their UFC showings suggest, but this match-up would give them a chance to prove it. Old-school "wrestler vs. BJJ" fight. Whoever loses might end up on their way out.
Martin Buday vs. Mick Parkin - I'd like to see Buday rebooked against Kennedy, but I have no idea how long the latter will be out of commission. Likewise, matching up Martin and Walker interests me... but I think you have to give credence to the fact that Buday -- razor-thin Decisions or not -- keeps winning fights at HW. Other than Gaziev, his record is pretty solid at 6-1. This is a step down in competition for Mick and a chance for Buday to get into the rankings on his win streak which I guess he deserves.
That being said, I don't mind the Valter Walker fight as an alternative given the fact that he made this and the Arlovski fights so damn close... neither of which are actual UFC HW fighters at this point.
Uran Satybaldiev vs. Julius Walker - I wanted to split the difference between rewarding Uran for saving the fight slot on short notice (plus giving a good account of himself in the process) while still giving him a legitimate test. Someone like Raffael Cerqueira would be a free KO win to pad his record. I think Julius Walker will at least attempt to put him on his back and that'll make things interesting.
Talita Alencar vs. Cheyenne Vlismas - Haven't seen Vlismas in a while. Both girls have had mixed results so far. Why not?
Vanessa Demopoulos vs. Elise Reed - Vanessa is a "love her or hate her" sort of fighter. She's had a very hit-or-miss career and lately it looks like she's on a downward trajectory, but she's still a veteran with a style that makes her dangerous. Elise Reed hasn't managed to put it all together yet, but intermittently she looks good in spots. Just makes sense to me.
