Dana isn’t getting Khabib back to fight. At least for a while. Khabib can’t be bought. Even if he would come back, who is he gonna fight? GSP appearantly is a long long way from being signed.
The LW title will probably soon be vacated. So what you have right now is:
McGregor - Poirier
Ferguson - Oliveira
The winners of those fights will probably be matched up together or one of them will face Gaethje. I really like the idea of a McGregor vs Ferguson fight should both men win. Poirier vs Oliveira would also be very interesting.
Next, what should the UFC do with Gaethje? Make him wait out the result of the other two fights or have him fight Hooker or maybe even RDA?
Not all ranking differences are equal. Sometimes you get bubbles/ranges of different trajectories. The jump from #5 - #4 might be bigger than the jump from #4 - #3. Also, you may want exciting fights, but you want to make sure you have matchups that create backups and shuffle these bubbles up.
tl:dr- Dustin-Conor, Tony-Chuck.
-Dustin's already getting booked to fight Conor. Conor shouldn't be ranked, but being 2 of the 3 most recent challengers isn't insane to match up. You can keep this fight. Dustin winning this puts him as the top guy. Conor winning cements himself as a top guy, and defends his current ranking. It's basically the equivalent of the title match, even if that title is "Top lightweight not named Khabib." So let's just consider that the 'title' for now.
Now you want to set up next title challengers.
-Tony needs a STRONG rebound (Justin, Dustin, Conor) if he wants a title shot in 1 fight, but 2 are booked and a Justin rematch seems too soon, but 1 loss after his 12 fight win streak means he shouldn't be dropping hard to fight other guys on losing streaks, so give him the highest guy on a streak trying to break into the elite bubble, Oliveira. Eating Charles would absorb a lot of the momentum from his own streak and would easily re-energize Tony's title callouts. Or Charles toppling Tony should easily earn him the respect of top consideration, and he could potentially fight the winner of Dustin/Conor
-Gaethje is fresh off his loss to Khabib. His distance from a title shot depends heavily on where Khabib goes from here, but in the meantime, you can basically book him against anyone to keep his consideration high. RDA is new to the divisional rankings, but just got a big win over a #7 guy and would be looking for someone to continue his lightweight solidification. A win for either guy could see them against the Dustin Conor winner.
-CDF needs someone on a winning streak, and I don't think Chandler should be getting a super high introduction, but coming in with his hype and 2 KO streak last over Bendo, this fight is doable. Carlos winning at least gives him another piece of momentum to carry into a matchup with the top guys. Chandler winnings proves he's solid enough to be a big UFC lightweight.
A lot of the remaining fights aren't necessary, cuz there are guys in the 15-20 range who could get in, but there is a nice division between higher ranked guys who are losing vs lower ranked guys on good streaks.
-Kevin Lee has been falling, and needs to beat at least a fringe guy to right his ship. He's been the type of opponent to really earn respect off of with a win though, and Islam would finally get the respect as a ranked contender if he beat him.
-Paul Felder probably doesn't want to come back for nothing especially against a grappling heavy opponent, but he doesn't have the best momentum and is surrounded in the rankings by grapplers. So if you tempt him into something, it'd probably need to be a fucking banger like Drew Dober.
Just to round it off, you can throw together the last two ranked guys Iaquinta & Gillespie, or they could fight some fringe guys. They're really ranked low enough and with enough stunted momentum that a win is all that matters.
Any match-ups of the top LW's would be good for me.
The fighters I'm most looking forward to are Ferguson and Oliveira (not necessarily against each other), just to see if Ferguson can bounce back and if Oliveira has what it takes to be the next title contender.
If Oliveira can keep his performance consistent like the one he had against Kevin Lee, then he has a good chance at becoming the next champ. He has the age (the youngest of the current top 5 LW's), striking, takedown defense, and ground game to win the title.
I like the first match-up. Chandler vs. Makhachev is an exciting fight, as both guys go for the finish.
Conor vs. Gaethje is great, too, but I don't believe Conor deserves to fight against Gaethje just yet. Beating battle torn Cerrone at WW proves nothing.
I really hope to see more of the top 5 fight guys lower in the rankings. Matching Ferguson with Oliveira is great. I think Gaethje vs. Ferreira would be a good touch. I also wouldn't mind seeing how RDA vs Kevin goes at LW.
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