While not the strongest card on paper, UFC 221 actually ended up delivering a night of entertaining fights from Down Under.
Yoel Romero scored one of his patented third-round knockouts over former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, Mark Hunt lost to ever-intriguing heavyweight prospect Curtis Blaydes, and Tai Tuivasa lit up the hometown crowd with a quick TKO win before chugging a beer from an audience member’s shoe.
UFC 221 wasn’t as bad as everyone was predicting, and could actually be a launching spot for several rising stars and possibly a new champion who is over 40.
Taking that in context, here are the five best fights for the UFC to make following UFC 221.
5. Tyson Pedro vs. Misha Cirkunov
Tuivasa’s brother-in-law Tyson Pedro scored a first-round slick submission that will move him ever closer to a top 10 fight.
To properly build this potential Australian light heavyweight star, the UFC is going to have to bring him along slowly, which they’ve done well thus far.
Cirkunov would be the perfect match up to see exactly where Pedro is at. Although he’s stumbled a bit in recent outings, those losses have occurred to Volkan Oezdemir and Glover Teixeira.
If Pedro can put on a similar performance against Circunov, he would be right where he wants to be within the light heavyweight division.
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