UFC 179 didn’t turn out to be the most entertaining card ever, but it did yield some big winners on Saturday night.
Phil Davis stepped up to the plate in a big way on foreign soil. The former Penn State wrestler took care of a hometown hero in Glover Teixeira in the co-main event. Jose Aldo put on yet another showcase of his incredible skills, while the undercard was littered with those who earned impressive stoppage wins.
With a few big wins now in the book, the focus shifts to the future. What’s next for the fighters who made a statement in Rio de Janeiro?
Here’s a look at the complete results from the card followed by a forecast for what direction some of the biggest winners will be headed.
Neil Magny
Welterweight Neil Magny wasn’t necessarily one of the night’s biggest winners because of his performance. After all, his opponent, William Macario, was still fairly raw at just 23 years old. But the fact that it was a record fifth win for the 26-year-old in 2014 makes him a winner.
And an interesting guy to project going forward.
On one hand, the Brazilian has earned the right to jump up in competition. A five-fight winning streak will do that for you. On the other hand, he suffered back-to-back losses against Seth Baczynski and Sergio Moraes in 2013 prior to his big 2014.
So will Magny wilt against better competition?
The only thing left to do now is find out. Adam Martin of MMA Odds Breaker has an idea for an opponent to test the legitimacy of Magny‘s record:
With Story coming off a momentous split-decision win over Gunnar Nelson, the matchup would be an interesting battle of fighters who are trending upward.
Wilson Reis
Glover Teixeira aside, Saturday was a big night for a few Brazilians. Few had a better night than 29-year-old flyweight Wilson Reis.
The fact that Reis won his fight wasn’t a big deal. Beating Scott Jorgensen hasn’t been an impressive feat lately. The 32-year-old is now just 2-6 over last the two years.
What was impressive was the way in which Reis won. He dominated the fight on the feet, peppering Jorgensen with some nasty strikes to the body, and the ground, where he locked up the submission that ended the bout in Round 1.
Patrick Wyman of Sherdog tweeted a photo of some of Reis‘ handiwork:
With Reis now 2-1 in the UFC, it isn’t likely that he’s ready for a huge step up in competition just yet. As MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani reported, Reis would like to fight the winner of the upcoming bout between John Moraga and Jussier Formiga.
However, expect the UFC to bring him along a little bit slower than that. With the pool of contenders for champion Demetrious Johnson to take on dwindling, the organization should look to develop Reis as a contender more gradually.
That means he’ll be taking on a much lesser opponent than Moraga or Formiga in the near future.
Phil Davis
It felt obvious that Phil Davis was the biggest winner of the night. He wasn’t expected to win but needed to find a way if he wanted to lessen the damage his title campaign took when he lost to Anthony Johnson.
As it turns out, he was ready to do just that.
Davis got back to basics in this win. He relied heavily on his takedowns as he threw his Brazilian opponent to the mat nine times, per FightMetric.
Looking ahead, Davis’ next move was almost as surprising as his domination in the bout. He called out Anderson Silva.
That fight isn’t likely to happen. Silva is a bit preoccupied with Nick Diaz right now and likely wants nothing to do with Davis’ wrestling ability. Damon Martin of Fox Sports has a better idea, though:
Ryan Bader is also coming off an impressive win over Ovince Saint Preux in a five-round main event. The winner of that bout would have a fairly strong argument to enter the title picture.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com