Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
Tim B. takes a look at what should take place in the aftermath of a pretty irrelevant UFC Fight Island event.
UFC Fight Island 4 ended up leaving us with a bunch of confusion. Two of the top women’s bantamweight challengers picked up victories, leaving the division with not a lot of clarity. And everything else from the event was largely irrelevant from a rankings and matchmaking perspective. That doesn’t make for the best article to write, but a job’s a job. So let’s get down to figuring out who should fight who next.
Holly Holm – What to do with Holly? She has decisively lost to dual champ Amanda Nunes, and she lost to someone a few spots down this list as well. It’s highly unlikely that anyone wants to see her fight for the title at 135 or 145 again, despite her complete dominance of Aldana. I guess you could match her up with GDR again to see who the true top contender is, and their last fight was three and a half years ago. So let ‘em go again? That’s all I really got. Women’s bantamweight is not the best division.
Irene Aldana – That was a huge setback. Aldana is a great fighter and has proven it over and over, but she looked completely lost trying to deal with Holm’s movement. She chased for five rounds, and never really found her. Raquel Pennington seems like a good opponent next, and a solid challenge for her standup. And Raquel won’t run from her.
Carlos Felipe – Mr. Personality made a name for himself with his fighting style and his rather unique trash talk. Will he ever be a top heavyweight? Probably not. But the natural matchmaking here would be to match him up with the other guy that beat De Castro – Greg Hardy. It shouldn’t be a co-main event. I really hope it’s not even on the main card. But it’s an interesting matchup. Sort of.
Yorgan De Castro – His KO of Justin Tafa was so pretty. Too bad he hasn’t shown a damn thing since then. The third round of the Felipe fight was straight painful, and that’s because De Castro no longer wanted to fight. If I’m Dana White, I’d cut him off of that performance. But if they’re gonna keep him around, put him on the undercard against another sloppy banger – maybe the loser of the Jake Collier vs. Gian Villante fight in December? Seems reasonable.
Germaine de Randamie – See above. GDR showed a new wrinkle in her game with a submission finish of Pena. I don’t see that happening again any time soon, but with Holm showing off her wrestling and De Randamie having a more well-rounded skill set now, perhaps there’s more substance to a rematch. I don’t think many people will care about it to be honest, but there aren’t any other viable options.
Julianna Pena – Pena’s grappling game was working pretty well, until it wasn’t. I really wanted her to win to breathe some new life into a stagnant division, but alas, it was not meant to be. She might not deserve a higher-ranked opponent at this point, but a bout with Aspen Ladd is something I’d watch. They could give her a more winnable fight, but I think Ladd is the way to go.
Kyler Phillips – A super short notice opponent that Phillips finished doesn’t give us a lot of insight into where he really stands at bantamweight. He’s 2-0 in the UFC though, so clearly a step up is warranted. Jonathan Martinez seems like a suitable next opponent, coming off a good win over formerly-ranked Frankie Saenz.
Dusko Todorovic – A lot of people wanted to see him meet Khamzat Chimaev next, but let’s just leave Chimaev at 170 for now and not match up two great prospects. I don’t believe in throwing prospects to the wolves right away, and I think he needs more cage time to fully establish himself. The winner of the bout between John Phillips and Jun Yong Park later this month would be a good test for Mr. Todorovic.
Carlos Condit – I wouldn’t normally include preliminary card fighters in this, but Carlos is one of my favorite fighters of all time and the guy I named my dog after, so indulge me. Condit looked amazing while taking apart Court McGee (who oddly didn’t try to wrestle at all), and lots of people think he’s “back”. He most decidedly is not, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I want to see Condit succeed as much as anyone, but the UFC shelf life is short. So let’s grant Matt Brown his wish and let’s see a Fight Night co-main event between The Immortal and The Natural Born Killer. Sounds fun, right?