It’s crowded at the top of the UFC middleweight division. UFC on Fox 15, which went down Saturday in Newark, New Jersey, did a lot to thin the throng.
In the evening’s main event, Lyoto Machida and Luke Rockhold did battle. At No. 2 and No. 4 in the official UFC middleweight rankings, respectively, there aren’t many fighters above them in the pecking order.
Besides champion Chris Weidman, the only other fighter above Machida in those rankings is Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. “The Alligator” happened to be on the card as well, but—plot twist!—his original opponent, Olympic wrestler Yoel Romero, is not. Souza faced Chris Camozzi instead and, to put it mildly, that’s a step down in competition.
The upshot is that the middleweight deck is ripe for reshuffling. Depending on their performances, Machida, Rockhold or Souza could put himself in the catbird seat to challenge for the belt after Weidman defends it against Vitor Belfort in May.
And that was only the top two fights on a fairly stacked card, almost all of which aired for free on Fox. I’m sure you didn’t forget about Felice Herrig vs. Paige VanZant, either.
As usual, the final stat lines only reveal so much. These are the real winners and losers from UFC on Fox 15.