It’s the day after fight night, and you know what that means. It’s time to let the past be the past and get to focusing on the future. Who cares about what happened yesterday, it’s time to try and figure out what’s going to happen next.
One door closes, another door opens. One fight ends, it’s time to book another. So it must be and has been since time immemorial.
Too grandiose? Maybe, but fantasy fight booking is serious business and if you’re not going to take it seriously, then this article is not for you. I’ll be taking a good hard look at all the name fighters from UFC on Fox 19, mostly from the main card, but a few prelim notables as well, to find just the right fight for them, for the next time the set foot in the cage.
To the best of my ability, I’ll do that using the Silva/Shelby method of fight booking. Winners against winners, losers against losers, similarly tenured fighters on either side. Hopefully that results in a few ideas that actually come to fruition when the UFC actually gets down to writing up bout agreements.
Glover Teixeira: Word on the street is that a potential fight with Anthony Johnson may be in the works. That makes the most sense to me, as Johnson has to wait a little bit to recover from dental surgery and then is probably going to be stuck waiting for this whole Jon Jones/Daniel Cormier situation to play out, once Cormier is recovered from injury. Otherwise there aren’t really any bouts that make sense for him, unless Teixeira can convince a MW or HW to move to 205, or unless he wants to fight Gustafsson coming off two losses.
Rashad Evans: I realize there’s an outcry for Evans to not fight anymore, and that may not be the worst idea. But, assuming he doesn’t retire, and assuming the UFC wants to book him again, then he could fight Shogun, win or lose to Corey Anderson, or even go for a rematch with Lil’ Nog. I mean, if he just has to get back out there.
Rose Namajunas: I realize that talk of her getting the next title shot after Jedrzejczyk/Gadelha is thick in the air and while that would be okay, this was hardly a title contender performance. And, if Gadelha wins, I wouldn’t choose Rose over a Jedrzejczyk rematch or over Esparza off a win over Juliana Lima. A fight with Waterson once she returns from injury would be a fantastic next step or potentially the winner of Penne/Andrade. I think Namajunas/Waterson is the fight to make.
Tecia Torres: The women’s strawweight rankings are really weirdly skewed right now, so while Torres vs. VanZant makes a lot of sense on paper, it feels like a much bigger step back for Torres than a potential fight with Jessica Aguilar. Aguilar is out with an injury right now, but depending on her time table, I’d love to see if Torres can work her ever improving striking game against a tough, smothering fighter like JAG.
Khabib Nurmagomedov: Any chance we can just re-book Khabib vs. Ferguson? I mean if not that, then Khabib is probably the next logical lightweight title challenger. But, a fight with Ferguson would really give the division one clear next challenger for the 155 lb title and give both men something to do while RDA/Alvarez goes down.
Cub Swanson: There’s a lot of rematch possibility for Swanson out there, with both Charles Oliveira and Ricardo Lamas coming off wins. But, those were pretty definitive fights the first time around, and while they’d be fun rematches, I’d rather get something new cooking. So, why not Swanson vs. Dennis Bermudez. It’d be an aggressive brawler with strong wrestling chops who would push a much better pace on Swanson than Dias did, and force him to either show more consistency or come up with something really electric. Sounds like a good fight to me.
Hacran Dias: The next fight for Dias couldn’t be clearer. Time for Dias vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri. Similarly ranked, similarly experienced, similarly styled, similar UFC records. Let’s get it done.
Michael Chiesa: Another upset win for Chiesa has him really carving out a spot for himself in the top 15 at lightweight. Unfortunately he’s coming of that win at a moment when the division is essentially fully booked at the top. He’ll either have to take a step back and a potentially tough fight with little upside or wait for other fights to finish. Probably the most sensible fight would be the winner of Poirier/Green. Otherwise he could take on Rashid Magomedov when he comes back from injury.
Beneil Dariush: Likewise, Dariush is looking at a division that doesn’t have a lot of open fights to offer him. He could fight Al Iaquinta once Iaquinta returns from injury (although I realize that’d be winner vs. loser), or he could get the loser of Green/Poirier. I’d also be interested in seeing him fight the loser of Trinaldo Medeiros, even though neither man is ranked right now.
Raquel Pennington: She can wait for the winner of Sara McMann vs. Jessica Eye, but why bother when both Liz Carmouche and Lauren Murphy need a fight. Might as well keep the division moving as much as possible. I’ll say Murphy, just because Carmouche may still be recovering from an injury suffered last fall.
Santiago Ponzinibbio: Ponzinibbio vs. Jouban or Cummings would both be fun action fights, but I’m actually going to go ahead and say Ponz vs. Nordine Taleb. Taleb is coming off a really fun KO win over Erick Silva and still has something to prove in terms of actually becoming a fun action fighter. Given Ponzinibbio’s style I think he could draw a really good fight out of Taleb.
John Dodson: John Dodson vs. Michael McDonald? Makes sense to me. I’d also be very cool with seeing Dodson vs. Jimmie Rivera. But McDonald is higher ranked and Dodson deserves to jump the queue as fast as possible.
Other Bouts: Horcher vs. Hadzovic, Correia vs. Reneau, McGee vs. Noke, Graves vs. Fabinski, Brown vs. Walsh, Gamburyan vs. Wineland, Ferreira vs. Kelly, Bamgbose vs. Abreu, Zaleski vs. Anzai, Akhmedov vs. Spencer