Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports
MMA: UFC Fight Night-Long Island – Ortega vs Rodriguez
UFC Matchmakers Sean Shelby and Mick Meynard have never had enviable jobs. As much criticism they get from casual fans, scheduling dozens of fights at a time months ahead of time is a very, very difficult job. So to try and recreate the magic that the world’s biggest fight promotion’s smartest are responsible for, here are 10 Fights to Make after UFC on ABC 3: Long Island.
Yair Rodriguez (and Brian Ortega)
Well, the writing is on the wall on this one. No one, not even Yair Rodriguez himself, is fully satisfied with how the fight ended. Yes, Yair won the fight. Some even argued that he won the fight because of a submission attempt that led to Ortega’s injury, but at the end of the day: an injury is an injury. There will always be some sort of asterisk next to that win, I mean, Conor McGregor is still yelling “DOCTOR STOPPAGE” until this day.
If Brian Ortega isn’t severely injured, and doesn’t need to be shelved for an extended period of time, run it back. Both guys would be down to throw leather again, and get a more definitive result. If Ortega’s injury is going to sideline him for a few months, it makes no sense for Yair– the winner of the fight–to have to wait for him. Getting a title shot with a win like that doesn’t sit right, so why not put him up against the other yet to face the champ: Josh Emmett. But please– and yes this is begging– PLEASE do not make that fight for an Interim Title. We don’t need it. Volkanovski fought less than a month ago, he is still ACTIVELY defending his title. Enough of the interim belts every time a card needs to try and sell more PPV’s. What ever happened to the promotion holding title eliminators?
Book: Yair Rodriguez vs. Brian Ortega 2 or Yair Rodriguez vs Josh Emmett (BUT NOT FOR AN INTERIM TITLE)
Amanda Lemos
Well, this one shouldn’t take too long. Less than a week after the biggest win of her career, Lemos signed a contract to fight the perfect opponent. On what’s sure to be the biggest card of the year, another great fight was added onto UFC 280 with Amanda Lemos taking on the always dangerous Marina Rodriguez. This fight will likely line up the winner with the next shot at the Strawweight title after Weili Zhang gets her shot. This is why the UFC matchmakers are the best in the biz.
Book: Amanda Lemos vs. Marina Rodriguez
Li Jingliang
Bring on the violence. The Leech is consistently one of the toughest, roughest guys in the 170 lb division that brings in great fights. He’s been spotty in his last 5 fights, failing to put two wins together, but aside from the Khamzat fight, never goes down without a hard-fought effort. After another finish coming in as an underdog, put him up in a fight the fans want to see. A stand-up affair, with another (recently-turned) welterweight that loves throwing hands, and will talk enough smack inside the cage for both of them.
Book: Li Jingliang vs. Kevin Holland
Matt Schnell
Speaking of violence, can we take a minute to breathe after the madness we witnessed that was Matt Schnell vs Sumudarji? I doubt the last thing Matt Schell is worried about is finding another fight soon. He’s going to need some time to recover after that mind-numbing second round, so don’t expect a quick fight rollout very soon. He’s proving himself to be as tough as they come at 125 and has more than lived up to the nickname “Danger.”
Schnell was already a top 10 guy before the fight and will probably bump up a spot or two in the rankings. Ideally two more wins secures him a title shot, so why not pin him up with someone who’s right in that same territory. His KO loss to Alexandre Pantoja is not too far removed from our memories, so win or lose, he should take on Pantoja’s opponent next. It kind of makes sense either way.
Book: Matt Schnell vs. Alex Perez
Shane Burgos
In his fight with Charles Jourdain, we saw a different side of Shane Burgos; a methodical fighter. It’s not the first time Burgos was losing exchanges on the feet, but it’s among the first he decided it was time to change his game plan to ensure a win. Burgos is still as violent as they come, but it would be nice to see this methodical side of him more.
A fighter with no one to tango that would me a matchup dream would be Burgos taking on the recent title challenger Korean Zombie, but that feels like too big of a leapfrog in the division rankings off one fight where he still seemed very damage-absorbent. Burgos is on a two-fight win streak, but ironically it feels like the next (available) test is someone who has dropped 3 straight. Let’s see the well-roundedness of Burgos on display against someone else who can fight on the feet and wrestle.
Book: Shane Burgos vs. Dan Ige
Charles Jourdain
Go the Leech route. Get someone you know is going to stand and bang with “Air” Jourdain. Not that Burgos isn’t a brawler (the dude is as savage as savage gets in MMA), but he took a more calculated approach that didn’t give off quite the brawl-y style Jourdain lives and breathes. Jourdain is a treasure in the company, an almost-novelty, and the only appropriate thing would be to feed into what he does best: violence. Let’s see what “The Damage” has left in the tank.
Book: Charles Jourdain vs. Darren Elkins
Lauren Murphy
Lauren Murphy is in a strange position, as per often when a dominant champion clears out a not-so deep division. Murphy’s last fight prior to Saturday’s win over Tate was the complete shutout loss for the title against Valentina Shevchenko, and no one wants to see that again.
In an ideal world, every fighter coming off a win takes on a fighter ranked above them in the rankings, but that’s not how this sport operates. In a weird way, fighting people below you in the rankings can be a step up. An established veteran floating in the top 5 of the division, which is what Murphy is, derailing the hype of a feared up-and-coming contender can provide so much more than beating a fellow fringe contender. Realistically, Lauren Murphy taking on someone like Jennifer Maia makes sense for both of them, but that’s not fun. Let’s have some fun here, and feed her that contender to prove if she’s real or not.
Book: Lauren Murphy vs. Casey O’Neill
Miesha Tate
Not to sound cold, but Miesha Tate’s next fight isn’t very significant. She’s obviously hit contender’s purgatory and is a mere recognizable name real contenders can use to bolster their resume. Isn’t there a word for that fight fans love to use?
It’s doubtful Tate has very many fights left before she inevitably packs it all up… again. Will it be at flyweight? Will it be at bantamweight? Who’s to say, but it’s probably best she uses her size advantage against 125 lb. fighters as her athleticism wanes. The best use of her would be to be used as a real test for a potential prospect à la Casey O’Neill, Erin Blanchfield, Tracy Cortez, etc., but the UFC brass tends to not lean in that direction for “legacy fighters.” Tate’s next opponent will be an uninteresting vet in a fight that will get the main card showing instead of an exciting fight delegated in the prelims because she held the title in the Obama administration as per usual. Who’s actually excited for whatever the matchup is?
Book: Miesha Tate vs. One of the veterans at 125 she hasn’t faced yet like Joanne Wood, Cortney Casey, etc.. Who really cares?
Ricky Simon
Since rebounding from being on the receiving end of a TKO from Uriah Faber, Ricky Simon has proven himself to be a valiant mid-ranked contender. Aging back his career, is this win more impressive than beating Merab Dvalishvili on your resume? No, not really. Was finishing undefeated prospect Jack Shore more impressive than the Merab win in real time? Yeah, probably, even more so if you consider that Simon finished Merab after the last horn sounded by technical TKO… or technical submission… or something in between.
There’s a few routes you can take with Simon. You can give him a seasoned vet, but the ones left without tango partners right now are Pedro Munhoz, who will probably need time off to recover from that eye injury, and Rob Font, who Simon already fought. Maybe the loser of the upcoming Dominick Cruz and Marlon Vera fight seems like a doable option, but after Shore, why not take on another prospect who will do more for establishing Simon’s name than another win over a ranked fighter who has lost to the top tier of the division. If he can replicate what he did to Jack Shore with another high-level prospect, it would do more for him than anything else. Maybe Said Nurmagomedov or Adrian Yanez is in the running, both guys carry some hype around their name.
Let’s not overthink this, though. One “prospect” who is already ranked, has a ton of name value, and has been tied to Simon. It also just so happens to be the guy Ricky Simon took aim after his win in the UBS Arena.
Book: Ricky Simon vs. Sean O’Malley
Jack Shore
There’s this annoying stigma around prospects who finally lose before getting to the top, questioning whether or not they are legitimately good fighters. Jack Shore was 16-0 before dropping the first loss of his career to the always-game Ricky Simon. Shore still has an incredibly bright career, and happened to put up the worst performance of his career during the biggest fight of his young career, but this doesn’t mean the momentum should fizzle out entirely. Sure, beating Ricky Simon seemed like a very doable task, however his failure at the task doesn’t mean he’s suddenly a scrub. Most 20-somethings in MMA wish they could have a 16-1 record.
What Shore needs is a half-step back and take on another prospect. Maybe going to Umar Nurmagomedov, a former scheduled opponent of Jack Shore’s, is too far in that direction considering how he defended chain-wrestling from Simon. Kyler Phillips is still a name that turns heads in the division. Another great, newer prospect at 135, a matchup between the two would surely be exciting in the cage and a win would propel either fighter’s career back to previous acclaim.
Jack Shore vs. Kyler Phillips
