Per Haljestam-USA TODAY Sports
MMA: UFC Fight Night-Blaydes vs Aspinall
The UFC’s return to the O2 was not nearly as extravagant as its 2022 debut. Having back-to-back main events end early in the first round due to injury flat-out sucks. That’s never happened in back-to-back cards. We were robbed of a rare event: an exciting heavyweight fight. One constant demerit of the UFC’s matchmaking brass is their tendency to shoehorn a boring heavyweight fight with two middling, ranked fighters into a Fight Night main event. 90% of the time they’re boring and don’t matter much in the scheme of things because both of those fighters are still a tier or two away from contending, so they all get mushed into this forgettable mashup of everyone fighting each other. This was a different occasion. Curtis Blayes and Tom Aspinall offered an exciting bit of ambiguity the division desperately needed to spice things up towards the top. We got a full mouthful of disappointment after a whole card of generally lackluster fights.
The shining spot (or spots, technically) was the ever-exciting tag team of Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann. The last event at the O2 turned into such a grandesque event in part because of those two but was taken over the top by the excitement of the fights. It felt like a PPV. This time around mostly everyone else on the card disappointed (not talking to you Nathaniel Wood,) but Paddy and Molly shined bright as ever. They brought light to a card that should be tucked away into the deepest parts of fight fans memories.
But alas, the point of this piece is to do the hardest job in MMA besides actually stepping into the cage and fighting: MMA matchmaking. So without further ado, here are the 10 Fights to Make after UFC Fight Night 208: London
Curtis Blaydes
As unfortunate as it is, life must move on. In an ideal world we would have more closure than we do after this event– and even more so for Curtis Blaydes who comes out of this card the biggest loser, who ironically gets a win tagged next to his name.
Nobody wants to win like this. Yes, there is a win tacked next to his name, but no one is treating this fight as such. And it sucks for Blaydes because this isn’t his fault at all. He’s great, like really great. He’s the best wrestler the division has ever seen and has only ever lost to Ngannou and Lewis, which is nothing to be ashamed of. He’s never lost a decision in his career, and has proven if he can get out the early stages of danger, he is just about as good as anyone in the world.
The direction of the heavyweight division is where booking Curtis Blaydes’ next fight gets very complicated. There’s so many routes it can go depending on who gets booked to do what. First, champion Francis Ngannou might take an extended period of time off to make more money boxing. That’s a different conversation for a different day, but if that were the case, it’s fair to assume the UFC would book *insert eyerolls and a chorus of gasps* another interim title shot. They are overbooked. Everyone’s heard it before, but this is a rare instance it would actually make sense. If all goes well (and that’s a big if when talking about you know who) the interim title fight would be between Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones. The best heavyweight ever vs. the best light heavyweight ever. Blaydes isn’t there yet. If that’s the case, book Blaydes against the winner of Ciryl Gane and Tai Tuivasa.
If that interim title fight falls out and Ngannou will defend his title again outright, there’s a trio of confusion left. Assuming the one that does get the fight Ngannou is Jon Jones, that leaves Stipe Miocic, Curtis Blaydes and Gane/Tuivasa in a rut with an odd man out with no partner to tango with.
If that’s the timeline we’re in, maybe the winner of Derrick Lewis/Sergei Pavlovich could jump in and save the day, or even someone like Alexander Romanov can leap the rankings to take on the biggest test of his career.
Lot’s of moving parts and lots of maybes. Who knows, this is exhausting.
Book: Curtis Blaydes vs. the winner of Gane/Tuivasa is Ngannou takes time off and Jones and Miocic fight. If Jones fights Ngannou, Curtis Blaydes vs. Stipe Miocic
Tom Aspinall
It’s disingenuous to even include Tom Aspinall’s name to get another name on the list to round it out to 10, but oops, it happened anyway.
There was no brighter budding star in the historically lackluster UFC Heavyweight division than Tom Aspinall. After we saw Ciryl Gane fight for the title, he was bumped out of that label, and Alexander Romanov hasn’t beat nearly the same level of talent, so there was no one else quite on the level of Aspinall with as much ambiguity hovering over his head. We knew the potential was there after he ran through Volkov, but how far could that potential go? Is he competitive with that next and final tier? Does he have weaknesses we haven’t seen? Is he good enough to hold a belt? We won’t know for a while, as the injury he sustained to his knee looks serious. No sense in trying to book him in a fight damn-near a year from now because there’s no telling what the volatile heavyweight division will look like by then.
Book: No one. He’s going to be out for a long time.
Paddy Pimblett
Call me a casual, but this was the people’s main event. Blaydes vs. Aspinall was obviously much more high-stakes and was going to end up being more technical, but damn is Paddy electric. Tagged with his partner in crime Molly McCann, Paddy Pimblett was the bright spot on a very disappointing return to London.
Paddy is a star, flat-out, no ifs-ands-or-buts. Is that the equivalent of saying he is on a fast-track to becoming a champion and one of the all time greats? No. MMA fans need to differentiate the two. Paddy is extremely fun and has been a massive spectacle in and before all three of his bouts. Just sit back, shut up, and ENJOY HIS FIGHTS. The formula isn’t hard to break down. There’s too much discourse surrounding Pimblett’s name about how easily he would lose to anyone in the top 15 yada yada yada yada. This is why we can’t have fun things in mixed martial arts. A charismatic, young fighter enters the promotion who is fantastic on the mic and provides us with 3 bangers in 3 fights, yet the majority of conversation circling on him is about how he can’t beat the best fighters in a division stacked with killers. Let’s have some fun for once and enjoy the magnet of attention that is Paddy Pimblett.
Ok Paddy rant over, let’s get to matchmaking for him. The lightweight division is LOADED. Paddy is still likely one fight away from fighting someone that is ranked, let alone anywhere near title contention. Sifting through the rankings, it’s wild to see how many great fighters there are at 155 who aren’t even sniffing the rankings. No need to rush Paddy into fighting a killer when there is a clear path to building the hype. If he’s the real deal, he can take on a more recognizable name with a more established resume. It would help too if his next opponent was right outside of the rankings and consistentl;y entertaining in the cage. Someone who checks all these boxes comes to mind pretty quick.
Book: Paddy Pimblett vs. Bobby Green
Jack Hermansson
This all kind of sucks for Hermansson. He wins a dull fight very easily, but besides collecting a win bonus (which in this sport is actually massive for him personally) “The Joker” does nothing with the result of his fight against Chris Curtis.
Curtis filled in for Darren Till after he pulled out again, and even though Hermansson made easy work of Curtis, no one looks at him any differently after the fight. There isn’t anything new he showed, and his position among the elite of the middleweight division stays stagnant. You know things don’t look good if the person you call out after the fight is someone who you were supposed to fight twice already, but things fell through. The only fight that really makes sense is to re-book the original.
Book: Jack Hermansson vs. Darren Till
Chris Curtis
Chris Curtis managed to achieve a difficult feat. Any time a fighter fills in on late notice–especially against a fighter much higher than them in the division’s ranks– they are universally respected despite the result of the fight, and tend to even keep their rank among their contemporaries. Chris Curtis might’ve negated both.
He looked so flat against Hermansson. For someone who was 4-0 in the UFC with 3 finishes, expectations were that despite coming in as a late replacement, this bout would be competitive, but offensively, Curtis looked as one-dimensional as ever and never provided any adjustments mid-fight. His in-cage performance was bad enough, but his antics after the fight are what sealed the deal. All he needed to do was take the loss on the chin and accept the L with some grace, but the whining both in the cage after the conclusion of the fight and his takes on Twitter make him the biggest loser of the night. If only he had half the passion he had complaining about the action in the fight DURING THE ACTUAL FIGHT, he could have walked away with more fans and even his hand being raised.
It’s hard to think about where to book Curtis after all the antics that took place, and will surely leave a bad taste in the mouth of most fight fans for the foreseeable future. The only way to reverse the image Curtis managed to destroy in one fight he wasn’t even intended to be in is to throw him into a banger against a game opponent. Everything Curtis did to build his appeal in the four fights prior to Hermansson were destroyed in one night, but can be rebuilt.
Book: Chris Curtis vs. Dricus Du Plessis
Volkan Oezdemir
Volkan Oezdemir is, and always was, game. Every loss he’s taken in the UFC so far has been understandable. Cormier beat him for the title (and never lost to anyone not named Jon Jones or Stipe Miocic in his career,) Anthony Smith pulled out a win from the trenches en route to his title run, Dominick Reyes beat him in a very close split decision on his way to a title fight–in a fight Volkan probably should have won– he had the displeasure of introducing Jiri Prochazka into the UFC before he finished 2 other opponents on his way to taking the 205 lb. strap, and Magomed Ankalaev looks like his next fight might be for the title and very likely could take it.. Every guy “No Time” lost to was a champion or fought for the championship after they defeated him, minus Ankalaev, which probably changes within the coming months. Some would label this gatekeeper status. It’s hard to argue against it when he was competitive in just two of those fights, but this sport is wild and unexpected. Ask most people if they ever thought his former opponent Anthony Smith would ever fight for a title before he moved to light heavyweight.
The best move for booking Oezdemir now is to take on another fighter with momentum on their side. There just so happens to be another fighter who won on this card who picked up a win after their last fight was a loss.
Book: Volkan Oezdemir vs. Nikita Krylov
Molly McCann
Strike while the iron is hot! Molly McCann is far from a prospect, but right now she is the hottest commodity in the women’s flyweight division. A female fighter clocking in back-to-back spinning elbow finishes is unheard of, and with the English crowd backing her and an array of extra spotlight pouring onto her thanks to her pal Paddy, Meatball Molly is now on FIRE. The UFC won’t be returning to the O2 anytime soon, but she needs a fight booked before the end of the year. A fight against a ranked opponent, while closing out the year 3-0 might be enough to secure a title shot in a division where the champion nis now up to 7 title defenses and wiping out contenders of all shapes and sizes.
Is McCann a serious threat at the title right now? Hard to say yes, but she’s a damn fun fighter who deserves a fight one step up in competition, and getting someone who’s also a recognizable, fun fighter is the direction to go.
Book: Molly McCann vs. Amanda Ribas
Nikita Krylov
Nikita Krylov has had such an up-and-down career up until this point. He won’t be challenging for the title anytime soon, but he makes sure to deliver an intense fight every time he steps into the octagon.In his 37-fight career, he’s only taken the fight to the hands of the judges 3 times. He’s the ultimate kill-or-be-killed fighter at 205, and just put away a legend in as easy of fashion as he could. Gustafsson hasn’t been himself since returning to action after a 2-and-a-half-year layoff to take on Jon Jones in their title fight at UFC 232, but finishing him in just over a minute is still something to boast about.
Some will devalue the win by taking the easy route and saying “he should beat Gustafsson because he’s washed,” but Krylov still deserves the credit for making it look so easy. You already know where the booking is going from a couple entries up. Krylov vs Oezdemir makes sense right now.
Book: Nikita Krylov vs. Volkan Oezdemir
Paul Craig
If we’re listing off the biggest losers of this card, Chris Curtis rightfully remains at the top. Paul Craig is second. Yes, in his loss, Paul Craig managed to topple the surging heavyweight contender who injured his leg just 15 seconds into his main event fight, in terms of who came out worse. And this is mostly semantics, but much like Chris Curtis, it boils down to the antics outside of the fight.
Don’t get me wrong, Paul Craig is awesome. There are so few fighters in the world who are able to keep fighting through adversity to grind out the grittiest and grimiest wins much like Craig. The man is a warrior incarnate. The issue is he didn’t fight that way at all against Oezdemir. In fact, he did the typical Paul Craig schtick of wearing traditional Scottish warpaint at the weigh-ins and getting in Volkan’s face to intimidate him. He took it to another level of intensity by confronting Oezdemir in the ring before the fight as another form of intimidation, only for Oezdemir’s stoic nature to kind of shut it down. The issue with the behavior isn’t him doing all the extra stuff to bring the intensity up, that’s fine. The issue is bringing that type of intensity before the fight, only to have the cage door locked and the ref start the bout, and have all of it wither away. You just cannot pull guard 20 times in a fight after doing all the Scottish warrior stuff.
Anyway, he needs a fight doesn’t he? That’s kind of the whole point of this exercise. Paul Craig has fought a who’s who of the current light heavyweight decision, so finding a tango partner is tough. Don’t get this one performance sour the taste of Craig all too much. Prior to this fight he was coming off the longest win streak of his UFC career with 4, all coming by way of a finish. He’s still got it. He’s already beaten Ankalaev, but many view that fight as a bit of a fluke because Craig threw up a hail mary triangle choke to make Ankalaev tap with just one second left in a fight he was surely going to lose on the scorecards. Craig hasn’t fought Anthony Smith yet, so matching him up with the loser of that fight makes a ton of sense right now.
Book: Paul Craig vs. Loser of Magomed Anklaev/Anthony Smith
Alexander Gustafsson
This one hurts a lot. Removing all journalistic integrity for this one entry and speaking solely as a fight fan, the fall from grace Gustafsson had was incredibly sad to watch. In a sport so vicious, it’s okay not to latch onto fighters because more often than not, the inevitable is you will see them not only go out on a sour note, but leave the sport battered, beaten, and a hollow shell of their former self. It’s so difficult seeing him go out like this.
Gustafsson had one hell of a career. Arguably the greatest UFC fighter to never hold the strap, he pushed Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier, two top tier all-time greats, to the brink of defeat. The masterclass he put up against Glover Teixeira– a man who would go on to nab the strap after getting beaten to a pulp by Gustafsson– in front of his home fans was one of the most spectacular finishes of the past decade. He was that guy. It’s very hard for him to come to terms that the thing he’s been passionately pursuing for most of his life is coming to an end, and he is no longer that guy.
I am RARELY ever one to suggest fighters retire. It’s very easy for fans who have nothing at stake to say it after a few losses in a row to an older fighter, but this is their livelihood. Sure, there are ways they can survive and make money after their time in the octagon is no more, but this is how these human beings put food on the table and raise their families. Telling someone to abandon that with no support system afterward is cruel and unfair, but on occasion, necessary to protect the health of the athlete. Gustafsson has lost his last 4 fights, across two weight divisions, all four boeing finishes. He is 35-years, which in MMA terms isn’t all too old, but the longer he keeps this going, the less of himself he’ll be as the years go on. It sucks having to swallow your pride and call it quits, especially from someone who was so great at his peak. Hypotheticals are pretty nonsensical in a sport like MMA, but it’s fair to assume if he hit his prime at any other era that didn’t have two top-10 all time talents in the same division as him, he would have held the belt at some point in his career.
That time is gone. Seeing him go out so quickly, without a real fight against Krylov was the final nail in the coffin. Gustafsson is a very level-headed guy, and I hope to see him remain that way, and hopefully establish a career outside the cage, but around the sport. It’s far from my call to make, but it may be time to lay those bloody gloves to rest for the final time.
Book: Nothing. Retirement.
