Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
MMA: UFC 277-Pena vs Nunes
Another UFC pay-per-view in the books. Despite having two title fights, UFC 277 felt like one of those passover PPV’s that is a hold off for a big card coming next. 90% of PPV’s are good cards, so this isn’t a demerit on 277.
One of the two title fights delivered. Brandon Moreno and Kai Kara-France put on a show in a flyweight classic, a typical high-level fight by the smaller guys where both fighters are extremely technical and the fight is fast-paced with little-to-no slowdown as the battle advances. Nunes vs Peña was a one-sided beating with flashes of last-ditch efforts by Peña to steal a finish, but let’s be real with ourselves here: it wasn’t a good fight. Peña has proven she is tough as hell, but it’s one of those situations similar to the UFC 223 main event where Khabib dominated Al Iaquinta over 5-rounds, but because he survived, Iaquinta was given props on his toughness. Same goes with Peña at UFC 277. One judge scored the bout 50-43 in Nunes’ favor which indicates anything but a competitive fight. Scoring-wise, it’s one of the most one-sided title fights to ever hit the scorecards, so that should pump the brakes on any talks of an immediate rematch.
The return to dominance on one side of the card, and the spawn of title contenders on the other; UFC 277 was all over the spectrum. So, with that being said, enough recapping the card, and onto picking 10 fights to make after UFC 277:
Amanda Nunes
The queen is back. As the oddsmakers expected, Amanda Nunes dominantly took her title back from Julianna Peña in a bloody, and weirdly dramatic affair. She did what she had to do in a traditionally sloppy fashion, but a dominant win is a dominant win.
Nunes proved in the rematch that there’s no need for a trilogy right now. Odds are if they run this back again, the exact same outcome will occur. Nunes is back to her regular standards of dominance in the bantamweight division, clearly all top contenders aside from one. Sadly, this means matchmaking after the fact is difficult once again.
There are two routes Nunes can go, and considering the ball is on her court as the women’s pound-for-pound number one, she gets the final say. First, she can do what 90% of fans want to see and set up the trilogy fight between the two best female fighters in the world, and no that isn’t Julianna Peña. Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko last fought in 2017 in a very close split decision, one that most fans online edged to Schevchenko. Since then, Shevchenko moved divisions, won the title, defended it 7 times (a women’s record in the UFC), and won 9 in a row overall. Nunes dropped the one fight to Peña, but besides that won a belt up a division, and defended the 135 and 145 belts successfully. Both have undoubtedly become the two best female fighters in the promotion, and despite Shevchenko officially being 0-2 and against Nunes, it feels like the right time to match these two killers up again. There’s only ever been one women’s “champ vs. champ” fight in UFC history when Amanada Nunes KO’d Cris Cyborg for the featherweight title, and this seems like the perfect time to book the second.
If that fight can’t be made, the alternative is Ketlen Vieira, the number one contender at bantamweight. It’s not the most exciting fight on paper, especially with Vieira coming off an uneventful, controversial win against Holly Holm, but possesses the striking acumen to pose a threat on the feet. Not many other choices in the bantamweight division.
Book: Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevhenko 3, or Amanda Nunes vs. Ketlen Vieira if not
Brandon Moreno
The point of the article is to talk about matchmaking, and the matchmaking is pretty obvious here. Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno will have a fourth fight for the flyweight title, with hopes that there will be a definitive end to the rivalry with the tetralogy. There has never been a 4-fight series between two fighters in UFC history, and only two marquee tetralogies have ever happened across different promotions (Andrei Arlovski vs. Tim Sylvia and Wanderlei Silva vs. Quentin Jackson.) It’s clear there are two *active* flyweights that reign supreme over the flyweight division (those asterisks are for you, Henry Cejudo,) with a draw between them, it makes a ton of sense as to why Moreno and Figueiredo will meet each other in the octagon for the fourth time. Let’s get some fresh blood after that.
Book: Brandon Moreno vs. Deiveson Figueiredo 4
Julianna Peña
The Peña era is officially over. The short-lived nature of her title reign is done and over with, but it will never erase the magic that took place at UFC 269, where she had the upset of all upsets when she dethroned the FGOAT. But life must go on without the streap.
Regardless of her holding the title just one fight ago, Peña is still just 3-3 in her last 6 fights. The lack of depth in the women’s bantamweight division disguises as more of a contender than she is.
What the UFC doesn’t need to do is book a trilogy. As dominant Nunes was on the scorecards in the rematch, there is nothing that suggests the same or worse wouldn’t happen in a trilogy. Whenever the era of champions with no title defenses getting immediate rematches after losing the belt began was a dark time, not long ago, but it needs to be put in the rearview.
Peña just needs to work her way back. She has the win over Nunes, but that’s been erased and then some after Nunes took the belt back in infatic fashion in the rematch. Peña should be doing what she did not long ago and climb back up the ranks of contendership. Maybe more than just one win before getting a title shot this time around.
A couple of names Peña has yet to see in the octagon thus far, both of which are not far from the #1 ranking tied to her name. Due to the lack of real contenders, it’s likely Ketlen Vieira will be next up for Nunes if the Shevchenko trilogy isn’t made, so why not book Peña against the #3 in the division instead?
Book: Juliana Peña vs. Holly Holm
Kai Kara-France
Kara-France’s rise to a title shot was fun while it lasted, but never felt quite as legitimate as most fighters who end up winning gold. He had fun knockouts against Bontarin and Garbrandt, and defeated an undefeated, top-ranked contender in Askarov for the title shot, but he already lost to Moreno, who completely outworked him in the rematch. Regardless, Kara-France is super fun and one of the top flyweights in the world. It’s a strange division because flyweight doesn’t have a clear tier system outside of the top 2 guys. Pantoja looks like he belongs in the same group as Moreno and Figueiredo, and will surely get the shot at the title next, but beyond that, it feels like any fighter can beat someone 10 spots away in the rankings.
Kai Kara-France got his shot at the title, and can probably return to those heights with a few more solid wins under his belt, but the majority of the division is matched up against each other so, that’s where the ranking differential comes in. Kara-France loves getting into scraps, so matching him up with another striker who has a lot of potential looming over their head could be a way to build the hype back up for KKF.
Book: Kai Kara-France vs. Manel Kape
Magomed Ankalaev
Magomed Ankalaev is the most complete fighter in the light heavyweight division. Whether or not that means he is the best is yet to be decided, but as far as a fighter who shows the least amount of weaknesses amongst the 205 pounders, Ankalaev sits at the top. He’s in a weird position now, where he is on a 9-fight win streak, with wins over the current 5th, 6th, 9th and 11th ranked fighters in his last 4 fights. Any other time, he would likely get the next shot at the title, but there’s a negative stigma about him. If Ankalaev was more exciting, he surely would be next in line for the title, but because of that, his wins tend to have less umph stitched to them by the general public. Besides the Anthony Smith win– which people will inevitably try to discredit Ankalaev for because of Smith’s injury– the last 3 fights against Santos, Oezdemir, and Krylov were fairly boring cruises to a decision for Magomed. Jiri Prochazka is one of the most exciting fighters the division has had in years, and you can be sure the UFC brass is thinking of pitting him up against the most exciting top contender.
From what it looks like, the UFC is going to hand Glover the immediate rematch. Granted, the first fight between Jiri and Glover was a fight of the year contender, giving a champion with zero successful title defenses an immediate title shot is stupid. It’s bad and lazy matchmaking, especially when Jan and Magomed are waiting in the wings, both with very good claims respectively for the strap. It sucks, but one of Ankalaev or Blachowicz is going to have to wait until they go back on a winning streak to get a title shot, but that’s the way it’s looking right now.
Book: Magomed Ankalaev vs. Jan Blachowicz
Anthony Smith
I’m no doctor here, but from the looks of it, the injury Smith suffered looks pretty bad. Anything to do with the knee is a killer, and likely going to put him out for a long time. As per usual, no need to matchmake an injured fighter, and hopefully the recovery for Smith is as quick and straightforward as possible. He’ll be back putting up bangers in every fight before you know it.
Book: Nothing.
Sergei Pavlovich
Finally, a little excitement in the heavyweight division. First, the stoppage has to be addressed. Was it premature? Sure, that is a legitimate argument. Was the fight likely to have the same outcome had the ref let it rock just a few seconds longer? Yeah, probably.
As a professional, Pavlovich has rebounded from his only loss to Alistair Overeem back in 2018 with 4 consecutive finishes. Now, with a name as big as Derrick Lewis under his belt, under the right circumstances Pavlovich could be just one win away from a title shot. But, in order for that to happen, he has to take on a name just as big as Lewis’ to propel himself to such lengths. Realistically, he’s probably two fights away from the title.
The heavyweight division is in a bit of a rut with booking fights with contenders. If Ngannou decides to take time off, and the UFC books Jones vs. Stipe for the interim belt, it probably means Curtis Blaydes will fight the winner of the Gane/Tuivasa fight in Paris in a few weeks. If Ngannou does fight sooner than expected and takes one of those four names, Pavlovich will have the opportunity to take on a bigger name, by fighting someone who’s won their last fight. Booking for this division right now sucks.
Book: Sergei Pavlovich vs. Loser of Gane/Tuivasa (if Ngannou takes time off) or Pavlovich vs. whoever is left over Miocic, Jones, Blaydes, winner of Gane/Tuivasa (if Ngannou defends his belt soon)
Derrick Lewis
It’s starting to look like Derrick Lewis’ best days are behind him. With two shots at a title in his career, he’s given fight fans some really memorable moments. The first run for the belt, especially, was a thing of beauty. Knocking out Tybura, a fight that never happened between him and Francis Ngannou, and then the beautiful come-from-behind KO over Alexander Volkov which won over the biggest audience any fight card has ever had to fast track him to take on Daniel Cormier for the belt in the next pay-per-view; it was stunning.
That looks like it’s in the rearview now, but that’s not intended with even a hint of insult. Derrick Lewis is awesome and no one can take away what he accomplished in this sport, especially considering he has such an important record under his belt with the most KO/TKO finishes in UFC history. Now that a title fight is out of reach, it’s time to book him against one of the few guys he hasn’t fought yet. This fight has a perfect 50/50 split of being a violent KO or one of the worst fights ever, but hell if that’s going to stop anyone from booking it.
Book: Derrick Lewis vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik (IN A 3-ROUND FIGHT PLEASE)
Alexandre Pantoja
This is the clear-cut number one contender in the flyweight division after Figueiredo and Moreno finish their fourth fight– and quite frankly might even have a better argument than Moreno. Pantoja has faced both fighters, losing to Figueiredo back in 2019, but has two wins over Brandon Moreno, one of which isn’t a professional win because it happened on The Ultimate Fighter. Since his loss to Askarov in the summer of 2020, Pantoja has 3 wins over 3 ranked opponents, with the quick finish over Alex Perez being far-and-away the most impressive. He’s next in line for the title. No need for him to defend his ranking with another high-ranked opponent to defend his own ranking, that’s already what he did by taking the fight against Perez. Fingers crossed that we don’t miraculously get another draw in the title fight and Pantoja is getting his long-awaited shot at the flyweight championship.
Book: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Winner of Figueiredo/Moreno 4
Alex Perez
Last, but not least, is Alex Perez. A couple of weeks ago in the “10 Fights to Book After UFC: Long Island” piece, I wrote about how no matter the outcome, Matt Schnell should take on Alex Perez because either way, it’s an opponent ranked above Schnell that he hasn’t fought yet. Now after the loss, it makes sense for both fighters. Alex Perez has something to prove that he’s still worthy of inching his way back to another title shot, and Schnell is coming of that war that’s proven he has what it takes to fight the elites of the 125-pound division. Surely this will end up being a fantastic scrap too, so who’s stopping it from happening?
Book: Alex Perez vs. Matt Schnell
