The
Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to Brazil for
UFC
301. The pay-per-view featured a flyweight title fight between
Alexandre
Pantoja and
Steve Erceg
and the return of
Jose Aldo.
While it wasn’t nearly as stacked as last month’s historic PPV
event, there’s still plenty to speculate about what’s next for the
winners.
Here are five matches to make following UFC 301:
Pantoja (28-5) kept his flyweight championship by earning a
unanimous decision in a back-and-forth battle against Erceg (12-2).
While there isn’t a clear-cut No. 1 contender, there are quite a
few interesting options such as
Amir Albazi
and Mokaev. I’d give Mokaev (11-0, 1 NC) the slight edge, as he’s
undefeated. Coming off impressive wins over
Alex Perez,
Tim
Elliott and
Jafel
Filho, it's hard to argue against it, especially after Erceg
just got catapulted into a shot.
Aldo returned from his mixed martial arts retirement, which he
spent staying active in boxing, by outclassing
Jonathan
Martinez in the co-main event. While it's an impressive win,
Aldo still doesn't need to be fighting top contenders at 135
(although he’ll still be competitive with them should he choose to
go that route). At 37, legacy fights should be on the docket, like
facing off another all-timer in former bantamweight king Cruz. Both
fighters aren't quite in peak form, but it'd be a dream match and
would get plenty of interest from devoted fans as it’s a throwback
to the
World Extreme Cagefighting days.
Former title challenger Smith showed he still has more left in the
tank by submitting
Vitor
Petrino with a guillotine choke. "Lionheart" improved to 38-19
as a pro and has now won two out of his last three fights. While
recent losses to the top of the division limit the 35-year-old’s
immediate future as a contender, a duel against another veteran
would make sense. A high-level opponent that fits the bill is
Krylov, as “The Miner” is 30-9 with recent wins over
Ryan Spann,
Volkan
Oezdemir and
Alexander
Gustafsson. It’s surprising the two haven’t fought yet, so
let’s finally see the two square off and determine who will keep
their title hopes alive.
Pereira kept his impressive winning streak alive by quickly
submitting
Ihor
Potieria with a guillotine choke (after a blatantly illegal
knee was ignored). Regardless of any controversy, there’s no
denying that the Brazilian has really come into his own at
middleweight and should get another streaking fighter. Enter
Hernandez, as "Fluffy" is on a five-fight win streak that includes
victories over
Roman
Kopylov,
Edmen
Shahbazyan and
Marc-Andre
Barriault. It'd be an exciting, fan-friendly fight and the
winner would deserve a Top 10 opponent next.
Borralho stayed undefeated inside the promotion with a vicious
knockout over
Paul Craig.
The Brazilian now sits at 15-1 as a pro and 6-0 inside the Octagon.
At 31, "The Natural" deserves a shot at another name opponent,
which is why Curtis should be next. It'd make for a great Fight
Night main event and give Borralho a shot at punching his ticket to
the contender level while also offering “Action Man” a chance at
bouncing back after his decision loss to
Brendan
Allen.