On Saturday night, UFC 179 came to us live on pay-per-view from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A rather lackluster main card was capped off with a Fight of the Year candidate, with UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo retaining his title against Chad Mendes in a rematch from January of 2012. It was a back-and-forth battle, and quite frankly saved the card. Let’s take a look at who LWOS would book as the next opponents for each of the main card winners and losers, and see if we can’t get some more exciting fights:
Jose Aldo: With his Fight of the Night victory over Mendes, Aldo not only retained his title, but pushed his UFC record to 7-0, and solidified himself as a no-doubt top 5 pound-for-pound combatant. There’s two fights that will play a role in determining Aldo’s next challenger: Frankie Edgar vs Cub Swanson in December; and Conor McGregor vs Dennis Siver in January. If Swanson beats Edgar, the result of McGregor vs Siver should be irrelevant; with a win, Swanson would be on a seven fight win streak, and awarding him a title shot with a win over the former lightweight champion would be a no-brainer. However, if Edgar beats Swanson, and McGregor beats Siver, then I would give the Irishman the title fight. The fans want it, and Aldo vs McGregor would do huge business in both Brazil and Ireland, and probably Las Vegas as well. However, if McGregor loses to Siver, and Edgar beats Swanson, then give Edgar another shot at the belt. The first time Aldo and Edgar squared off in February of 2013, it was a closely contested fight, and some even called for an immediate rematch. As you can see, there’s no easy answer here, but three fun fights. Next up, Aldo should defend his title against the winner of Edgar vs Swanson, or possibly McGregor.
Chad Mendes: Even in defeat, you could argue that Mendes has never looked better. After the fight, Aldo’s face was visibly damaged, and no one has landed as effectively on the Brazilian champion as Mendes did. Despite now being 0-2 against Aldo, his performance Saturday night leaves the door open for a trilogy fight down the road that fans will actually want to see. As for what’s next for Mendes, his answer is much simpler than Aldo’s. The loser of Edgar vs Swanson will be the perfect foil for Mendes, as it allows him, and whoever the loser of Edgar vs Swanson is, an opportunity to keep fighting high level opposition, and immediately get back into the title hunt with a win.
Phil Davis: Davis dominated Glover Teixeira from bell-to-bell, taking him down at will, and bouncing back from his second career loss. “Mr. Wonderful” has now won four of his last five fights, and it’s time to match him up with another streaking wrestler: Ryan Bader. The TUF 8 light heavyweight winner has won three straight, and he’s got the wrestling chops to cancel out Davis’ ground attack and keep it on the feet. Davis’ striking is varied and always-improving, but Bader would hold a substantial power advantage on the feet. This would be an interesting fight to see which wrestler could impose his will.
Glover Teixeira: For the first time in his career, Teixeira has lost two in a row. I thought his takedown defense would be enough to keep him on his feet, where he could out-strike Davis, but that was painfully not the case. Up next, he should square off with fellow Brazilian Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Nogueira is also coming off a loss, to Anthony Johnson in July. Both Teixeira and Nogueira are strikers, and this would surely be a fun striking battle.
Fabio Maldonado: A stirring come-from-behind win in front of his home country crowd for Maldonado. He’ll never be elite, but he’ll always be fun as hell. Next he should fight Jan Blachowicz. The Polish striker made his UFC debut a few weeks ago in Sweden, claiming a first round (T)KO of Ilir Latifi. After that, I said he should face the winner of Maldonado vs Stringer, especially if it’s Maldonado. It is. This fight would be fireworks.
Hans Stringer: Stringer looked decent in the first round, then gassed hard in the second before being put away by Maldonado. Although his UFC record is 1-1, Stringer has looked rather unimpressive in both outings. A fight against Sean O’Connell, if he’s still on the UFC roster, would be good. O’Connell is 0-2 in the UFC, but both of his fights have been entertaining. Maybe he could coax a better effort out of Stringer.
Darren Elkins: Saturday night was a classic grinding win for Elkins. Elkins wants to be considered a top 10 fighter, but the two top 10 fighters he’s fought – Mendes and Jeremy Stephens – have beaten him easily. Like Elkins, Nik Lentz is a grinder and a borderline top 10 featherweight. A match-up between the two would potentially break one of them into the upper-echelon of 145’ers.
Lucas Martins: Martins was controlled for fifteen minutes by Elkins, but I think he’s still a bright prospect. His takedown defense was much better than I expected it to be, and his striking remains solid. A few weeks ago, Akira Corassani lost in Sweden. He’s also a striker, and a fight between him and Martins would be a lively bout contested mostly on the feet.
Beneil Dariush: Dariush looked strong in his unanimous decision win over Carlos Diego Ferreria, and moved his UFC record to 3-1. On the undercard, Yan Cabral picked up a submission win over Naoyuki Kotani. A fight between Dariush and Cabral would test both grappler’s striking, and if it did hit the mat, we’d get some amazing grappling exchanges.
Carlos Diego Ferreira: For Ferreira, the loss to Dariush was the first of his career. To see if he can get back on track, match him up with TUF 8 lightweight winner Efrain Escudero. In September, Escudero started off his third stint in the UFC with a loss to Leonardo Santos.
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Main Photo:
www.sherdog.com/pictures/event/1/UFC-179-Weighin-Pics-76195#photo-3
