On Saturday night, UFC Fight Night 62 emanated live on Fox Sports 1 from the Ginasio do Maracanazinho in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Six Brazilians tasted victory on the main card in their home country, including former UFC title challenger Demian Maia. Below, LWOS books the fights for all of UFC Fight Night 62’s main card winner and losers:
Demian Maia: Saturday night wasn’t Maia’s most exciting performance, but it was a very dominant one. He shut down undefeated prospect Ryan LaFlare for nearly 25 full minutes, and did so with relative ease. This was Maia’s first fight in 10 months after he was sidelined by a staph infection, but he showed no signs of rust. Maia got a UFC title fight back when he was a middleweight, and post fight last night, the 38-year-old said he wanted one more shot at gold before he retired. With that in mind, his next opponent should be Tyron Woodley. Like Maia, Woodley is a highly ranked welterweight, and both are a mere win or two away from a title fight. Plus both are very strong grapplers, and it would be interesting to see what would win between Woodley’s wrestling and Maia’s jiu-jitsu.
Ryan LaFlare: Quite frankly, LaFlare’s performance against Maia was disappointing. The highly touted prospect offered little in the way of offense until the fifth round, and by then, it was too little, too late. Up next, LaFlare should a fight fellow wrestling based fighter John Hathaway. The oft-injured Englishman hasn’t fought for a year, and LaFlare would be a great opponent for him upon his return. The loser of the potential match-up could be written off a a future title challenger, and the winner would get back on track.
Erick Silva: Speaking of welterweights filling their potential, Silva’s submission win over Josh Koscheck gave him his first career UFC winning streak. A member of the UFC roster since June of 2012, Silva has alternated wins and losses inside the octagon until Saturday night. A fighter who has similarly started a winning streak after his .500 ways is Rick Story. Like Silva, Story constantly comes forward and brings the fight to his opponents, and if Silva and Story were to square off, it would be absolute fireworks.
Josh Koscheck: Koscheck has had an amazing career. He was on the original season of The Ultimate Fighter, making it all the way to the semifinals. He’s had 25 UFC fights over his near-decade octagon tenure. He’s won two Fight of the Night awards, two Knockout of the Night awards, and one Submission of the Night award. He came full circle and coached season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter opposite Georges St-Pierre, and even challenged the Canadian for his UFC Welterweight Championship. But the man known as Kos has lost five straight, and he has absolutely nothing left to prove. It’s time for him to retire.
Leonardo Santos: Santos is quietly unbeaten in four UFC fights, with three wins and a draw to his name. His level of competition hasn’t been the highest though, and it’s time for the TUF Brazil 2 winner to take a step up. He needs to face an octagon veteran who will be aggressive and test Santos on both the feet and the ground, and that man is Matt Wiman. Wiman has been flirting with the top 15 for his nearly decade long UFC career, and if Santos can beat him, it would show us a lot about where the Brazilian ground ace stands in the lightweight division.
Tony Martin: Martin started off strong, winning the first round before being submitted in round two by Santos. Matin is now 1-3 in the UFC, and up next he should fight Akbarh Arreola. Arreola has a UFC record of 1-2, and he lost on the UFC Fight Night 62 undercard to Francisco Trinaldo. The loser of the possible Martin vs Arreola fight would be showing that they’re probably not UFC caliber.
Amanda Nunes: Nunes looked positively vicious in her win over Shayna Baszler. Nunes always comes to throw down on the feet, as does former boxing champion Holly Holm. Last month, Holm made a successful-yet-uninspiring octagon debut. Fans wanted more from her, and a fighter like Nunes should be able to draw it out of her.
Shayna Baszler: Baszler is a true pioneer of women’s mixed martial arts. A professional since 2003, she has amassed 25 fights and fought a who’s-who of female fighters. She was apart of the second ever women’s MMA fight on broadcast television opposite Cris Cyborg, and she was apart of the first ever season of The Ultimate Fighter to include women, TUF 18. Baszler has had a stellar career, but she’s lost three straight, including her last two by first round knockout. Like Koscheck, it’s time for Baszler to retire.
Gilbert Burns: Originally, the undefeated Burns was supposed to take on former Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Josh Thomson in the co-main event of this card. Unfortunately, Thomson got hurt, and Burns was left fighting a UFC newcomer. For two rounds, it looked like that was a bad thing for Burns, who was behind on the cards to Alex Oliveira. But he rallied and submitted his fellow Brazilian in the final frame to keep his perfect record intact. Everyone still wants to see Burns get a step up though. Therefore, rebook the Thomson fight.
Alex Oliveira: Not a bad UFC debut for Oliveira, but with a loss, it was obviously not a good one. He looks like a fun action fighter, and that means there will be a ton of fun match-ups for him in the lightweight division. One of those fun opponents would be fellow striker Yosdenis Cedeno.
Godofredo Pepey: After a 1-3 start to his UFC career, Pepey had ripped off three straight first round stoppage wins, winning a Performance of the Night award for all three victories. Throughout his seven fight UFC stint, Pepey is yet to face off with a wrestler inside the octagon. The time is now to make it happen, and Nik Lentz fits the bill perfectly. Twice Lentz has gone to Brazil and beaten a Brazilian, so while a fight between Pepey and Lentz would be good any where in the world, it would be especially fun in Brazil.
Andre Fili: Fili is an awesome fighter to watch, especially when he gets to go toe-to-toe on the feet with his opponent. So is Lucas Martins. Both men are coming off of disappointing losses, and both will want to pick up an emphatic win in their next time out. Book it.
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