On Saturday night, UFC on FOX 15 emanated live on Fox from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. From top to bottom, it was one of the best cards of the year, and featured top middleweights Luke Rockhold and “Jacare” Souza both picking up big wins. Below, LWOS books the fights for the UFC on FOX 15 main card winners and losers:
Luke Rockhold: Rockhold looked absolutely dominant in his win over former champion Lyoto Machida. Rockhold was a popular pick to win this weekend, but I don’t know how many of those people thought he would win so easily. Rockhold has clearly earned a title shot, and he should face the winner of Chris Weidman vs Vitor Belfort for the UFC Middleweight Championship. Weidman and Belfort go head-to-head in the co-main event of UFC 185 on May 23.
Lyoto Machida: This was a tough loss for Machida, and it might have been his last opportunity to earn a title shot at middleweight. He now has losses to the champ Weidman and Rockhold, and Belfort, Jacare and Yoel Romero are all likely ahead of him in the title shot queue. If he wants to make it back to the top of the mountain, he should start with Tim Kennedy. Kennedy is a top 10 middleweight who is semi-retired, but he has said he’d put on the gloves for a big fight. It doesn’t get much bigger than Machida as an opponent.
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza: Jacare was dominant over Chris Camozzi, but he was dominant over him two years ago too the first time he beat him. With this placeholder bout out of the way, Jacare should next face the man he was originally supposed to square off with on Saturday night: Yoel Romero. Everyone really wanted to see Jacare vs Romero, and with Rockhold likely receiving the next title shot, rebooking Jacare vs Romero makes perfect sense.
Chris Camozzi: Camozzi got a lot of props for stepping in on late notice, but he got blown out by Jacare. Camozzi is a fun fighter to watch, but he’ll never be elite. He’s now lost five straight UFC bouts, and 5-of-7 bouts overall. A fight against fellow TUF veteran Luke Zachrich could be fun, with the only downside being the loser would likely be out of a job.
Max Holloway: Holloway looked phenomenal in the performance of a lifetime with his win over Cub Swanson. There’s very few fighters ahead of Holloway now at featherweight, but one of them is two-time title challenger Chad Mendes. Mendes is no easy out, but, along with Holloway, he’s the only top 10 featherweight coming off of a win who isn’t booked right now. If Holloway can keep Mendes from taking him down, he could very well outstrike him. It’s an extremely interesting fight. Book it.
Cub Swanson: This is a crushing loss for Swanson, and his dream of fighting for the UFC championship one day really looks like it’s never going to happen. Up next, Swanson should rematch Ricardo Lamas. Both are definitely top 10 featherweights, but it looks like neither will crack the top 5 ever again. Both are very fun fighters to watch, so a rematch of their 2011 fight would be awesome. Lamas won that initial meeting with a second round arm-triangle choke.
Paige VanZant: Quite frankly, people will probably saying this is rushing VanZant, and I acknowledge that it absolutely is, but she should fight Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the UFC Women’s Strawweight Championship next. The women’s strawweight division is so shallow right now, there’s no clear #1 contender right now, and VanZant is probably the division’s biggest star. Jedrzejczyk vs VanZant for the title is the fight to book.
Felice Herrig: Herrig didn’t look too great against VanZant, but she showed a lot of heart. She is a veteran of the sport, and a fight that would be fun for her would be a match-up with Joanne Calderwood. Calderwod is coming off of a shocking upset loss to Maryna Moroz last weekend. Make Herrig vs Calderwood happen, and let’s see which of them can get back on track.
