What’s Next For UFC Fight Night 43 & 44’s Main Event Winners?
This weekend (Sat., June 28 2014), the UFC put on two events inside twenty-four hours for the second time in history.
The first event, UFC Fight Night 43, took place inside the Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand and was the first trip to the country for the the promotion. New Zealander James Te Huna and former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nate Marquardt headlined the card.
UFC Fight Night 44 went down on U.S. soil, but in unfamiliar territory for the promotion as they ventured to San Antonio. Texas, for the very first time. The AT&T Center was the venue of choice to host the card, which saw featherweights Cub Swanson and Jeremy Stephens go to war in the main event.
Both cards proved to be solid events for the promoton and produced their fair share of action, all topped off by two exciting headliners which saw Marquardt and Swanson pick up big wins.
With his submission over Te Huna, Marquardt took home his first win in the middleweight division since a decision victory over Dan Miller back in March 2011, just prior to getting released by the UFC. Coming in with three straight losses, he had his back against the wall, but managed to turn his career around with the win. Plenty of new opportunities now await him at 185 pounds.
Personally, I think he looked good enough last night to get chucked back into the top of the weight class but I think he should take things a little bit slower and fight someone near or just breaking into the top-ten. For that reason a matchup with either Thales Leites or C.B. Dollaway would make sense.
In his fight with Stephens, Swanson showed us just how good he really is and why he’s ranked at No. 4 in the division. The 30-year-old has now won his last six fights in ,a row, finishing four by way of KO/TKO. i think that should be enough to give him a crack at UFC gold. What do you think?
