What’s Next For UFC 174’s Main Card Winners?
We saw quite a few upsets last night in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return to Vancouver for UFC 174 and there’s certainly going to be one or two mix ups among the promotions eight divisions.
As always, LowKick is here to break down every event, so here are the fights to be made following last night’s action:
Fighter – Ovince St. Preux
Weight Class – light-heavyweight
Ranking – No.12
Who They Should Fight Next – Ryan Bader
OSP put in another flawless performance against a tough opponent in Ryan Jimmo to take his fourth straight win and his third finish in the UFC. St. Preux has to face a top 10 opponent next and who better to match him up with than the No. 9-ranked Ryan Bader who also picked up a big win over Rafael Cavalcante last night.
Bader put in a solid night’s work against the former Strikeforce champion which puts him on back-to-back wins after beating Anthony Perosh in December. One more win over a tough competitor like St. Preux is what he needs to make another run at the title.
(Sidenote: Glover Teixeira vs. “Fejiao” would be awesome)
Fighter – Andrei Arlovski
Weight Class – heavyweight
Ranking – Outside top 15
Who They Should Fight Next – Winner of Soa Palelei vs. Jared Rosholt
It might not have been his most memorable win, but Andrei Arlovski did just enough last night to control “The Hybrid” Brendan Schaub to pick up a much needed win in his Octagon return. But, “The Pit Bull” will still need one more solid win over another UFC heavyweight to see whether he’s ready for the upper echelon of the division.
With that in mind, it makes perfect sense to match him up with the winner of Soa Palelei vs. Jared Rosholt who meet in two weeks time at UFC Fight Night 43.
Fighter – Ryan Bader
Weigh Class – light-heavyweight
Ranking – No.9
Who They Should Fight Next – Ovince St. Preux
(See above for St. Preux)
Fighter – Rory MacDonald
Weight Class – Welterweight
Ranking – No.2
Who They Should Fight Next – Carlos Condit
Rory MacDonald outclassed Tyron Woodley with relative ease last night, showing everyone he’s still one of the best fighters in the division. As impressive as it was, however, “The Canadian Psycho” was unable to to cement his case for a title shot by not finishing “The Chosen One”.
I don’t think anyone can really say the winner of Robbie Lawler vs. Matt Brown at UFC on Fox 12 doesn’t deserve the first crack at Johny Hendricks’ title now. “Aries” needs one more win to solidify himself as the top contender and revenge over Carlos Condit in his return would do just that.
Fighter – Demetrious Johnson
Weight Class – Flyweight
Ranking – Champion
Who They Should Fight Next – John Dodson
“Mighty Mouse” put in another textbook performance last night against Ali Bagautinov to pick up his fourth consecutive flyweight title defence. The top of the division has now been cleaned out by Johnson, with victories over everyone in the top five.
Unless he waits to fight the winner of Ian McCall vs. Brad Pickett, who fight next month, the champ will need to take a rematch with someone he’s already beat and there’s nobody more deserving than John Dodson.
“The Magician” has put together two straight knockout wins since his loss to Johnson on points last year, downing Darell Montague and John Moraga. Despite losing his title shot at UFC on Fox 6, Dodson was able to floor the champion twice in the second round, putting him in more trouble than anyone else has since his drop to flyweight.
Which fights do you think should be booked following UFC 174?
Photo: Anne-Marie Sorvin for USA TODAY Sports
