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2023 for the UFC is officially in the books. UFC 296 marked the end of the promotion’s year, capping things off with a pair of title fights from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. We saw Leon Edwards retain his belt with a slow and boring victory. We witnessed Alexandre Pantoja overcome a tough Brandon Royval. We saw some rising names victorious, a brutal knockout from Josh Emmett, and a late “Fight of the Year” candidate between Irene Aldana and Karol Rosa.
UFC 296 had a ton of notable names on it. Let’s give them some new fights to consider as they head into the new year, shall we? Let’s get started.
Leon Edwards
Leon Edwards will head into 2024 with the UFC Welterweight Championship around his waist still. Edwards didn’t have a stunning performance at UFC 296 this weekend, but at the end of the day he’s still the champ.
What’s next for Edwards is very simple: He needs to face second-ranked Belal Muhammad. Yes, Edwards has won his last two bouts in less-than-exciting fashion. And yes, Muhammad is not the most thrilling challenger. But at this point, it’s unfair to Muhammad to not make this fight. He has picked up nine consecutive wins since 2019, including victories over Gilbert Burns, Sean Brady, and Vicente Luque. He has been in the title discussion for a year now.
There’s a bit of a history for this matchup, considering Edwards and Muhammad faced off in 2021 but had their fight thrown out due to an accidental eye poke in the second round. It’s not the most riveting stuff, but sometimes you just need to have these types of matchups to keep the division moving. So let’s do that!
Colby Covington
Saturday night was a bad performance from Colby Covington, simple as. He didn’t show much through 25 minutes of fighting against the welterweight champ. And since it was his third time challenging for a belt since 2019, the likelihood of him getting another opportunity soon is probably slimmer than ever.
The discussion around who Covington should face next is actually quite interesting. Considering the fact that many of his wins are against people who are no longer UFC fighters, there are quite a lot of options for him.
After a poor performance on Saturday, I believe it makes sense to keep Covington in a matchup that is high in the divisional rankings. I believe that the actual value of Covington in 2024 should be put to the test. If he did that bad against the champ, is he even in the top five in the division? I want him to fight down and face a rising name, something he hasn’t done in a very, very long time.
I believe that it would be interesting to see how Covington could fare against Shavkat Rakhmonov, who won earlier on Saturday evening. Rakhmonov has a smothering skillset that makes him hard to deal with, can Covington hang with him? If we want to go lower in the lineup, names like Sean Brady or Jack Della Maddalena would be decent ideas as well.
Alexandre Pantoja
Alexandre Pantoja is still your UFC Flyweight Champion. In a five-round performance against a game Brandon Royval at UFC 296, Pantoja used his busy stand-up skills and smothering ground work. Pantoja has now successfully defended his belt once since earning it off Brandon Moreno earlier this year.
It’s quite easy to see the path toward Pantoja’s next title fight. The February 24th fight between former champion Brandon Moreno and rising contender Amir Albazi should determine who Pantoja fights next. If Moreno wins, you get a great rematch after their first meeting resulted in a split decision. If Albazi is successful, you will see a fresh face in the title picture — someone who would at that point boast an impressive record of 18 wins and just one loss.
Brandon Royval
Brandon Royval was a great opponent for Alexandre Pantoja, but simply didn’t do enough to walk away with a win. The type of performance that Royval had in defeat means that he deserves to keep facing people high up in the flyweight division. So, who should he get?
I usually stray away from rematches in this post, but there’s a match that I simply would like to see again. I’m totally interested to see Royval rematch Kai Kara-France. When they first met in 2020, Kara-France put Royval away early in the second round with a guillotine choke, putting an end to a hectic, back-and-forth fight. A round before the finish, Royval recovered from a flash knockdown by dropping Kara-France with a spinning elbow. It was a wild, wild fight.
Since they’re both high up in the flyweight division, I’m not against seeing these two face off once again. Since their first fight was so hectic, I can imagine the second meeting would play out in a very different way from the first one.
Shavkat Rakhmonov
Shavkat Rakhmonov certainly isn’t the most thrilling of fighters at all times, but he’s damn good. The undefeated 18-fight welterweight picked up a win against veteran Stephen Thompson on Saturday night, submitting him in the second round to close out a smothering performance.
Rakhmonov is already fifth at welterweight, meaning he’s super close to a title shot. He called for a bout against the winner of Saturday night’s main event, but that doesn’t seem right. Belal Muhammad is still waiting in the wings with a nine-fight winning streak — that makes him the strongest case for a shot currently. And considering the quality of Muhammad’s wins, it doesn’t seem particularly fair to say he should face Rakhmonov in a title eliminator.
If we’re going to give Muhammad the title shot he deserves, that means there will be somewhat of a lineup waiting for a title opportunity in the welterweight division. Rakhmonov likely won’t be getting a title fight until the second half of 2024 in that case. So, what should he do instead? I think he should face Colby Covington, who lost in tonight’s main event.
Considering Covington is coming off a title shot, a win for Rakhmonov in this instance could arguably solidify him as a title challenger eventually. This would preferably be a five-round fight, so Rakhmonov can test himself in that situation for the first time against someone who is incredibly familiar with five-rounders. How do we feel about this?
Paddy Pimblett
Oh boy. Paddy Pimblett picked up another victory on Saturday, going the distance against Tony Ferguson with a unanimous decision victory. Pimblett put a beating on Ferguson early, but lost steam throughout the fight and had a pretty rough final round. Overall, this was not an impressive showing from Pimblett. Ferguson is in quite rough shape these days, yet this seemed like a fight that Pimblett could lose at any moment due to any slight error. Pimblett had huge cardio issues late in this one, with a takedown really saving him in the final frame.
Listen: Pimblett is five fights into his UFC run. The promotion has taken things incredibly slow with him, possibly because he’s a charismatic name that they want to build up. But it’s time to really give him a challenge. I want him to face someone who is ranked, and who can take him into deep waters with a hard fight. I want someone who is battle tested and slick on the feet. I want him to face Bobby Green, who will be trying to bounce back from his December loss to Jalin Turner the next time we see him fight.
Josh Emmett
Josh Emmett: One Punch Man. He needed just one singular shot to send Bryce Mitchell to the canvas on Saturday night, connecting with an overhand right to stop their bout in under two minutes. Emmett can be a scary fighter, and that was on display this weekend.
Such a dominant victory over a fellow ranked featherweight should be cause for a big match for Emmett. He is currently ranked sixth in the division and just beat 10th-place Mitchell. However, there’s something to note here: Emmett was originally scheduled to face eighth-ranked Giga Chikadze. The question going forward is: Should they re-book that fight? Or does Emmett deserve an even bigger fight after his win on Saturday?
In my personal opinion, it might be the better choice to give Emmett a new matchup. In fact, I want to give him another matchup that he was at one point scheduled to have but never got to do. I want him to face Arnold Allen, who he was booked to meet in early 2020. But, oh no, we have another issue: Allen is booked to face Movsar Evloev next month.
That’s a problem… or is it? The best path forward would be to give Emmett the winner of that match. Both Evloev and Allen are rising names at featherweight who are a few fights away from a title. Emmett has that ability to give them a tough fight on that journey, or derail it all with a win of his own.
Ariane Lipski
Ariane Lipski is no new face in the UFC, but she’s currently on the best run of her time in the promotion. 11 fights into her UFC campaign, Lipski is on a three-fight winning streak for the first time ever. She struggled for years, including a pair of two-fight skids, but she’s finally strung together some wins.
With her second-round armbar victory over Casey O’Neill at UFC 296 this weekend, Lipski is set to join the top 15 at flyweight next week. O’Neill entered this card placed 12th in the division, giving Lipski a pretty good shot at breaking into the standings quite soon.
Who should Lipski’s first opponent be since becoming a ranked flyweight? Well, as it stands right now, it’s hard to pick a name. A large amount of the division is currently booked up at the moment. Viviane Araujo, Natalia Silva, Karine Silva, Maycee Barber, many others, all booked and busy in early 2024. I also thought we could make her face Joanne Wood, but no: that already happened in early 2019.
One flyweight prospect who isn’t booked at the moment is Tracy Cortez. At face value, giving Lipski a fight against Cortez feels like potentially throwing her into the fire right after catching some momentum: Cortez is on a 10-fight winning streak and hasn’t lost in the UFC. However, the quality of opponent for Cortez hasn’t been great. She’s faced many fighters with small records and little UFC experience, like Jasmine Jasudavicius and Melissa Gatto. This is not entirely her fault, considering she had a fight last year against Amanda Ribas fall through, and a bout against JJ Aldrich not materialize before then.
With a pretty experienced record of 25 fights, Lipski could be a pretty great test for Cortez. If Cortez wins, she adds a pretty solid victory to her record as she moves up the flyweight division. If Lipski is the victorious talent, the strongest campaign of her career thus far only extends!
Tagir Ulanbekov
A few hours before the flyweight title of the world was on the line, Tagir Ulanbekov brought himself one step closer to a potential title shot someday. The Russian talent had a dominant performance against Cody Durden, hurting him on the feet before closing out the fight with a second round rear naked choke. The fight was his second consecutive win, as well as his first and only appearance this year.
Ulanbekov is currently ranked 12th in the flyweight division. Durden entered this weekend at the number 15-spot. So, where should Ulanbekov go from here? I think a good next opponent for him would be Steve Erceg. Both Erceg and Ulanbekov are very well-rounded fighters with abilities both on the feet and on the ground.
Similar to Ulanbekov, Erceg has put together solid performances but has just a two-fight winning streak going in the UFC. Along with this, they’re both ranked close to each other, with Ulanbekov at 10th and Erceg at 11th. I’m sure that Ulanbekov doesn’t want to fight down in the rankings just after doing so in his last performance, but I believe this would be a great win to add to his record if he were to attain it. Not only that, it could produce a pretty exciting fight.