Another UFC Apex event is thankfully behind us as we edge closer to UFC 300, with just a few more tedious Apex shows before the blockbuster milestone event.
Tai Tuivasa entered unwanted territory with his fourth loss in a row, with his future in the division extremely clouded. The 38-year-old, Marcin Tybura, continues to churn out wins in the heavyweight division, with his next fight already possibly taking shape.
Marcin Tybura’s possible next opponent
The aforementioned Polish heavyweight bounced back from his loss to Tom Aspinall, with a big win against Tuivasa.
Tybura got caught early in the fight and began to leak blood from his head. Despite that, the veteran showed his experience and shortly after sustaining the cut, he got the fight to the ground where he scored the sinking submission.
After his win, he was offered congratulations by fellow hard-hitter, Jairzinho Rozenstruik. ‘Bigi Boy’ competed only a few weeks prior, picking up a win against Shamil Gaziev. With the two having been scheduled to fight each other on two previous occasions, this is a fight that makes sense next.
Tai Tuivasa’s possible next opponent
Despite now having lost his last four fights, ‘Bam Bam’ Tuivasa’s place on the roster won’t be coming into consideration.
Because of his name value and being a fan favorite, as well as heavyweight MMA being so unforgiving, he will likely live to fight another day with the UFC gloves taped around his paws.
His next move though will have to be a calculated one and will likely see him fight just outside of the rankings, or against someone who is at the tail-end of their career.
A matchup with someone of the ilk of Marcos Rogerio de Lima could make sense. The 38-year-old has always struggled to make it to the next level, but could still prove an even matchup for Tuivasa.
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Bryan Battle and Ange Loosa shouldn’t run it back
Despite this fight having ended unceremoniously, I don’t see a need to run this one back.
Although we were only afforded one round of action, those five minutes showed us enough of how this matchup was likely going to play out. Battle entered his flow state early in round one, and was showing a clear discrepancy between the two’s striking.
The only reason it would make sense to run this one back is because of the after-fight words exchanged between the two. For me though, that isn’t enough to warrant this one being re-booked.
I think an adequate step up for Bryan Battle at this point would be a fight with Max Griffin, who has a tonne of experience.
Loosa on the other hand should fight Oban Elliott next, in what could be a really fun fight.
Ovince Saint Preux breaks record and continues to grind wins
With his fight and win on Saturday night, ‘OSP’ broke the light heavyweight record for the most amount of appearances in the division.
The 40-year-old’s last two wins have been split decisions, winning two of his last three fights.
In his performance against Kennedy Nzechukwu, he showcased his experience, having to weather a late storm from ‘The African Savage’, making it to the judge’s scorecards. From there, two of them deemed him to have won two of the three rounds.
Although this is a big win for Ovince Saint Preux, his next fight shouldn’t come against a higher-caliber opponent than Nzechukwu. A fight against Da Un Jung could make sense.
Kennedy Nzechukwu suffers back-to-back losses again
This is the second time in the Nigerian’s UFC tenure that he has suffered back-to-back losses. The first time, he went on to win three straight fights via finish.
Bogdan Guskov recently arrived in the UFC and after a disappointing UFC debut, he bounced back with a big win. Stylistically that could be a fun fight to be had.
Macy Chiasson cracks the top 8
The 32-year-old bounced back from her loss to Irene Aldana with another impressive showing, emerging as a possible contender in the women’s 135lb division.
Macy Chiasson was previously scheduled to fight Ketlen Vieira in January, but the Brazilian pulled out. This fight should be re-booked with the winner then being one step away from a title fight.
Christian Rodriguez takes another fighter’s 0
After suffering a beating in round one, Christian Rodriguez dragged Isaac Dulgarian into his first-ever round two. From there, ‘CeeRod’ started to take over the fight, with Dulgarian’s lack of experience proving decisive.
After each scoring, a 10-8 round, who won the fight was up in the air when it came to Bruce Buffer’s announcement. Despite that, Rodriguez did enough and continues his newfound reputation of taking fighters 0’s.
After the fight, Dulgarian took to social media to give his thoughts on suffering his first career loss, questioning whether Rodriguez heavily applied oil to make Dulgarian’s grappling less effective.
For Rodriguez’s second outing at featherweight, I would love to see him take on David Onama.