This past Saturday, possibly the most anticipated UFC card of the year took place in Salt Lake City, Utah, as the BMF title was back up for grabs at UFC 291.
The main event was a much anticipated rematch between Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje in the lightweight division. “The Highlight” Gaethje was coming in off an impressive victory against Rafael Fiziev at UFC 286, whereas Poirier was coming in off a win over Chandler at the back-end of last year.
Let’s take a look at what could be next for the winners on the night.
Justin Gaethje
Five years removed from their last bout it was clear that since then, both fighters had made vast improvements, Gaethje more so. The first round went the way of “The Diamond” on two of the judges scorecards and in the final few minutes, Gaethje seemed compromised to the eye.
Despite finding himself losing round one, he did some solid work of his own, chopping at the lead leg of Poirier, with Poirier’s right leg showing visible welts and damage. Not long after, Gaethje set up a monstrous right high kick perfectly disguised around his jab, sleeping Dustin Poirier.
It is undeniable that over the last few fights, the 34-year-old has made incomprehensible improvements and developments in his game. “The Highlight” has been able to apply a more steadied approach to his chaotic style, making his style organised chaos.
That now begs the question, who’s next for the Arizona native?
Gaethje has made it clear that he hopes for a title shot for his next fight, despite having fought for gold just two fights ago. Having said that his title fight was against Oliveira and with Makhachev being the current King of the division, it’s a new fresh matchup for the two lightweights.
With Makhachev and Oliveira scheduled to rematch in October, whether Gaethje’s next fight is for the title or not will be answered then. Seemingly if Oliveira recaptures the title, Gaethje may have to wait for his shot to come.
Gaethje’s Next Fight: Islam Makhachev (If Islam Makhachev beats Oliveira)
Alex Pereira
“Poatan” Pereira set off on his maiden voyage in the at light heavyweight in the UFC this past weekend.
Coming off his title fight rematch with Adesanya back in April, Pereira made the decision to move up to light heavyweight to fight at his more natural weight. Because of the Brazilian being a big name and a former UFC champion, he was always going to get a big fight in his light heavyweight debut.
His dance partner was Jan Blachowicz which by all accounts was a tough first matchup for the Brazilian in his light heavyweight debut due to “Polish Power’s” grappling advantage. That narrative ended up coming to fruition in round one as Blachowicz totted up four minutes and 50 seconds of control time in the first round.
In round two, Pereira had a lot more success as the Pole began to fatigue and could no longer secure the takedowns that he was looking for. Pereira managed to takeover the fight and begin to land the more damaging shots. In three rounds, Blachowicz’s takedown success rate only read 37%.
With such a big win in his first fight at the weight class, he has undoubtedly put himself in the vacant title picture. A fight between him and the former champion, Jiri Prochazka could well be on the horizon.
Pereira’s Next Fight: Vacant title fight against Jiri Prochazka
Derrick Lewis
Derrick Lewis emphatically returned to the win column with a finish over Marcos Rogerio De Lima in just 33 seconds.
“The Black Beast” came out immediately with a flying switch knee, landing it directly on the chin of the Brazilian. Fitting as the former BMF champion, Jorge Masvidal, watched on from the front row.
Lewis snapped his three fight losing streak and fought the final fight on his current UFC contract. In his Octagon interview the 38-year-old stated how he would like to work on a new deal with the UFC, but will see what his options are.
Since then, a large majority of the MMA fanbase have been calling for the PFL to sign Derrick Lewis as Francis Ngannou’s first opponent. Despite there being a storyline in the fact that Lewis is the last fighter to beat “The Predator”, I feel as though that fight isn’t an easy sell due to Lewis’ recent decline and the state of their first meeting.
Just because Lewis has finally picked up another win, I don’t think it is time to now start calling for him to fight the best in the world again. If the UFC re-sign the Texan, a fight with Alexandr Romanov could be his next.
Lewis’ Next Fight: Alexandr Romanov
Bobby Green
“King” Green bounced back with a win at UFC 291, handing Tony Ferguson sixth loss in a row.
Green was coming into this fight after a no contest again Jared Gordon, after the two dangerously clashed heads in the first round of their fight in April. The 36-year-old came into this bout as the biggest favourite on the card, and he fought that way too.
From the first few exchanges, it was clear that Bobby Green’s speed was too much for the declining Ferguson to deal with. Although at moments Green was caught by Ferguson’s unorthodox striking, it just wasn’t enough to cause him a big problem.
Subsequently Green picked up his first submission win since 2013. Since then, Green has told The MMA Hour that he would like to fight Renato Moicano next. If “Money” Moicano isn’t available, a fight with Brad Riddell in Sydney could be fun.
Green’s Next Fight: Renato Moicano
Kevin Holland
Another fighter who has shown mass improvements to their game is, Kevin Holland. It was only fitting that on a card headlined by the BMF title, “The Trailblazer” opened up the main card to show the fans what to expect. If there is ever another welterweight BMF title fight, Holland is a must.
In this bout with Chiesa, it was always going to be interesting to see how he would deal with the wrestling of the “Maverick”. Within the opening proceedings he was able to show that his wrestling defence has come on leaps and bounds within the last few years, defending all five of Chiesa’s takedown attempts.
As well as his defensive wrestling looking on point, he made it very uncomfortable for Chiesa on the feet, plastering him with uppercuts to the body and sniper shots to the head. Eventually just halfway through the first round, Chiesa attempted another takedown, but this time Holland caught him with another uppercut, dropping him. Holland subsequently latched onto a D’Arce choke securing his eighth win by submission.
After the fight, the 30-year-old made it clear that he wanted to move back to middleweight for the foreseeable future. A stiff test for Holland at 185lbs could be Jack Hermansson as he is currently occupying the tenth ranked spot and hasn’t fought since the end of last year.
Holland’s Next Fight: Jack Hermansson
