UFC Vegas 92 on Saturday night boasted a five-fight main card resulting in three finishes. The card also featured a Fight of the Night winning main event between Lerone Murphy and Edson Barboza.
What comes next for the losing side of the Fight Night card? Read on.
Edson Barboza
Edson Barboza lost a mostly one-sided beating after nearly stopping his opponent, Lerone Murphy, in the opening round of the main event of UFC Vegas 92. Barboza, now 38 years old was a long-time veteran of the UFC’s lightweight division, who transitioned to featherweight in 2020 and is 18-12 with the promotion.
Barboza has now won just two of his last five fights since 2021. Barboza stopped Billy Quarantillo in April of 2023 and defeated Sodiq Yusuff six months later via unanimous decision.
Barboza’s next opponent should be Sean Woodson. It’d be a great striking matchup, the boxing of Woodson vs the knees and kicks of Barboza. Woodson, a 2019 Contender Series product, has gone 6-1-1 in the UFC. Woodson won a split decision over Charles Jourdain in January. Woodson’s most recent bout was a unanimous decision victory against Alex Caceres at UFC St. Louis, last Saturday.
Barboza’s next fight: Sean Woodson
Carlston Harris
Carlston Harris was brutally finished in the first round of his bout against Khaos Williams on Saturday. It was Carlston’s first co main event appearance in the UFC since being picked up by the promotion in May of 2021.
Harris is 4-2 with the UFC and his only other loss was a February of 2022 first round loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov. Harris has finished Christan Aguilera, Impa Kasanganay, and Jeremiah Wells. He is a solid fighter in the welterweight division who has already faced some very tough guys.
A good matchup would be Ramiz Brahimaj who fought in the previous fight on the main card. The two were scheduled to fight back in February, but that bout was cancelled thanks to an injury from Ramiz.
Harris’ next fight: Ramiz Brahimaj
Ramiz Brahimaj
Ramiz lost a grueling unanimous decision to Themba Gorimbo in the featured bout on Saturday.
Ramiz Brahimaj is now 2-3 with the UFC since being picked up from the LFA in 2020. To be fair, Ramiz has only lost this weekend to Gorimbo and to UFC vets Max Griffin and Court McGee. Brahimaj has finished his two victories in the UFC, Sasha Palatnikov in 2021 and Michael Gillmore in 2022, both in the opening round. Sasha is no longer with the promotion and TUF 29 contestant, Gillmore has not fought since his bout with Ramiz.
Ramiz needs a win, but his record definitely doesn’t tell the whole story of his time in the UFC. Brahimaj should fight Carlston Harris, and it makes even more since because Carlston was stopped in his bout on UFC Vegas 92.
Brahimaj’s next fight: Carlston Harris
Vinicius Salvador
Vinicius Salvador was viciously stopped in a tough matchup against Adrian Yanez on Saturday.
Salvador is now 0-3 with UFC since winning his Contender Series bout in 2022. Vinicius also had the misfortune of missing weight in his second bout with the promotion against CJ Vergara in July of 2023.
Obviously, Vinicius is in danger of losing his spot on the UFC roster. A possible matchup for the 27-year-old would be Kleydson Rodrigues. He fought on the undercard of UFC Vegas 92, losing a unanimous decision to Alatengheili. Kleydson is now 1-3 in the UFC. Rodrigues has missed weight twice, including in June of 2023 when a miss resulted in his fight with Tatsuro Taira being cancelled.
The two fighters were also supposed to fight back in October of 2022, but the fight was cancelled when Salvador withdrew. What better time to run that fight back to decide who stays on the roster.
Salvador’s next fight: Kleydson Rodrigues
Luana Pinheiro
Luana was submitted by Angela Hill in the second round of their bout to open the main card of UFC Vegas 92. Pinheiro is now on a two-fight skid after starting her UFC career at 3-0. Pinheiro is a Contender Series product from the 2020 season and her most recent win was a split decision victory over Michelle Waterson-Gomez in April of 2023.
Pinheiro should fight the #15 ranked UFC strawweight Karolina Kowalkiewicz. She was on a four-fight win streak before losing to Iasmin Lucindo in a unanimous decision on UFC 301 earlier this month. Karolina is a name in the UFC and a 17-fight veteran, it’d be a good changing of the guard type fight for a fringe ranking at 115lbs.
Pinheiro’s next fight: Karolina Kowalkiewicz
