UFC 305 featured a night of technical battles and thrilling finishes on both the main card and undercard. The five-fight main card started off with a huge finish by Carlos Prates that landed him a performance bonus. And the co main event also delivered as Kaai Kara-France earned a cool 50k for his stoppage. As for the main event, UFC middleweight champion, Dricus Du Plessis successfully defended his belt against former middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya. A few fighters now find themselves in losing streaks and in positions that haven’t recently, if ever, on the UFC 305 main card.
Israel Adesanya
Israel Adesanya was submitted by rear naked choke by UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis in the main event of UFC 305. Adesanya, who entered the bout as the #2 ranked middleweight has now lost 3 of his last 4 fights. (Despite his last 12 bouts being title fights.)
Adesanya should get the winner of Nassourdine Imavov vs. Brendan Allen on the co main event of the September 28th card. Brendan Allen is on a massive seven fight win streak featuring five submission finishes. Nassourdine Imavov has won five of his last seven fights. His last two wins were over Roman Dolidze, and he became the first man to stop Jared Cannonier (albeit controversially) back in June.
Imavov is ranked at #4, Allen is ranked at #7 and either fighter would be a fresh match up to determine where Izzy is at in his career.
Adesanya’s next fight: Winner of Nassourdine Imavov vs. Brendan Allen
Steve Erceg
Steve Erceg was stopped in the first round of the co main event of UFC 305 by the heavy-handed, Kai Kara-France. Steve’s losing streak has racked up to two after losing his title shot to Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 301 earlier this year. Before that he was on a 3-0 run in the UFC.
Erceg entered the bout ranked at #7 while his Kara-France was ranked at #4 in the UFC flyweight division.
Steve Erceg should fight Manel Kape in his next fight. Kape, who has had a string of bad luck in terms of fight cancelations, lost in his most recent fight by unanimous decision to Muhammad Mokaev. #9 ranked Kape would be a great fight for Erceg to try in prove he belongs in the upper part of the top ten once again.
Erceg’s next fight: Manel Kape
Mateusz Gamrot
Mateusz Gamrot lost a razor close split decision to Dan Hooker on Saturday. The fight also won Fight of the Night honors as it was a back-and-forth affair. Gamrot was ultimately derailed from his three-fight win streak over Jalin Turner, Rafael Fiziev and Rafael dos Anjos. Gamrot entered the fight as the #5 ranked lightweight in the UFC while Hooker was ranked at #11.
Mateusz should rematch Rafael Fiziev in his next fight. Fiziev has not fought since his September 2023 second round TKO by knee injury to Mateusz. It’d be the perfect fight for #8 ranked Fiziev to return to as on many scorecards he was winning the five round bout up until the injury.
Gamrot’s next fight: Rafael Fiziev II
Tai Tuivasa
Tai Tuivasa lost a controversial split decision to Jairzinho Rozenstruik on Saturday. Tuivasa is now in abysmal slump as the fan favorite has now lost five fights in a row and he’s been stopped in four of those losses.
Tai entered the fight on Saturday ranked at #10 in the UFC heavyweight division. Rozenstruik came in ranked at #12.
Rodrigo Nascimento could be a matchup that makes sense for Tai at this point. Nascimento is ranked at #15 at the writing of this article. Nascimento was on a 3-fight win streak until #11 ranked Derrick Lewis stopped him in the third round of his first UFC main event. Would make a lot of sense with the current fight that are already booked and considering Tuivasa’s losing streak.
Tuivasa’s next fight: Rodrigo Nascimento
Li Jingliang
Li Jingliang was KO’d by Carlos Prates in the second round of the first bout on UFC 305’s main card. Jingliang has now lost three of his last five fights dating back to the beginning of 2021. It’ll surely be a tough loss to stomach as it was the first time Li was KO’d in his career.
A good matchup for “The Leech” would be Alex Morono. Both fighters have a common opponent in Santiago Ponzinibbio. Morono also lost in his most recent fight back in June against Niko Price. That fight makes sense stylistically as well.
Jingliang’s next fight: Alex Morono
