UFC Vegas 99 featured 11 fights and just two finishes. One of the finishes came in the main event however, when Anthony Hernandez brutalized Michel Pereia for the better part of 20 minutes until he got the ground ‘n pound finish in the fifth. And in the co-main event, the wily veteran, Rob Font, turned back the hands of time with an aggressive, statement-making, unanimous decision victory over Kyler Phillips. Lots of fun fights to make for the winners off of this card.
Anthony Hernandez
Anthony Hernandez had a near perfect showing in the main event of UFC Vegas 99 and earned himself a performance bonus with his final round TKO of Michel Pereia. Hernandez entered the bout ranked at #13 in the UFC’s middleweight division while his opponent was ranked at #14.
Hernandez is now riding a six-fight win streak featuring four stoppages (all outside of the first round) and three performance bonuses. Safe to say that “Fluffy” is on a roll.
Brendan Allen would be the perfect fight for Anthony Hernandez at this point in his UFC career. Allen and Hernandez actually fought back in early 2018 in the LFA. Hernandez won a five round unanimous decision to win the vacant LFA Middleweight Championship. Allen is ranked at #8 in the UFC rankings and lost his most recent fight to Nassourdine Imavov in September. Before that he had won seven in a row. The rematch would be a no brainer and an easy fight night main event featuring two large cardio machines.
Anthony’s next fight: Brendan Allen
Rob Font
Rob Font found a way to get the win as he walked down Kyler Phillips to snag a huge unanimous decision victory. It was a really big win for Font as he has lost four of his last six fights.
Font entered the fight ranked at #10 in the UFC’s bantamweight division while his opponent was ranked at #12.
Yadong Song would be a good next fight for Rob. Song is ranked at #8 in the UFC’s bantamweight division and is 2-2 in his last four fights. Font and Yadong were supposed to fight in August of last year, but Song withdrew from the fight. Since then, he’s defeated Chris Gutierrez and most recently lost a unanimous decision to Petr Yan back in March.
Rob’s next fight: Yadong Song
Charles Johnson
The ever energetic Charles Johnson found a way to outstrike and out-grapple his opponent, Sumudaerji, on his way to a unanimous decision victory at UFC Vegas 99 on Saturday night.
Johnson is now riding a four-fight win streak. It’d make sense to give him a step up in competition, preferably a fringe ranked, or soon to be ranked opponent. Thanks to how exciting of a fighter Johnson is, there are a few good fights that could be made. Even though the featured prelim had two worthy opponents in Matheus Nicolau and Asu Almabayev the best future matchup for Charles would be #11 ranked Tagir Ulanbekov.
Tagir was supposed to fight Joshua Van in June but had to withdraw thanks to missing weight by a large margin. Tagir is 4-1 in the UFC and was last in the octagon last December when he submitted Cody Durden in the second round.
Charles’ next fight: Tagir Ulanbekov
Cameron Smotherman
Cameron Smotherman came in on short notice and picked up a huge win against Jake Hadley on Saturday. The 2023 Contender Series fighter lost to Charalampos Grigoriou in his appearance on the show. Since then, he has gone 3-0 in Fury FC and got a called up to fight Hadley after Jake’s original opponent, Brady Hiestand, withdrew.
For his second fight in the UFC, Cameron should face Cody Haddon. Cody is a Contender Series alum from the 2024 season that has already tallied his first win with the promotion. Haddon defeated Dan Argueta by unanimous decision on October 12 in his promotional debut. At 8-1 he still is a little green, so it’d be a matchup that makes sense (Cameron is just 12-4.)
Cameron’s next fight: Cody Haddon
Darren Elkins
Darren Elkins turned in an exhausting night at the office on Saturday outwrestling and out-striking his opponent, Daniel Pineda, to get the unanimous decision nod.
At 40 years old, Elkins is currently the sole record holder for the most fights at featherweight in the UFC. At least until Max Holloway fights next weekend at UFC 308. Darren’s pro MMA record is 29-11. At this stage in his career, Elkins should only get extremely fun fights, much like he asked for.
A fight against Julian Erosa could be in the cards. Erosa has had a similar career to Elkins and is 30-11. Erosa is 2-2 in his last four fights and is still very game, and never in a boring fight (his last four fights ended in a finish). They also share several common opponents like Nate Landwehr, Charles Jourdain, Cub Swanson and Ricardo Ramos.
Darren’s next fight: Julian Erosa
