After taking a week off following UFC 314, the MMA leader was back for the first of back-to-back Fight Night cards on the road. First stop was UFC Kansas City with a quality headliner between two welterweight prospects. Ian Machado Garry bounced back after his first career loss last December as he defeated the streaking Fighting Nerd, Carlos Prates. We also saw Anthony Smith retire and three new fighters enter the rankings in Zhang Mingyang, David Onama and Abus Magomedov. Let’s look at what should be next for those who were victorious in Missouri.
Ian Machado Garry
Machado Garry had to survive late in the final round in the UFC Kansas City headliner, but ultimately earned a unanimous decision victory. After this victory, Dana White announced that Garry would be the backup fighter for the welterweight title fight going down in Montreal in just three weeks. While this is not inconsequential, three weeks is a quick turnaround for someone who just went 25 minutes and found himself in trouble in the late stages of the bout. Assuming no one pulls out at UFC 315, we should be trying to book Garry for a fight in the second half of the year.
I originally had Sean Brady face Joaquin Buckley in a previous iteration of “What’s Next”, but with “New Mansa” getting booked against Kamaru Usman in June, this leaves the door open for Brady to fight the Irishman. With both Shavkat Rakhmonov and potentially even Islam Makhachev in play, neither Brady nor Garry can confidently claim the next shot at the title, which is why a fight between the two makes so much sense.
Machado Garry’s next fight: Sean Brady
Zhang Mingyang
The “Mountain Tiger” kept his perfect 100% 1st-round finish rate alive as he TKO’d the retiring Anthony Smith in just 4 minutes and 3 seconds. Though the outcome may have been a hard watch for some, we cannot say it was that surprising considering the miles that Smith has accrued over the years.
This win will welcome Zhang to the rankings, taking Smith’s #15 spot. Fights against Bogdan Guskov, Volkan Oezdemir, the Menifield/Sy winner or the Walker/Murzakanov loser are all on the table, but I went with Nikita Krylov. The veteran Krylov has enough experience to test the 26-year-old Zhang, but is also vulnerable enough to be a winnable for the Chinese fighter.
Zhang’s next fight: Nikita Krylov
David Onama
The 30-year-old Onama got the biggest scalp of his career and pushed his win streak to four with a unanimous decision victory over Giga Chikadze. Though this was a nice, professional win for Onama, it wasn’t exactly the type of statement that will launch him inside the top10. For that reason, I anticipate the UFC to give someone ranked below him. There are plenty of featherweights who have a case for a fight against someone like Onama. You cannot go wrong with any of Chepe Mariscal, Steve Garcia, Hyder Amil, Nathaniel Wood or Doo Ho Choi. In the end, I picked Dan Ige who himself will probably be asked to test another prospect after beating Sean Woodson two weeks ago.
Onama’s next fight: Dan Ige
Abus Magomedov
It once again wasn’t pretty, but Abus Magomedov did get his hand raised for the third consecutive time. And with Michel Pereira ranked at #14 before this fight, Magomedov will now be a ranked middleweight come Tuesday. Not unlike Onama, this wasn’t the statement win that will have the UFC eager to push Magomedov further up the ladder. Instead, he will likely be tasked to immediately defend his ranking against an unranked opponent. Looking at his situation with this lens, the winner of Kelvin Gastelum and Joe Pyfer became an easy choice for me.
Magomedov’s next fight: Gastelum/Pyfer winner
Randy Brown
With his Fight of the Night win at UFC Kansas City, “Rudeboy” keeps being one of the most underrated fighters in the division as he now moves to 10-3 in his last 13 fights. Those three losses came to a prime Vicente Luque, Jack Della Maddalena and a split decision loss to a Bryan Battle who had missed weight.
There are so many fitting names for Brown in that tier of fighters just outside the rankings. Both Oban Elliott and Mike Malott would be fine options should they be victorious in their next fights, Chidi Njokuani and Punahele Soriarno have been perfect since coming down from middleweight, Gabriel Bonfim, Sam Patterson and Rinat Fakhretdinov would also be viable names. I ended up choosing Fakhretdinov’s last opponent, Carlos Leal. Most people seem to think Leal beat Fakhretdinov in October and he followed that up by making it look easy against Alex Morono in March. A win for either man would inch them one step closer to a ranked opponent.
Brown’s next fight: Carlos Leal
Ikram Aliskerov
The multiple time sambo world champion reminded fans why he came into the UFC with the reputation he had as he made quick work of Andre Muniz to open the UFC Kansas City main card. That short notice loss to Robert Whittaker last June killed off a lot of Aliskerov’s hype, but this first-round KO victory over a former top 15 name should put him back on the map.
I could see the promotion try to push him up the ranks quickly as the 32-year-old is clearly better than his lack of ranking would suggest. Their high expectations for him were evident when they tried to book him against Paulo Costa in 2023 who was nearly ranked inside the top5 at the time. However, I would instead try to turn him around fairly quickly and have him fight another known, but lower-ranked name. Jack Hermansson has been MIA even since he upset Joe Pyfer in February of 2024, but he was ranked and only lost his ranking spot due to inactivity. Assuming he’s ready to come back, why not have him test Aliskerov sometime around June or July?
Aliskerov’s next fight: Jack Hermansson
