On paper, UFC Vegas 106 was your standard Apex show, but it ended up delivering a stretch of six consecutive finishes early, making the prelims quite the watch. Young up-and-comers Hyun Sung Park, Denise Gomes, Luana Santos and Yadier del Valle, as well as veterans Jared Gordon and Gabe Green all got finishes within the first two rounds. The card was then capped off by a standout performance from blue chip prospect Michael Morales over the former title challenger Gilbert Burns. Let’s look at who should be next for our main card winners from Saturday.
Michael Morales
Gilbert Burns may have been on a three-fight skid entering this main event, but those three losses were to former champion Belal Muhammad, current champion Jack Della Maddalena, and current number 2 contender Sean Brady. “Durinho” had only lost to the very best, so for Morales to dust him off that easily inside a round is still very impressive.
Welterweight is on fire right now. The young are eating the old and the turnover is exciting to watch. Morales now adds his name to that mix as this win will have him crack the top10. However, with Islam Makhachev moving up to fight for the title, the division is on the verge of clogging up at the top. Shavkat Rakhmonov, the aforementioned Brady, Ian Machado Garry and the winner of the Atlanta main event next month will have legitimate claims to a title shot in the coming months. If the UFC books Morales against a top5 fighter, they will clog the title picture even more. That’s why, despite Leon Edwards making a ton of sense as Morales’ next opponent, the promotion should instead take its time with him. The Ecuadorian is still just 25 years old. He has all the time in the world to work his way to the top. When looking at it with that perspective, the winner of the Vicente Luque vs Kevin Holland fight at UFC 316 then becomes a good option. Morales also trains in Mexico and has expressed desires to fight on the Guadalajara card in September. That’s a turnaround that both Luque and Holland should be able to make.
Morales’ next fight: Luque/Holland winner
Mairon Santos
When he won The Ultimate Fighter last summer with a stunning KO in the finale, a lot of hype followed Mairon Santos into his UFC debut. This made his performance in March against Francis Marshall quite disappointing, as most people think he lost that bout despite getting his hand raised.
Even after barely winning his debut, the UFC gave the 24-year-old prospect a step up in competition in “Super” Sodiq Yusuff at UFC Vegas 106. The Nigerian fighter was ranked for a long time at featherweight before dropping two fights to Edson Barboza and Diego Lopes. The discrepancy in high-level experience didn’t deter the young Santos from winning a convincing, professional unanimous decision, earning two 30-27s in the process.
Julian Erosa would make a lot of sense as an opponent for Santos. “Juicy J” is 9-4 in his last 11 outings, with wins over names like Sean Woodson, Nate Landwehr and Charles Jourdain. He represents a respectable test for the 24-year-old Santos, who shouldn’t be rushing to the top15.
Santos’ next fight: Julian Erosa
Nursulton Ruziboev
The 6’5” Uzbekistani won his second bout of 2025, improving his UFC record to 4-1 (4-0 at middleweight). His sole loss was a short notice welterweight fight with Joaquin Buckley, a loss that has aged quite gracefully, all things considered. Though his callout of Bo Nickal wasn’t terrible, I highly doubt it’s a matchup that will materialize. Ruziboev still needs a signature win in this division before thinking about names like Nickal. Fighters like Cesar Almeida, Christian Leroy Duncan and Gerald Meerschaert would all be proper opponents for Ruziboev. In the end, I went with veteran Eryk Anders, who is also currently riding a two-fight win streak.
Ruziboev’s next fight: Eryk Anders
Melquizael Costa
Not even five full months into 2025 and Melquizael Costa has already fought three times, winning all three bouts. After submitting Andre Fili in Seattle in February, he beat Christian Rodriguez in a hard-fought three-round fight in Mexico City. On Saturday at UFC Vegas 106, he was facing off with Julian Erosa, who was also on a three-fight win streak entering this contest. The bout got Fight of the Night honours and saw Costa extending his win streak to four.
As he keeps inching closer to becoming a real player in the division, booking Costa now becomes dependent on his intentions going forward. If he wants to be matchmade for strategically to advance his career towards the rankings, and eventually the title, then he might wait for the outcome of the Calvin Kattar vs Steve Garcia fight going down in July. However, if he wants to stay active and become featherweight’s own Kevin Holland, then the opponent truly doesn’t matter that much. A name that satisfies both lines of thinking is Pat Sabatini. The Philadelphia fighter is 7-2 in the UFC and is back on a winning streak after a dominant outing over a dangerous Joanderson Brito last month. Costa was also the name I picked for Sabatini on What’s Next after he defeated Brito at UFC Vegas 105.
Costa’s next fight: Pat Sabatini
