The third annual Noche UFC offering took place in San Antonio and saw Mexican fighters go 5-0. Even better, they went 8-0 if you count Diego Lopes, Kelvin Gastelum and Tatiana Suarez who have also been known to represent Mexico. The card had something for everyone. The main event had some bad blood to it; we saw breakout performances from youngsters like David Martinez and Santiago Luna with some fun scraps sandwiched in between. As we move forward to Perth to close out the month of September, let’s first look at what’s next for our main card winners.
Diego Lopes
After getting outclassed by Alexander Volkanovski in April, some fans thought Diego Lopes maybe wasn’t as good as his previous run may have indicated. Well, he just taught the rising Jean Silva a lesson about the value of experience. A grappling domination in the opening round capped off by a sick spinning elbow finish in the second. This was a very important win for Lopes to hold his spot among the elites at featherweight, but it won’t give him a title opportunity.
It’s pretty evident at this point that the next title challenger will be Lerone Murphy, which means there are a lot of names to play with. There’s bad blood between Lopes and Yair Rodriguez, but I also like the idea of Yair fighting Arnold Allen. There’s Aljamain Sterling out there, but I like the idea of him facing Patricio Pitbull. Could Youssef Zalal earn himself a shot at the top5 with a standout performance against Josh Emmett? He could, but if the Calvin Kattar bout was any indication, it’s not the likely outcome.
That means Lopes is stuck in limbo until he either makes himself undeniable or Volkanovski loses the belt. Unfortunately for Movsar Evloev, he’s also stuck until he either scores a finish or ups his activity levels. Does anyone think it’s impossible that the UFC runs a rematch? The first fight was a lot of fun and it’s the most trouble we’ve seen Evloev face in his UFC career, despite Lopes taking the fight on 5 days’ notice. It wouldn’t shock me if they tasked Evloev with beating Lopes twice to earn his title shot.
Lopes’ next fight: Movsar Evloev
David Martinez
After a successful debut in March in Mexico, David Martinez was getting a massive opportunity as a late bump to the co-main event slot against a top10 name in Rob Font. For most 27-year-olds with just 13 professional fights under their belts, this would be too tall a task. But the young Mexican rose to the occasion. It wasn’t without adversity, but Martinez figured out Font’s timing and was pulling away by the end of the fight, even knocking him down in the dying seconds. Now that we have a new bantamweight contender on our hands, let’s see where he falls in the hierarchy of rising 135ers with names like Vinicius Oliveira and Montel Jackson. He passed this test, but I think another one of the same calibre is in order before we push Martinez up the food chain. The loser of the upcoming UFC Vancouver bout between Marlon Vera and Aiemann Zahabi makes a lot of sense.
Martinez’s next fight: Vera/Zahabi loser
Rafa Garcia
After starting his UFC career 0-2, Rafa Garcia has since gone 6-2 with his only two losses coming against Drakkar Klose and Grant Dawson. He was getting hit a lot, but his fighting spirit ultimately allowed him to outlast Jared Gordon and score the finish in the third round. Garcia had already proven he could defeat a certain level of fighters, but there is no doubt Gordon is the best win of his career. Another fighter whose UFC career didn’t start on a high note but has bounced back since is Kaue Fernandes. The Brazilian is coming off a nasty leg kick stoppage of Harry Hardwick just last week. Let’s pin those two together and see who comes out on top.
Garcia’s next fight: Kaue Fernandes
Kelvin Gastelum
The newly inducted fight wing Hall of Famer put on yet another entertaining fight with a very game Dustin Stoltzfus. His weight misses combined with his physical appearance make it easy to be deceived and forget how fast his hands are. He had to deal with Stoltzfus’ heavy strikes, but Gastelum’s speed is what ultimately gave him the edge. Despite this being yet another weight miss, it’s hard to picture the UFC cut Gastelum the same way they cut Bryan Battle. Assuming he stays in the promotion, at this point, he should just be used to provide fun action scraps. What better dance partner than Gregory “Robocop” Rodrigues to deliver exactly that?
Gastelum’s next fight: Gregory Rodrigues
Alexander Hernandez
“The Great Ape” had been juggling wins and losses for a full half decade ever since he infamously lost to Donald Cerrone in 2019. He always had some great attributes, but he never seemed to be able to put it all together. Now 32 years of age, Hernandez may have finally turned a corner. He’s now on a four-fight win streak, three of which came this calendar year, including two in a four-week span. The activity levels combined with the results he’s getting can only be encouraging.
Hernandez called out Michael Chandler, which at this point isn’t unrealistic, but I’m still doubtful the UFC will award him that fight. However, I don’t necessarily disagree with the idea of giving Hernandez a ranked opponent. I think a fight between Hernandez and Mauricio Ruffy is a great crossroads fight. One of them is on the best run of his UFC career, while the other’s stock has taken a serious hit after a bad loss. It’s an interesting matchup because there are legitimate question marks for both parties involved.
Hernandez’s next fight: Mauricio Ruffy
Santiago Luna
One minute into his UFC career, it looked like the 21-year-old Santiago Luna was in way over his head. He was getting hurt and wobbled all over the place before finally putting Quang Le down and laying him out in the very same round. While we learned that Luna can overcome adversity, we also did learn that we should be taking our time with him. No reason to throw him to the wolves, yet. I think someone like Ricky Turcios is the appropriate level of competition for Luna, at this point.
Luna’s next fight: Ricky Turcios
