UFC Vegas 114 ushered in the arrival of what some fans may see as a brand new featherweight contender. The card featured 14 bouts, six of which were on the main card. In the main event, a ranked featherweight showdown between former title challenger, Josh Emmett vs promotional standout Kevin Vallejos. In the co-main event, former strawweight title challenger, Amanda Lemos, took the octagon against the submission-finish machine, in Gillian Robertson. Three ranked matchups were on this main card so we’ve got three ranked fighters to match on this edition of losers matchmaker.
Josh Emmett
Kevin Vallejos(#14) peppered and finished Josh Emmett(#11) in the first round of their main event on Saturday to tally the largest win of his career. An absolutely devastating loss for 41-year-old Emmett who has now lost five of his last six fights.
Emmett is in a tough situation here, he hasn’t won consistently in a while. He looked a bit rough on Saturday (yet game), but he made no indication that he was prepared to hang it up. Emmett could slide to the edge of the rankings or out of them altogether.
Good next fight for Josh would be giving him the loser of (#12) Patricio Pitbull vs Aaron Pico. That fight goes down on April 11th, so timing would matchup just fine. Both fighters carry names and are former Bellator standouts. Pitbull is 1-1 with the UFC having lost his debut to Yair Rodriguez, but winning against Dan Ige in July of last year. Pico is 0-1 but lost via a wild spinning back elbow at the hands of top ranked, Lerone Murphy. This bout is going to be fireworks with two, very violent stand up strikers. Giving Emmett the loser keeps him relevant, gives the fans an exciting fight and offers another litmus test for the former Bellator fighters against a former UFC title challenger.
Emmett’s next fight: Patricio Pitbulll vs. Aaron Pico Loser
Amanda Lemos
Gillian Robertson (#8) strategically landed take downs in order to neutralize the striking of Amanda Lemos (#5) on Saturday and capture the unanimous decision victory. Lemos has to be a tad frustrated with herself after the performance in a very winnable fight. The 38-year-old is now riding a two fight losing streak and has lost four of her last six dating back to her 2023 unsuccessful title sho,t against then champ, Zhang Weili.
Amanda’s next fight should be against (#13) Denise Gomes. The UFC isn’t going to do Lemos any favors here, almost a 40-year-old 115lbs. fighter, they are going to continue to feed her to the young guns of the division. Denise is 6-2 with the promotion and is currently riding a four-fight win streak (Eduarda Moura, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Elise Reed and Teicia Pennington). A lot of these fighters aren’t even with the UFC anymore. But that’s not the 26-year-old’s fault. Most of the fighters directly above her a matched up already in the rankings, so what better fight to make than this? Both are strikers, and a fighter like Gomes could very well be the future of the division. A good fight to book and one that could easily sneak onto the main card of a fight night card. Winner propelled into the top 7 easily.
Lemos’s next fight: Denise Gomes
Andre Fili
Jose Delgado just edged out UFC veteran, Andre Fili, in a back and forth standup war on Saturday. Fili, a 13-year UFC veteran with 26 fights with the promotion, has gone 2-3 in the last two years. All losses in the time period have still been opposite some talented competition (Dan Ige, Melquizael Costa and now Jose Delgado). Andre is one of those guys has fought everyone. Not everyone, seemingly everyone…a whole lot of fighters. Often times Fili serves as a litmus test for fighters that want to enter the rankings of the featherweight division.
A solid next matchup for Fili would be pitting him against Chepe Mariscal. Chepe started off red-hot in the UFC back in 2023, ripping off five victories in a row (Trevor Peek, Jack Jenkins, Morgan Charriere, Damon Jackson and Ricardo Ramos). Unfortunately, in his most recent fight, last November, Chepe suffered his first promotional defeat at the hands of Pat Sabatini. Despite the timing not exactly matching up, this would be an excellent fight to get Mariscal back on the board. To get his bearings back and to see if he’s worthy of making a run at the rankings. For Fili, it’d be an excellent opportunity for him to prove he still belongs against a hot prospect that has recently stumbled. Great fight for the main card of an APEX based, fight night card.
Fili’s next fight: Jose ‘Chepe” Mariscal
Harry Hardwick
Undefeated fighter, Marwan Rahiki, came out on top of an edge-of-your-seat, two-round barn burner, opposite of Harry Hardwick. Harry was unable to answer the call for the third round, as his jaw was badly broken in the second. Rahiki and Hardwick landed the fight of the night bonus for this scrap, an honor rarely given to bouts that don’t go the distance. Harry has had a rough go at it in his short stint with the UFC, especially factoring injuries in now. Hardwick is 0-2 with the promotion. He made his debut last year on short notice and up a weight class and was rewarded by being finished in the first round with a calf kick.
Give this man a break and have him take on a fighter in his weight class, that he can prepare for, and has a similar promotional record. He’s more than proven that he can scrap.
Good next fight for Harry would be to give him the loser of the Tommy McMillen vs Manolo Zecchini fight. This fight goes down on April 4th, but due to Harry’s broken jaw- who knows when he’ll be looking at making an octagon return. Zecchini is 0-1 with the promotion and made his debut back in September of 2023, where Morgan Charriere stopped him in the first round. Manolo will be taking on a undefeated fighter making his UFC debut after winning on the Contender Series last year. Three young hungry guys with solid record, two of them having being fed to the wolves immediately upon entering the promotion. Excellent fight to book here, and defending how the fight goes on April 4, potentially tremendous upside.
Hardwick’s next fight: Loser of Tommy McMillen vs Manolo Zecchini
Oumar Sy
Ion Cutelaba secured a clever mounted guillotine late in the first to secure a submission victory over Oumar Sy on Saturday. Sy now falls to 3-2 in the UFC after signing as an undefeated fighter in 2024. Oumar started off hot with back to back victories in the UFC, but suffered his first defeat to Alonzo Menifield and has now suffered the first stoppage defeat of his career.
Oumar’s next fight should be against Rodolfo Bellato. Its rare the UFC pairs up a fighter coming off a stoppage loss against a fighter coming of a stoppage victory (especially without rankings invovled), but it makes sense in this scenario. Bellato was scheduled to fight Sy for his second UFC fight, he has gone 1-1-1 with 1 no contest since that bout fell through in 2024. Sy has had his entire UFC stint in that time, going 3-2. So even though Bellato is coming off a win, this fight still makes sense (That win was also against a 6-0 fighter making his promotional debut). This fight is one that should be revisited and still makes sense. The two also share a common opponent in Navajo Stirling.
Sy’s next fight: Rodolfo Bellato
Bruno Silva
Charles Johnson (#14) snuck away with the win over Bruno Silva (#15) to kick off the main card of UFC Vegas 114 on Saturday. Bruno is now 5-5 with the UFC and has dropped three of his last four. Worth noting that those other two losses were stoppages, but against the likes of Manel Kape and eventual champ, Joshua Van.
Bruno should fight the loser of (#10) Alex Perez vs. Sumudaerji for his next bout. That fight takes place on May 30th so the timing isn’t the best but it could still make a lot of sense. Perez is coming off a first round victory against Charles Johnson but he missed weight ahead of the bout. So that’s probably why he’s taking on an unranked fighter in Sumudaerji for his next fight. Before that, Perez had lost five of his last six fights stemming from his unsuccessful title shot opposite of Deiveson Figueiredo in 2020.
Sumudaerji has completely turned his UFC career around after a three-fight skid (Matt Schnell, Tim Elliott, Charles Johnson). Sumudaerji has ripped off three huge wins in a row in just under a year (Mitch Raposo, Kevin Borjas, Jesus Aguilar). Perfect fight to give the loser to Silva due to the common opponents in Charles Johnson and where all three men sit in the rankings (or out of them).
Silva’s next fight: Loser of Alex Perez vs. Sumudaerji
