The UFC visited its Meta APEX facility once again on Saturday. This time, for a 12-fight fight night card, UFC Vegas 118. The card was capped off with an interesting ranked welterweight matchup between the former 170lb UFC champ Belal Muhammad and 2022 Contender Series alum Gabriel Bonfim. In the co-main event, which ended up capturing Fight of the Night honors, Brendan Allen battered an unranked Edmen Shahbazyan in a fun and action-packed fight. A rare five-fight Fight Night card as this edition of losers highlights a unique group to match up.
Belal Muhammad
(#11) Gabriel Bonfim looked like he was in the matrix on Saturday as he cruised to 50-45 unanimous decision victory over (#5) Belal Muhmamad in the main event. Belal is now riding a three-fight losing streak originating from his unsuccessful title defense against Jack Della Maddalena in May of 2025. The other name in that skid was Ian Machado Gary, who Belal lost to via unanimous decision in November of 2025.
Given the circumstances and the performance from Belal on Saturday, he deserves respect but given he’s turning 38 years old in just a month, will he ever make it back to title contention? That’s for Belal to answer. But a fight that makes a lot of sense right now is letting him take on a name like Shavkat Rakhmonov.
The pair were originally supposed to fight in late 2024 but Belal broke his foot. Instead, Shavkat took on and defeated Ian Machado Garry via unanimous decision. Due to injury Shavkat has been on ice since that appearance. He’s completely slid out of the rankings due to inactivity. Shavkat still has that notoriety at 7-0 in the UFC but needs a way to insert himself back into the division. What better way than matching these guys up to see where both stand? Fight Night main/co-main event where the winner gets a relevant ranking and an eventual path towards the title.
Muhammad’s next fight: Shavkat Rakhmonov
Edmen Shahbazyan
(#4) Brendan Allen logged an entertaining victory against Edmen Shahbazyan in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 118 to position himself closer to a title shot. The loss snapped a three-fight win streak for Shahbazyan that saw him defeating Dylan Budka, Andre Petroski, and Andre Muniz. The 2018 Contender Series alum is now 9-6 with the UFC. Shahbazyan was scheduled for a fight against Jun Yong Park in April, but the bout was cancelled after Park was injured.
That Park fight could be a good backup, but with that performance, Edmen should draw the loser of (#15) Ikram Aliskerov vs. Brunno Ferriera. That fight goes down on June 27 so the timing would work. Ikram has won two in a row since getting smoked by Robert Whittaker in 2024. He’s 4-1 in the UFC. And his most recent fight was a victory against Jun Yong Park in October of last year. Ferreira is 6-3 with the UFC and coming off a devastating first round KO at the hands of Gregory Rodrigues. Shahbazyan drawing the loser of this huge fight is an excellent, but dangerous, matchup. Could be on the main card of a Fight Night or the undercard of a PPV. Winner fights a ranked name.
Oh, and deviating from a previous loser’s article pick of Israel Adesanya here. It’s not something completely outside of the realm of possibility, but at the movement, just feels like a little too harsh of matchmaking for Izzy, all things considered. Just doesn’t work as well right now.
Shahbazyan’s next fight: (#15) Ikram Aliskerov vs Brunno Ferriera loser or Jun Yong Park
Fares Ziam
Tom Nolan completed the mild upset of Saturday with his unanimous decision victory of (#14) Fares Ziam. The loss snapped a 6-fight win streak for Ziam who now falls to 8-3 with the UFC. Absolutely devastating outcome for Ziam who had finally climbed into the shark infested rankings of the lightweight division.
Ziam’s next scrap should be against a fighter like MarQuel Mederos. The 2023 Contender Series alum is 3-0-1 within the UFC. MarQuel has defeated Landon Quinones, Austin Hubbard, and Mark Choinski before he fought Chris Padilla to a majority draw in his most recent outing. MarQuel is on the climb and giving him a recently ranked fighter in a guy like Fares Ziam makes perfect sense. On the other side of the coin, Ziam needs to reset, a solid win against a respected fighter, preferably a finish, that’ll draw him another shot at the rankings. Only thing off here is that MarQuel last fought on April 11, so maybe the timing doesn’t matchup the greatest. Backup here is Chris Padilla (MarQuel’s last opponent), who is 4-0-1 but missed weight in his last outing.
Ziam’s next fight: MarQuel Mederos or Chis Padilla
Santiago Luna
Bryce Mitchell submitted his short notice replacement, Santiago Luna, in the final 10 second of their bout on Saturday. Considering the circumstances, short notice, and his second fight with the UFC, against a high-profile opponent, Luna had a decent showing. It’s still a bitter pill to swallow for Luna, as that was the first defeat of his professional MMA career. Santiago is now 2-1 with the UFC since being signed in September of 2025.
Good next fight for Luna would be to match him up against John Yannis. John fought on the undercard on Saturday and also lost. Yannis was taking on a tall task in formerly ranked fighter, Marcus McGhee (who was coming off a main event loss to Petr Yan). So, the timing would match up well here. Yannis is 1-2 with the UFC but his losses are to McGhee and Austin Bashi. Very respectable defeats. Excellent fight to make here, offering both guys a litmus test that is more in line with their trajectories.
Luna’s next fight: John Yannis
Junior Tafa
Iwo Baraniewski stayed undefeated on Saturday with his first-round destruction of Junior Tafa to open the main card of UFC Vegas 118.
Iwo was originally scheduled to take on Billy Elekana who is 3-1 with the UFC. After Billy withdrew, Tafa answered the call. Junior is now 3-6 with the promotion and has lost three of his last four fights. Tafa is in a sticky situation as if he wasnt in such a shallow division, he likely would have already been cut.
Best fight to make here is to rebook one of Junior’s fights that have been cancelled. A scrap with Ibo Aslan seems like exactly what the doctor ordered in this situation. The pair were originally supposed to fight in September of 2025 before Tafa suffered an injury. Tafa is 1-2 since that fight fell through. Aslan is 0-1 since it was booked. But that loss was also to Iwo Baraniewski. And it was also a first round finish. So, this matchup works great- and considering Ibo is riding a 3-fight losing skid, the loser of this bout will likely be facing the axe.
Junior’s next fight: Ibo Aslan
