This past Saturday in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 79, we saw a big time matchup in the featherweight division. Top contenders battled it out as “Thug Nasty” Bryce Mitchell (16-1) took on “50K” Dan Ige (17-7).
Mitchell was looking to bounce back after his first professional loss that came at the hands of Ilia Topuria back in December. Mitchell said he was very sick entering that bout and shouldn’t have taken the fight, but he was afraid of the optics of backing out. Nevertheless, he showed up to fight and lost.
Entering this bout, many thought Mitchell needed to get the fight to the ground and that showed throughout the night. Whenever these two were striking, Ige was landing some pretty big shots. Ige did some serious damage to the right eye of Mitchell that had to be looked at by the cageside doctor.
However, in all three rounds, Mitchell was able to get big takedowns. After getting the takedowns in every round, Mitchell was also able to secure a dominant position such as mount or taking Ige’s back. In the end, those takedowns and positions were enough to earn Mitchell the win at UFC Vegas 79.
What’s next after UFC Vegas 79?
This was such a big win for Bryce Mitchell to get back on track. After the Topuria loss, he had to pull out of the Movsar Evloev fight with a back injury so his stock took a bit of a hit. However, his dominant grappling really showed and getting a win over Dan Ige is no joke.
So, now that he’s back on track with a win, who should the UFC pair him with next? Honestly, I would love to see them rebook the Evloev fight. From a rankings perspective, the fight just makes a ton of sense and stylistically, it’s a very fun fight. Let these two fight and the winner will be ready to take on the top-tier guys at 145.