The UFC held it’s second and third events from Fight Island this week and the fights didn’t disappoint. The promotion is already going to be in matchmaking mode after the two cards.
With that in-mind, let’s dive into four fights that the UFC should look to make following the two Fight Island fight nights from this past week.
Calvin Kattar vs Max Holloway
Calvin Kattar (22-4) came out this week on the UFC‘s Fight Island and put on a clean boxing display against Dan Ige. Kattar proved he was one of the best at 145.
With this win, Kattar appears to be just one win away from a title shot. With that, who should the UFC give him next?
Everyone who is ranked above is tentatively booked for their next fights. Only two are not and that is the champion and Max Holloway (21-6).
Holloway and Kattar would be the perfect fight for the UFC to make assuming that Holloway is staying at featherweight. The former champion just proved he’s still at the very top of the heap even in a loss to Alexander Volkanovski.
This would be Kattar’s true test to see if he’s title shot ready. If Kattar fights and beats Max Holloway, you cannot the deny the man of a title shot.
If Holloway bounces back and beats Kattar, you can start to try to angle for his third shot at the champion Volkanovski.
Deiveson Figueiredo vs Askar Askarov
Last night, we crowned a new flyweight champion in Deiveson Figueiredo (19-1) who stopped Joseph Benavidez for the second consecutive time.
When he did it back in February, he didn’t get the UFC title due to missing weight. However, there was no controversy last night as Figueiredo ran through Benavidez on his way to the title.
Another fighter who looked incredibly impressive last night was Askar Askarov (12-0-1). Admittedly, I didn’t pick Askarov to beat Alexandre Pantoja, but he proved me wrong.
With a win over Panoja, I think that the undefeated Russian should be next in line to fight Figueiredo for the UFC flyweight championship.
Russian MMA is on fire right now with two active champions in the UFC. Askarov could make a push to become the third, then at featherweight Zabit Magomedsharipov could be right behind.
I will say it’s going to take a herculean effort to wrestle the flyweight title away from Figueiredo. Figueiredo looks like he can be Brazil’s next great male UFC champion. He looks poised to potentially dominate the division for a while.
Jack Hermansson vs Romero/Hall winner
Jack Hermansson (21-5) made extremely quick work of Kelvin Gastelum last night at UFC Fight Island 2. The Joker submitted Gastelum in just 78 seconds of their fight.
Hermansson is now 5-1 in his last six fights in the UFC. There’s not really a clear path for his next fight, but I think I see a potential matchup coming after the month of August.
Yoel Romero (13-5) and Uriah Hall (15-9) are scheduled to fight next month. I think Hermansson could face the winner of that matchup.
In all likelihood, the winner of Whittaker/Till will get the next title shot, and I can’t see the UFC remaking Hermansson/Cannonier right now. Yoel Romero would be the next step up for Hermansson.
Hermansson is getting closer to a title shot. He’s going to need one or two wins coming against someone in or near the top five to make it happen. A win over Romero/Hall would get him halfway there.
The UFC’s week ahead
The UFC is going to be firing on all cylinders this week. Dana White said this week that he was hoping to get the UFC‘s schedule through October/November done by Friday. We should see some big news this week coming from the promotion.