UFC on ABC 5: The night of the prospects

I can’t lie, most of this piece will be dedicated to Ilia Topuria’s masterclass against Josh Emmett and what his next move should be, but a few other prospects really shone as well, and deserves praise for some excellent performances.

Tabatha Ricci continued her climb in the strawweight division with a dominant performance over Gillian Robertson. It wasn’t the most explosive of fights, but Ricci did what she had to do against a crafty fighter who had looked very good in her return to strawweight. Ricci moved to number 14 in the rankings, and should be looking at an opponent around the top 10 next. Number 9 Tecia Torres could make sense, but Tatiana Suarez is the only one in that range that’s already matched up, so the UFC could really take their pick here.

We also had Brendan Allen, who took on Bruno Silva in the main card opener. Silva had taken former champion Alex Pereira’s best punches and survived to a decision, so we knew he was tough. He had also KO’d Brad Tavares in his last fight, so he posed a threat to Allen on the feet, at least on paper. In actuality though, Brendan Allen made it look quite easy. He dropped Silva, before jumping on his back, eventually sinking in a rear naked choke for the finish. Allen is now on a 5 fight winning streak and ranked number 11 in the middleweight division, and the next logical move for him should be to have the Jack Hermansson fight rebooked. They were supposed to fight on the Kara-France vs Albazi card, but Hermansson had to pull out. He could also maybe aim higher for someone like a Derek Brunson or a Roman Dolidze, but the Hermansson fight just makes the most sense.

In the co-main event, Maycee Barber produced the biggest win of her career and made a real statement by TKO’ing Amanda Ribas in the second round. She dominated most of the first round too, and it was clear that Barber’s strength and size was too much for Ribas in this fight. She has always been very scrappy, but it looked like her striking had gone up a level since we last saw her, and the sequence in which she dropped Ribas was very, very good. A beautiful headkick followed by some nice shots and what I initially thought was a clash of heads, which actually was a perfect short left hook that dropped Ribas. When Barber then got on top, it was relentless ground and pound until the ref had to pull her off. Now ranked number 8 and on a 5 fight win streak, she should obviously fight someone ahead of her, but there’s not too many of them that aren’t matched up right now. Grasso, Shevchenko, Fiorot, Blanchfield, Santos and Andrade are already matched up, so Katlyn Chookagian is probably the best bet for Barber.

Now to the main event. Wow what a performance that was from Ilia Topuria. His boxing is just to crisp, and his defence is probably some of the best in the division. Josh Emmett is no joke, and to stand with him for 5 straight round and not even be in danger once is quite the achievement. Still undefeated and now looking at a top 5 ranking, I find it hard to come up with reasons not to give Topuria the next title shot. That is, of course, as long as Volkanovski gets past Yair Rodriguez in a couple of weeks, which is not a foregone conclusion by any means. Because if Rodriguez were to win at UFC 290 there will absolutely be an immediate rematch for Volkanovski, somthing that would delay an eventual title shot for Topuria. Then he has to decide if he wants to stay active or wait it out. My gut feeling is that he will take a fight in the meantime, and at this moment in time Arnold Allen or Brian Ortega would be the most likely candidates. I think Ortega would be the easier of the two, because although Topuria didn’t really showcase it this time, his grappling is on par with, if not better than his striking which would negate T-City’s best asset.

No matter what happens at UFC 290, I just don’t want every contender to have to go through Max Holloway to get to the champion. Don’t get me wrong, I love Holloway and think he is an incredible fighter. The gap between him and the rest of the division (apart from Volkanovski obviously) has been massive, although some of his latest fights have been closer. Max has already had 3 losses to Volk, 2 of them which were rematches, but he’s still good enough to beat the rest of the guys, which in a way keeps Volkanovski from having some fresh matchups. So if Rodriguez beats Volkanovski and Holloway beats The Korean Zombie, please don’t put Topuria up against Holloway, because even though I don’t think it’s an impossible task for Topuria (especially if it’s over 3 rounds), I don’t want to see another top contender be halted just so we can see Volkanovski vs Holloway 4.

That’s all for this week, but funnily enough there’s an opportunity for more prospects to make a real breakthrough next weekend as well! The UFC are (mostly) delivering some very solid cards this summer.