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Brett Okamoto
As soon as Julianna Peña tapped Kayla Harrison‘s back in the penultimate fight of UFC 316 to signal she had had enough of Harrison’s Kimura lock, the Newark, New Jersey, crowd cheered its approval and all eyes turned to future UFC Hall of Fame bantamweight Amanda Nuneswho was sitting cageside with her family.
“Come on up here, Amanda!” Harrison yelled in Nunes’ direction during her postfight interview. “This is the next fight.”
She’s right, of course. If all goes to plan, Nunes will come out of retirement to be Harrison’s first title challenger in what will instantly be a fight of the year candidate — in whatever year that might be.
A similar story played out in the final fight of the night, after Merab stay frustrated and ultimately finished fan favorite Sean O’Malley with a guillotine in the third round of their men’s bantamweight title rematch.
Cory Sandhagenjust about the only current UFC bantamweight contender Dvalishvili hasn’t beaten, smiled from the audience as the champion called for him to be his next target. Sandhagen has been in the UFC since 2018, but it appears his time has come to challenge for a title.
Let’s take a deeper look at those championship scenarios and possible next steps for many of the fighters featured at UFC 316.
Merab Dvalishvili, men’s bantamweight
Who should be next: Cory Sandhagen
The UFC doesn’t always make matchups on fight night, but it’s nice when it does — especially an obvious one like this. Sandhagen has taken a long route to his first official title fight, and he gets some blame for that. He has come up short in big moments, but if you look at his body of work — not to mention his obvious talent — it’s kind of wild that it has taken this long for him to get here. Now that he is here, though, he has a sizable champion to try to take down. Sandhagen knows what he’s up against. He said Saturday that he has to get a knockout against Dvalishvili. That’s a lot easier said than done. Sandhagen is one of the biggest knockout threats in the division, but he would need to capitalize on any small moment Dvalishvili gives him.
Wild card: Petr Yan
If he beats Marcus McGhee on July 26 in Abu Dhabi, Yan will be right there for a chance to reclaim the belt he lost in 2022. His obvious problem is that he lost a non-competitive fight to Dvalishvili in 2023, but that doesn’t mean Yan can never get a second chance at the championship. He would have to look amazing against McGhee and still need the Sandhagen matchup to fall through to get a title shot, though.
Sean O’Malley, men’s bantamweight
Who should be next: José Aldo
This is the tough one. There is no obvious path forward right now for O’Malley after two consecutive defeats, so a recently retired Aldo is a nonobvious answer. I respect Aldo’s choice to say he’s done, but let’s also acknowledge that a lot of us weren’t happy with the way the UFC matchmade him during his comeback. The potential of an O’Malley matchup might actually get him very excited, though. It would also get fans excited. The UFC would benefit by putting together an O’Malley fight people care about, and there’s a shortage of those. Aldo surprising everyone with another return to the Octagon would garner a ton of attention.
Wild card: Henry Cejudo
O’Malley has always wanted to fight Cejudo. They’re from the same area in Arizona. O’Malley has always found Cejudo’s way of promotion a bit … lame. O’Malley, 5-foot-11, loves fighting shorter opponents and likes to remind the 5-4 Cejudo just how much shorter he is. Cejudo has said he might be done, but you definitely get the sense he doesn’t want to finish his career on a fight-ending eye poke in a February loss to Song Yadong. If Cejudo decides to fight again, I could see both sides wanting this fight.
Kayla Harrison, women’s bantamweight
Who should be next: Amanda Nunes
Easiest matchmaking of all time. We’ve basically been waiting for this since Harrison entered MMA. We always knew it would take a long time to happen, and there were moments along the way when it looked like it never would. Harrison signed with the PFL as a lightweight and said she’d never cut weight to bantamweight. Nunes lost to Peña when Harrison was looking to test free agency and join the UFC. Then Nunes retired. Still, the fight always seemed very much alive, and it doesn’t seem like it’s happening too late. It’ll be the biggest fight in women’s MMA in a very long time. By the time it happens, after all of the promotion, maybe it’ll be the biggest ever.
Kevin Hollandwelterweight
Who should be next: Carlos Prates
When Holland is focused (and competing at 170 pounds), he’s a title contender. He came within one scorecard of defeating the current champion, Maddalena jackin 2023. Holland has always said he doesn’t care about the belt and that he’s willing to bounce between welterweight and middleweight, but it seems that’s about to change. When he said he wants to stay at 170, it was music to my ears. He’s good at this weight class. When he fights at 185 pounds, I get the sense that sometimes even he doesn’t think he’s supposed to win. Prates looks like the real deal, despite a loss to Ian Machado Garry in his last bout. Holland vs. Prates would be absolutely fire.
Wild card: Stephen Thompson
They fought in 2022, and it was an instant classic. Thompson won, which means there’s incentive for Holland to get revenge. No one wants to see Thompson in a fight in which he’s constantly defending takedowns, and while Holland might jump on a choke here and there, he’s not going to spend an entire fight trying to take “Wonderboy” down. This fight would be good for both of their careers, not to mention the fans.
Mario Bautistamen’s bantamweight
Who should be next: Marlon Vera
If Bautista feels a little slighted by fans and media after his win over Patchy Mixit’s with good reason. It was probably inevitable that the majority of the prefight focus would surround his UFC 316 opponent, considering Mix was making a long-awaited move from Bellator MMA to the UFC. But still, Bautista was on a seven-fight win streak and coming off a victory over former UFC champion Jose Aldo. After how good he looked Saturday, I don’t expect him to be underappreciated again in the next one. He was supposed to face “Chito” Vera at UFC 316, but Vera withdrew because of an injury. Vera is a popular fighter; Bautista could benefit from adding to Vera’s name to his résumé, and I think Bautista would be favored to win.
Wild card: Song Yadong
Yadong is coming off a controversial victory over Henry Cejudo in which Cejudo was badly impacted by an accidental eye poke. Yadong is for real, though. And at this point, it’s hard to say Bautista isn’t as well. The UFC might choose to hang on to this fight, because it’s a good one that seems inevitable at some point. But if they chose to do it now, it would be a highly entertaining one.
Azamat Murzakanovlight heavyweight
Who should be next: Aleksandar rakic
In terms of matchups, Murzakanov has been the victim of bad timing and bad luck. He’s 5-0 in the UFC, but he hasn’t faced the highest-ranked competition. At various times, he was booked to fight Volkan Oezdemir, Khalil Rountree Jr., Nikita Krylov and Johnny Walkerand every single one of those fights fell through. It’s time to get him a big jump in competition. He needs it, and this division needs it. Rakic has lost three in a row, but every loss has been to the very top of the division. He’s at a point where he needs to defend his spot, and that should be against Murzakanov.
Wild card: Jan Blachowicz
I love Blachowicz, as does the rest of the MMA world. His rise to UFC champion was unexpected at his age. That said, the 42-year-old is kind of sitting on a ranking at this point. He’s officially ranked No. 5 at light heavyweight by the UFC but hasn’t won a fight since 2022. His last win was against Rakic, who, as we just mentioned, has lost three in a row. If Blachowicz wants to maintain his spot in the rankings, this is the kind of fight he needs to accept.
