Well, Dana White stole a lot of my thunder for this post by already announcing that B.J. Penn will meet Jon Fitch and George Sotiropoulos will face Dennis Siver at UFC 127 in February in Sydney, Australia.
But, we still have a few more winners from Saturday's UFC 123 to talk about and find out where they could be headed next, so let's get right into it.
Quinton Jackson — After beating Lyoto Machida by split decision in the main event of the show, "Rampage" moves back into the light-heavyweight title picture. This will be interesting because Jackson didn't have a blow-away performance that makes you want to see him get the next title shot following the winner of the Mauricio Rua/Rashad Evans fight. Jackson's placement could depend on how the two 205-pound fights go at UFC 126 when Jon Jones meets Ryan Bader and Rich Franklin meets Forrest Griffin. If I was in charge, I'd look to go in the direction of Jackson against Jones (should Jones beat Bader) in a title eliminator bout. I think it's safe to say the UFC is going to wait until Rua and Evans meet before making any decisions on where to book Rampage next.
Phil Davis — It's too bad Tito Ortiz is going to fight Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. That would've been a good fight for Davis. This is interesting because you really don't want to throw him into the deep end. The UFC needs to nurture his development here and make sure they don't stunt his growth. Fighting four times in the UFC this year is an excellent start and finishing Tim Boetsch like he did is a great sign. It's clear Davis has skills. So who do you match him up against next? In looking at different fighters, I like a fight between Davis and Brandon Vera the most, but that's probably not going to happen because they train together. Or maybe they go with a fight with Jason Brilz, which I think would make sense as well but eventually Davis is going to have to face someone who is dangerous standing.
Mark Munoz — Our final fighter on today's list is middleweight Mark Munoz, who took a unanimous decision from Aaron Simpson on the Spike TV portion of Saturday's card. I think Munoz against Alessio Sakara would make sense (if Sakara doesn't kill himself from cutting too much weight and actually fights) or possibly a fight against Alan Belcher when he returns from his eye injury. There's a lot of places to go with Munoz because of the glut of talent at the middle level of the middleweight division. Tom Lawlor could also be a possibility here. It also should be said that Munoz is 4-1 at 185 pounds in the UFC. I think that fact gets overlooked sometimes.
Loading comments...