With the insane amount of free time on my hands, my mind has wandered to some weird places. One of the places that wasn’t too weird was fantasy booking some UFC fights. These are fights that make sense and can happen. They’re active fighters in the same weight class. I tried to stay away from guys that already have fights booked, and I stayed away from championship fights. Only one fight isn’t between top ranked guys. These aren’t all of the fights I’ve thought of, just some of them.
PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING STORYLINE FIGHT
COLBY COVINGTON V. JORGE MASVIDAL
Former best friends, roommates, and training partners turned enemies. The video packages, press conferences, and entire build to this fight would be epic. Maybe it’s because I am a professional wrestling fan, but I would buy the shit out of this pay-per-view. I would watch every press conference. These guys are two of the best trash talkers in the UFC, and they would be must see TV.
All of that ignores the fact that these guys are ranked 2 and 3 in the welterweight division. This fight would be insanely entertaining. Colby is coming off his loss to champion Kamaru Usman in what was a great fight. Masvidal is coming off his BMF title win over Nate Diaz, where Masvidal battered Diaz so badly that the doctors called the fight off. This fight might not make much sense for Masvidal since he can angle for a title shot. But there are rumors that Conor will get the next title shot and I will believe any rumor of UFC giving an unwarranted title shot to someone.
I think these guys would deliver an entertaining build up for the fight. But even more, I think they could deliver one hell of a fight. They’re action fighters and they tend to deliver great fights. These guys dislike each other and you’d have to think they would bring the violence to each other. I think this fight would be great and the winner would get the next shot at the welterweight title.
SUPER SKILL MATCHUP FIGHT THAT FANS MIGHT HATE
BRYCE MITCHELL V. RYAN HALL
I don’t know if a lot of fans would like to see this fight. This would be buried on the prelims of a card. Ryan Hall is the #14 ranked featherweight. Bryce Mitchell isn’t even ranked. But these guys are two of the best grapplers in the UFC at the moment. This fight would go two directions. It would either be a straight Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grappling match or their grappling would cancel out and it would be a weird standup fight. I would lean towards grappling because I think they are both confident enough to try to grapple.
Hall has around 1 fight a year because he can’t find fighters willing to step into the octagon with him. He is super frustrating to fight. Hall is an extremely interesting fighter to watch, and it is a shame not many guys are willing to fight him. Bryce Mitchell is a grappling specialist himself. Nine of his thirteen wins come by submission. He had the second twister in UFC history in December 2019. In his last fight, a win over Charles Rosa 3 weeks ago, he tried for a twister a couple of more times. Mitchell is definitely a big threat on the ground.
There are not many guys willing to step into the octagon with Ryan Hall. Hall’s nickname is the Wizard for a reason. He is uncanny when it comes to grappling. Not many guys can keep up with him and he wants to stay active but for that, he needs guys to be willing to fight him. I think Bryce Mitchell would relish the opportunity. He likes the chance to face high level BJJ guys. Rosa was a black belt BJJ practitioner from a big gym, and Bryce embarrassed him. Bryce had top control for 13:59 of that fight. It was total domination. While this is a matchup of two guys that are totally irrelevant to any title picture, I would love to see these two grappling experts face off.
JUST A FUCKING AWESOME FIGHT THAT MIGHT HAPPEN
MAX HOLLOWAY V. KOREAN ZOMBIE
Like Masvidal above, Holloway has no reason to take this fight, but holy shit can you imagine how entertaining this fight would be? This fight probably only happens if Holloway beats Volkanovski and Korean Zombie beats Ortega or Holloway loses to Volkanovski and Korean Zombie loses to Ortega. Holloway is coming off his December loss to Alexander Volkanovski, where he lost his title. That being said, if Holloway took a match against Korean Zombie, it would rightfully be hyped as a dream fight that could be one of the best featherweight fights in UFC history.
The Korean Zombie fought the week after Holloway lost his title; TKZ had a first round TKO win over Frankie Edgar. TKZ had a first round TKO over Renato Moicano in June 2019. TKZ had been matched up with Brian Ortega but Ortega pulled out, then Ortega punched TKZ’s translator. TKZ wants the Ortega fight, but this fight screams awesome.
Holloway has the record for most strikes thrown in UFC history. The guy has an insane gas tank and just throws endless amounts of strikes. All of his fights are entertaining brawls, and I can’t imagine a fight with TKZ would disappoint. It is also nearly impossible to find a TKZ fight that is boring. His nickname is the Korean Zombie because he doesn’t tire out and he just keeps moving forward and throwing strikes. I think this is a match made in heaven. Whether Holloway wins or loses against Volkanovski in their rematch, I think this fight against Korean Zombie should be next for him. I am drooling just thinking about them meeting in the octagon.
FRANCIS NGANNOU CEMETERY
CURTIS BLAYDES V. JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK
Two victims of Francis Ngannou. Blaydes has had the unfortunate luck to run into the Ngannou buzzsaw twice. Blaydes thought he was going to implement the Stipe Miocic gameplan of wrestling Ngannou and stifling him for the entire fight. Ngannou said no thanks both times and finished Blaydes in both fights. Rozenstruik had the balls to call out Ngannou after beating Alistair Overeem at the end of 2019. Then Rozenstruik got destroyed by Ngannou in 20 seconds nearly 3 weeks ago.
Blaydes has been on a 3 fight win streak since losing to Ngannou in November 2018. Blaydes last two fights were both 2nd round TKO wins. Blaydes is an absolute beast of a fighter. Ten of his 13 wins come by KO/TKO. He is the #3 ranked heavyweight, but there aren’t a lot of logical fights for him at the moment. The champion, Stipe Miocic is most likely fighting the #1 ranked heavyweight, Daniel Cormier. The #2 ranked heavyweight is Ngannou, has destroyed Blaydes twice, and has the next title shot lined up. Blaydes is the #3 ranked heavyweight. The #4 ranked heavyweight is Junior dos Santos, which was Blaydes’ last fight, a 2nd round TKO win for Blaydes. The #5 ranked heavyweight is Derrick Lewis, that fight does make sense, but it doesn’t get me as excited.
Jairzinho Rozenstruik is the #6 ranked heavyweight. He is coming off his first professional loss, a 20 second KO to Francis Ngannou. Before that, he stormed into the UFC with a 4-0 record, with 4 KO/TKOs in 2019. Rozenstruik had an impressive rookie year. He beat Allen Crowder in 9 seconds with a jab. He knocked out Andrei Arlovski in 29 seconds. Then, he closed out 2019 by ripping Overeem’s cheek apart and getting a KO win with 4 seconds left in the 5th round. Rozenstruik showed a sophisticated and precise striking game that is very good. Unfortunately for him, and as many have learned and will learn in the future, that doesn’t matter against Ngannou. Ngannou came out firing and landed straight away and shut down the hype of Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
This matchup makes sense because Blaydes gets a matchup against another top heavyweight contender that he hasn’t faced yet that is a big striker. He can see if he improved enough to possibly beat Ngannou. Because let’s be real, if Blaydes ever wants to be champion, he is probably going to have to beat Ngannou. Then it makes sense for Rozenstruik, because we will get to see his wrestling get tested.
JON JONES ROUND ROBIN INVITATIONAL
DOMINICK REYES V. THIAGO SANTOS
A lot of people think Reyes should get a rematch with Jon Jones, but that is recency bias. A lot of people didn’t like when Reyes got the first match with Jones over a Santos rematch with Jones. I think it is Jan Blachowicz’s turn in the Jon Jones Round Robin Invitational to face the champion. If Jan faces Jones, that leaves the two guys that lost close decisions to Jones in their most recent fights on the outside of the title picture. I thought Jones lost both the Santos and Reyes fights. They were close enough that I wasn’t angry or thought they were terrible robberies, but I didn’t think they were good decisions. So, it makes complete sense to match these two killers up and have them fight each other for the right to face Jones again.
Santos hasn’t fought since his July 2019 loss to Jones. Which makes sense since he tore his ACL in that fight. That was a great fight, and it was really close. I thought Santos won. Santos is an absolute killer, and sledgehammer is an apt nickname for him. Fifteen of his 21 wins have come by KO/TKO. You know his fights provide entertainment.
Reyes lost to Jones before this pandemic in February 2020. It was a unanimous decision, which was a closer fight than Santos’ loss, but I thought Reyes had an argument for winning the fight as well. That was Reyes’ first loss in his professional career. Before that, he was on quite a run. Seven of Reyes’ 12 wins come by KO/TKO. He also carries power and brings violence to fights.
This fight just makes too much sense. I hate automatic title rematches for title challengers, unless it was a fluke stoppage. I didn’t like the decision of either fight, but neither were a true robbery to the point of deserving a rematch. Maybe if there was no #1 contender they could get a rematch, but Jan is there and he has earned a shot at Jones’ title. So make this banger of a fight, and let the winner fight the winner of Jon Jones v. Jan Blachowicz. It makes way too much sense.