That was one incredible card on Saturday, I can’t remember the last time I saw that many people lose their souls in such a brutal fashion. Reflecting after card had me struggling to decide who to pick for my spotlight of “What’s Next” this week. So many people catapulting themselves into top contender positions in emphatic fashion. Jorge Masvidal and Jan Blachowicz arguably earning themselves title shots, Michael Chiesa earning the right for a top 10 opponents, and Marlon Vera notching his 4th win in a row to take a big step up in competition. Those were just the winners of interest, some interesting losers in the mix too with Ben Askren taking a devastating 5 second loss sets him up for an interesting rebound matchup against a top 10 guy, Holly Holm has to make the decision on what to do with her career after getting Holmed by Amanda Nunes, and Thiago Santos having arguably the performance of the night while also not having a knee. After much deliberation I decided to go with Song Yadong because not only do I love his name, but I did a welterweight last week and don’t want to do it again.
Yadong is a 21 year old chinese UFC fighter training out of training out of Sacramento with Team Alpha Male. He is the owner of a 7 fight winning streak with 4 of those wins in the UFC. On Saturday, Yadong made the decision to punch Alejandro Perez back to 2018 with in a devastating knockout victory. Dana is foaming at the mouth at having a young talent that is able to help him break into the chinese market, who also happens to be an actually good fighter. You do not want to rush developing fighters, as much as the UFC is notorious for it, so you have to be smart with how you matchup your star prospects. If they make him fight top talent too soon and get crushed, it can mentally crush someone and have them fizzle out like an unnamed perfect version of a human being currently at the same gym as Yadong.
So without further ado, here are some fight that I think would be perfect for Song Yadong and the fans:
1. Jimmie Rivera – Going to start by saying that I train under this guy at Tiger Schulmann’s in Manhattan, so there is a little bias, but by no means am I reaching here. Rivera is currently the 8th ranked bantamweight with Yadong sitting at 13. Jimmie has lost 3 out of his last 4 and needs to find his groove again within the UFC if he wants to stay. He is short for the weight class standing at 5’4 (4 inches shorter that Yadong), but has elite striking and a strong grappling game. Yadong could leap up the rankings with a win over Rivera, and Rivera could find his footing with a win over a young talent that could give him the confidence that he had on his 20 fight win streak leading into last summer.
2. Cody Stamann – Here we have 2 guys coming off wins over Alejandro Perez. Stamann is 17-2 with a 4-1 record in the UFC, he is a wrestling specialist who is still working to improve his standup and submission game. He has been on the fortunate side on a couple of split decisions and his only loss is to likely title challenger, Aljamain Sterling. Both these fighters are trying to make a name for themselves in the UFC, being relatively unknown to the casual fan. I could see fireworks in this matchup, especially if they could be on the Main Card of the August 31st card in Shenzhen, China.
3. John Dodson – This is probably the least exciting out of all the matchups, but probably most logical for the UFC. Dodson has been on a skid, dropping 2 straight to Jimmie Rivera and Petr Yan, with a controversial split decision win over Pedro Munhoz. This is a fight that Yadong should win if he is going to be a competitor at 135, Dodson is talented but has lost a step and seems like he is destined to be a journeyman if he doesn’t retire first. On the other hand, it’d be stupid for Dodson to not take the fight, he needs to prove he can still beat young talents while also adding some confidence to make another run to the top.
All of that being said, I am under the impression that no matter who he fights next, it will be in China in August. The UFC is giving Weili Zhang a title shot from the number 6 ranking just because the event is in China, so for all I know Yadong could get a top 5 fighter. With One FC signing popular American fighters to break into our market, it’s not shocking that Dana wants to do the same to China and its nearly 1 and a half billion people. I am all for this kid becoming a star, I have not been able to decide on what fight kit to buy since the horrible Reebok deal, but you know for damn sure I’ll get a Yadong one if he breaks onto the scene. Join me next week when I try to pick someone for this column off a card that is just atrocious and has no business existing.