Matches to Make After UFC Fight Night 221

Merab Dvalishvili authored a performance that made the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s bantamweight traffic jam even more of a mess.

In the main event of UFC Fight Night 221 on Saturday at the Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas, the 32-year-old Georgian delivered a stunningly one-sided manhandling of former champ Petr Yan. Dvalishvili attempted a UFC-record 49 takedowns, and while he landed only 11 of them according to the official stat line, the other 38 were not wasted: Yan was kept off-balance and uncomfortable for the entire fight, as one of the division’s most highly regarded boxers was outlanded by a nearly two-to-one margin. After five rounds, Yan was the owner of a badly swollen right eye and a frustrated demeanor, while “The Machine” had picked up three unanimous 50-45 scorecards and the biggest win of his career.

Dvalishvili’s win means that 2023 may finally be the year that he and his longtime teammate, current 135-pound champion Aljamain Sterling, can no longer coexist in the same division without fighting one another. Given that both men have repeatedly said they will never do so, the already crowded bantamweight title picture now has one more complicating factor. Time marches on, however, so here are matches that ought to be made for Dvalishvili and some of the other notable winners at “UFC Las Vegas.”

Merab Dvalishvili vs. Henry Cejudo—or maybe Sean O'Malley

With all due respect to Beneil Dariush and Belal Muhammad, Dvalishvili is the most overdue title contender in the UFC. His winning streak now stands at nine straight, with a good case that he should be 11-0 in the Octagon right now, and short of getting a finish, his showing at UFC Fight Night 221 could not have gone much better. While Yan came into the fight having lost three of his last four, all the losses had been controversial in some way or another. That ended on Saturday, as even the most charitable observer would have had trouble seeing more than one round in favor of the Russian. On top of handing Yan the first truly indisputable loss of his career, Dvalishvili showed that his furious pace and endless cardio—maybe the best in the entire sport—were just as effective a weapon in a five-round fight, answering the last possible remaining question about Dvalishvili’s worthiness to compete for a belt.

Thus, the teammate situation with Sterling has finally come to a head. Slowed by a neck injury that required surgery, Sterling’s own two-fight rivalry with Yan occupied the title picture for most of the last two years while Dvalishvili kept on racking up wins, and Sterling has maintained that he would move up to featherweight once his teammate was next in line. However, Sterling is now scheduled to fight returning former champ Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 in May. If Cejudo defeats “The Funk Master,” here’s hoping Sterling moves up to 145 pounds rather than lobby for a rematch, leaving Dvalishvili as the most obvious candidate imaginable for Cejudo’s first title defense.

If, on the other hand, Sterling wins and then moves up, the UFC could have Cejudo fight Dvalishvili for the vacant title coming off a loss—it has certainly done so before—but O’Malley would be more likely to get the call. “The Sugar Show” is on a four-fight winning streak with one no contest, and while his win over Yan was razor-close at best, his lone UFC loss, to Marlon Vera in 2020, was brought on by a weird, low-percentage injury. UFC matchmakers have been savvy enough to keep the charismatic KO artist away from elite wrestlers until now, but with the trio of Sterling, Cejudo and Dvalishvili orbiting, there’s no avoiding it any further. If he must deal with the daunting style matchup that the stocky Georgian presents, at least it will be with a belt on the line.

Alexander Volkov vs. Sergey Spivak

Nobody said this after watching “Rocky IV,” but after watching UFC Fight Night 221, I’ll say it: Feel bad for “Drago.” Volkov went into his co-main event tilt against Alexander Romanov with plenty to gain. The hulking Moldovan was one of the last Top 10 fighters Volkov had not yet fought, he was exactly the kind of overpowering wrestler who had accounted for several of Volkov’s previous UFC losses, and Volkov was even a slight underdog. A convincing win over “King Kong” figured to advance Volkov’s long quest for a title shot in a way few matchups could. Unfortunately, Romanov showed up looking like a shell of himself, 30 pounds heavier than in his last fight seven months ago and in visibly worse physical condition. The eyeball test was borne out once they were in the cage, as Romanov came out listless and his already-suspect cardio seemed to evaporate in literally 60 seconds. Volkov—aided by an unseen fence grab—fought off Romanov’s lone takedown attempt, then took his back and smashed him with punches until the referee pulled them apart. It was a quick and brutal two-minute mauling, but the conversation all seems to be about how bad Romanov looked, rather than whether Volkov has improved.

Volkov is left with the same problem as before, only with one fewer new opponent against whom he can prove his mettle. Spivak is the best option because he’s practically the only option left, but the matchup actually makes a lot of sense. Spivak is a powerful wrestler with improving striking who may provide the test his countryman was supposed to provide, and conversely, his three-fight win streak has earned him another bout with an established Top 10 fighter. Volkov vs. Spivak sounds like a decent Fight Night main event and in the current UFC heavyweight climate, it wouldn’t be surprising if it turned out to be a title eliminator.

Nikita Krylov vs. Jan Blachowicz

It was Krylov’s illness that had forced the fight to be rescheduled from UFC Fight Night 220 two weeks ago, and he made the most of a second chance, snaring Ryan Spann in a triangle choke three and a half minutes into their 215-pound catchweight clash on Saturday. Before scoring the sneaky finish, Krylov had to gut it out through several of Spann’s submission attempts and some furious scrambles on the ground. While the Ukrainian remains a bit wild and inconsistent—and at 31, probably will be for as long as we get to enjoy him—the Spann fight is exactly the kind of free-for-all that the Krylov of a few years ago would have found a way to lose, and in fact it is almost exactly a year ago that he dove straight into a Paul Craig triangle. Fortunately for “The Miner,” the UFC light heavyweight Top 15 is wide-open and aging, and with his third straight win now in the books, he might only need to keep “bad Krylov” at bay once or twice more to earn the chance to fight for a belt. After tapping out Spann, Krylov called for a fight with former champ Jan Blachowicz, who defeated him in 2018 on his own improbable run to the title. Blachowicz’s bid to win the vacant title in December ended in disaster, as he and Magomed Ankalaev fought to a split draw in a grimy fight, leaving the belt without an owner. Blachowicz probably needs at least one win over a rising contender before getting another shot, and at 40 he has a limited window of time in which to get it. Sounds like a fight with appropriate risk and reward for all involved.

Jonathan Martinez vs. Yadong Song-Ricky Simon winner

Martinez notched the best win of his UFC career so far, edging out Said Nurmagomedov in their bantamweight main card showcase. While the verdict was far from conclusive, it would have been an affirming moment for Martinez as a potential contender even if he had lost the decision. His takedown defense proved relatively sturdy despite his kick-heavy offense, and he gave as good as he got on the feet. The win was Martinez’s fifth straight in arguably the best division in the UFC, and he has earned a step up in name value as well as competition. He called for a fight with Dominick Cruz or Deiveson Figueiredo, both of whom might be a bit of a stretch in one or the other of those categories, but the winner of Song vs. Simon, which is scheduled for April 22 at the UFC Apex, would make for a dynamite fight with Top 10 implications.