With a fun night of fights, UFC Fight Night 108 is safely in the books and brings a welcomed three-week break from all things UFC.
In the main event, Cub Swanson defeated Artem Lobov soundly to extend his impressive run at featherweight while Al Iaquinta returned with a bang against Diego Sanchez in the co-main event billing.
Elsewhere, Ovince Saint Preux scored his second Von Flue Choke in the UFC, recording two of the three in promotional history, while John Dodson danced his way to victory against Eddie Wineland.
There were also big victories for the likes of Mike Perry, Stevie Ray, Brandon Moreno and Bryan Barberena so let’s play matchmaker with the fallout of UFC Fight Night 108:
Cub Swanson vs Jose Aldo/Max Holloway winner
After a fairly dominant performance against Artem Lobov, Cub Swanson now holds the second longest featherweight winning streak outside of the interim champion Max Holloway.
With his fourth win a row, Swanson revealed that he’ll sit out the remainder of 2017 and with a small hiatus from competing, Swanson’s return would line up nicely for a title fight against the winner of UFC 212’s main event, Jose Aldo vs Max Holloway.
Al Iaquinta vs Michael Johnson
‘Raging’ Al made an emphatic return to the cage on Saturday night as he dismantled the veteran Diego Sanchez inside 100 seconds.
Iaquinta had been missing for two years due to contract disputes, and the New Yorker still seems unsure about whether he will continue fighting, but with such a remarkable performance, losing Iaquinta from the fight game would be a big loss.
A lot of the fighters ranked above Iaquinta are already booked up so a match-up with Michael Johnson would be an exciting and sensible proposition.
John Dodson vs Bryan Caraway
Despite receiving boo’s from the Nashville crowd, John Dodson put on an excellent performance against Eddie Wineland and left the unforgiving city without receiving as much as a mark on his face when the 15 minutes were up.
It was a showcase of the speed and elusive movement that we have come to expect when ‘The Magician’ fights and with this victory, the 32-year-old is back on the winning track.
Bantamweight is stacked with talent at the moment but there’s little that makes more sense than pairing Dodson against Bryan Caraway.
Since defeating Aljamain Sterling via split decision, Caraway has been M.I.A through a series of injuries and a Dodson – Caraway bout would set up the winner for a big title eliminator late this year.
Recording the 10th victory of his young career, all via way of KO, Mike Perry bounced back from a disappointing loss to Alan Jouban with a devastating elbow to the jaw of Jake Ellenberger.
After knocking off the #13 ranked Ellenberger, ‘Platinum’ Perry deserves another ranked opponent in his next outing and the Argentine Santiago Ponzinibbio would make a fun fight while testing both men’s capacity to climb even higher at 170 lbs.
Brandon Moreno vs Tim Elliott
From being ranked as the lowest seed on The Ultimate Fighter: Tournament of Champions, Brandon Moreno has become the #10 ranked flyweight in the space of 6 months.
At just 23 years old, Moreno has delivered and then some on his unquestionable potential and the Mexican fighter may well prove to be the eventual heir to Demetrious Johnson’s flyweight throne.
After recording the 10th submission victory of his career against Dustin Ortiz at UFC Fight Night 108, Moreno deserves a step up in competition but needs a slow build before being thrown straight into title contention.
A match-up with Tim Elliott would prove a stern test for Moreno and provide an exciting grappling contest.