Matches to Make After UFC on ESPN 35

It was his first turn as a headline attraction, and Marlon Vera made the most of the spotlight.

In the main event of UFC on ESPN 35 at the UFC Apex on Saturday, “Chito” used power to overcome the superior striking volume of Rob Font, knocking down the Boston native three times on his way to a unanimous decision victory. The breakthrough win was sweetened further by a six-figure bonus, as Font missed weight for their bout, meaning that Vera pocketed his opponent’s $50,000 “Fight of the Night” check as well as his own.

The 29-year-old Ecuadorian is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore as a contender in the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division. In the last four years he is 9-2, with the only losses coming in competitive decisions against Jose Aldo — possibly the division’s next title challenger — and against Yadong Song in a one-off featherweight matchup. While the title picture is complicated somewhat by the fleet of former champs circling like hijacked jets over an airport, Vera has clearly earned some sort of step up. In the wake of “UFC Vegas 53,” here are matches that ought to be made for Vera and some of the other main card winners.

Marlon Vera vs. Petr Yan

The UFC men’s bantamweight division is in a strange limbo at the moment. Aljamain Sterling and Yan finally had their long-delayed rematch on April 9, with Sterling earning an uncontroversial win to validate — or vindicate — the disqualification that ended their first meeting. Aldo seems the logical next challenger for Sterling’s title, given that he is on a three-fight win streak that includes both Vera and Font, not to mention his cachet as perhaps the greatest featherweight of all time. Beyond that, however, it gets weird, because of the above-mentioned glut of former bantamweight title holders: Dominick Cruz, T.J. Dillashaw and Henry Cejudo, who claims to have re-entered the USADA testing pool, presumably as a prelude to ending his self-imposed exile. All three won their last fight, and any one of them might jump the line ahead of an up-and comer like Vera, especially Dillashaw or Cejudo, neither of whom lost the belt in the Octagon. Given that the title might well be tied up through the end up 2022, matching up Vera with a former interim champ in Yan gives him another logical step up from Font, as well as removing the temptation for the UFC to make an immediate trilogy fight between Yan and Sterling.

Andrei Arlovski vs. Chris Daukaus

It was questionable, to say the least, but in the eyes of two of the people whose opinions truly mattered on Saturday, Arlovski did enough to get his hand raised against Jake Collier. That extends the Belarusian’s win streak to four straight, something that I never expected to find myself typing in 2022. Not all win streaks are created equal, of course. Of Arlovski’s last four wins, two were against sub-UFC-level competition in Chase Sherman and Jared Vanderaa, while the Collier fight will probably end up on Sherdog’s “Robbery of the Year” list this December. The UFC sees the smoke and mirrors just as clearly as you or I do, which is why in a heavyweight division where any fighter is four wins away from the title picture — let alone a former champion — no such noises are being made about the 43-year-old “Pitbull.” In fact, in terms of matchmaking it is probably more sensible, and definitely kinder, to treat Arlovski as if he’d lost on Saturday. Rather than march him off to be slaughtered by someone like the winner (or even the loser) of next month’s Tom Aspinall-Curtis Blaydes matchup, give Arlovski a fringe contender coming off a loss. Daukaus, who was pounded out by Blaydes last month, has now lost two straight against Top 5 opposition. For Daukaus, a matchup with Arlovski is a winnable fight against a name opponent, while an Arlovski win would take his feel-good late-career surge to a whole other level.

Joanderson Brito vs. Chase Hooper-Felipe Dias Colares winner

After one fight on Dana White's Contender Series and two in the UFC, Brito is now a known quantity. About as furiously aggressive a fighter as you’re ever likely to see in a modern top-level promotion, “Tubarao” charges forward and throws everything but the kitchen sink at his opponent with little regard for defense and even less for his gas tank. Every punch is a haymaker, every takedown a slam and every submission attempt a vein-popping death squeeze. When it works, as it did as he thrashed Andre Fili in just 41 seconds on Saturday, it works big. When it doesn’t work, as in his UFC debut against Bill Algeo in January, it leaves him sucking wind, with little to offer after the middle of the second round. When he gets extra reckless, as he did on the Contender Series, it can leave him at the mercy of the officials; his third-round eye poke of Diego Lopes ended in a technical decision victory in a fight he was clearly winning, but could easily have resulted in a draw or even a disqualification loss, depending on who happened to be the referee that night. In other words, the Brito Show is going to be a whole lot of fun while it lasts, but it will end either with his inner wild man being tamed to the point that he doesn’t throw away wins — think Michel Pereira — or hitting a hard ceiling against the top 25 or so featherweights in the promotion. For now, at 1-1 in the UFC but with visible upside, all he needs is a matchup with another young fighter meeting that same description. Hooper and Dias Colares, who fight on May 21, are both coming off losses. Afterward, one will be coming off a win. He’s your man.

Grant Dawson vs. Claudio Puelles

“KGD” put on one of the more impressive performances at “UFC Vegas 53,” outwrestling and outgrappling Jared Gordon for most of three rounds before cinching up a rear-naked choke with under a minute left. In becoming the first man to tap out Gordon, Dawson seems to have vindicated his move to American Top Team as well as to the lightweight division, as he continues to show that he has the physicality to make his ground assault work against 155-pounders. While lightweight is normally one of the hardest divisions in which to break into the Top 15, Dawson gets just a bit of a boost thanks to his 10-fight unbeaten streak and status as a former fast riser in the equally unforgiving featherweight division. Dawson could use another solid win against a fellow lightweight prospect in the same situation, and as mentioned last week, Puelles, who made things look easy in running through Clay Guida at UFC Fight Night 205, fits the bill perfectly. Book that fight, and consider the winner officially promoted from prospect to contender.

Darren Elkins vs. Charles Jourdain

Elkins put on a typically gritty performance Saturday, keeping Tristan Connelly reeling and in frequent peril for the duration of their main card bout and sweeping all three rounds on all three judges’ scorecards. The only element missing from the prototypical Elkins fight was the lack of a comeback — or any need for one — as “The Damage” was in control throughout. With the one-sided victory, the Indiana native gets back in the win column after his disastrous loss to Cub Swanson in December, and is now 3-1 since the four-fight skid that had him in apparent danger of losing his job in 2020. It is a frankly remarkable resurgence from a 37-year-old in a lighter weight division — let alone one whose customary fight style involves absorbing tons of punishment. Elkins’ recent run indicates he is still a cut above the featherweight rank-and-file, and he deserves a fight that gives him a chance to prove he is still among the elite. Jourdain, who was mentioned in this column last week in connection with the Elkins-Connelly fight, is in a similar place, though he approaches it as a young prospect rather than a surging veteran.