The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) made it’s inaugural trip to the Philippines on Saturday (May 16, 2015) and the event was a success. The action is now in our rear-view, so let’s take a look at some potential match-ups featuring a few of the competitors from the fight card… Neil Magny vs Demian Maia Magny just took out Hyun Gyu Lim by second round TKO to extend his winning streak to seven in a row inside the Octagon. He looks better and better with each performane and continues to climb up the UFC’s welterweight ladder. Following the big, come-from-behind victory over Lim, Magny deserves another step up in competition, and that’s where I think Maia comes in. The Brazilian recently upset the then-undefeated Ryan LaFlare with a five round unanimous decision victory, and snapping Magny’s seven-fight win streak would be a great way for him to pick up his next win. I think this potential 170-pound match-up would be a good fit for the main card of August’s UFC 190 in Rio de Janeiro, which will be headlined by a Women’s Bantamweight title bout between Brazilian challenger Bethe “Pitbull” Correia and defending Champion, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey. Frankie Edgar vs Aldo/McGregor winner Not much of a prediction here, as Frankie Edgar and Chad Mendes are the two featherweights in line waiting to take on the winner of UFC 189’s main event. Personally, I think Edgar deserves it more, considering Mendes had his shot more recently and is younger than Edgar. I would love to see an Edgar vs Aldo rematch, and I would favor Edgar/McGregor more than Mendes/McGregor, as I think it would be a more entertaining fight. Jon Tuck vs Brendan O’Reilly Tuck just bounced back to the win column with an impressive first round rear-naked-choke submission victory over South Korea’s Tae Hyun Bang on the preliminary card of this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 66 in the Philippines. He hurt and dropped Bang in the early going of the stanza, and then followed him to the mat to use his superior Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills on the dazed opponent for tapout victory, marking his second official UFC win by way of submission. O’Reilly last saw action a week ago, picking up a unanimous decision victory over fellow Australian Vik Grujic and he now looks for his second UFC victory. This is not a match-up that gets me excited, particularly, but I think it is one that makes sense and could see it being booked on a future preliminary card. I would like to see it booked for the prelims of September’s UFC Fight Night 78 in Japan, which will be headlined by a five round heavyweight contest between “The Warmaster” Josh Barnett and “Big Country” Roy Nelson. Gegard Mousasi vs Michael Bisping I think this would be a great match-up in the UFC’s middleweight division and one I think that has a very good chance of being put together, as pretty much everybody in the top of the division is already booked for fights. Mousasi just picked up a unanimous decision over Costas Philippou in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 66 in the Philipinnes, and Bisping recently took home a unanimous decision of his own over CB Dollawa, and both 185-pounders look to extend their winning streaks on their road towards a shot at UFC gold. I think this potential match-up would prove to be very entertaining and would be the perfect fit for the aforementioned UFC Fight Night 78 in Japan this September.
