The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was in Las Vegas, NV last Friday night (December 30, 2016) with UFC 207: Nunes vs. Rousey. It was a less than stellar night of action that saw only three of 10 bouts end inside the distance. Now that the scraps are in our rear-view, let’s take a look at some potential matchups featuring a few of the unsuccessful competitors from the evening… Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche II I think this is a good time to make this rematch. Carmouche is currently on a winning streak and came close to finishing Rousey in the firstever UFC women’s bantamweight matchup. They were the first two females to ever step foot inside the Octagon, and this is a rematch Carmouche has been wanting for a long time. It did not make sense when Rousey was on top of the world, but now that she’s fallen from grace and on a two-fight skid, I think this “winner vs. loser” rematch makes a lot of sense for Rousey’s next move following her first-round TKO loss to Amanda Nunes. Tarec Saffiedine vs. Robbie Lawler Saffiedine came up short in a controversial split-decision loss to Dong Hyun Kim. For his next outing inside the Octagon, I would like to see the former Strikeforce welterweight champion take on former UFC welterweight champion and former Strikeforce middleweight title challenger Robbie Lawler in what I believe would be a fantastic striker versus striker matchup in the UFC’s 170-pound division. Lawler is coming off a first-round knockout loss to Tyron Woodley, and he was scheduled to take on Donald Cerrone at UFC 205 in New York City back in November. But soon after the bout was announced, he opted to take some time off and withdrew. There was talks of him taking on Nick Diaz at UFC 209 in Las Vegas, however, Diaz has turned down the bout, leaving Lawler without an opponent. I think this would be an excellent matchup to make, and while I generally don’t get excited for Saffiedine’s fights, I would really get up for this one, as I think it would stylistically be a great one. Louis Smolka vs. Ali Bagautinov Smolka dropped a unanimous-decision loss to Ray Borg to kick off the UFC 207 main card on Pay-Per-View and is now on a two-fight losing streak inside the Octagon. For his next bout, I would like to see him take on former UFC flyweight title challenger Ali Bagautinov, who is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Kyoji Horiguchi. I think this would make for a fun scrap in the UFC’s 125-pound division, as it would be a solid addition to just about any future fight card. Marvin Vettori vs. Brian Camozzi Vettori came up short in a unanimous-decision loss to TUF: Brazil 3 winner Antonio Carlos Junior on the FOX Sports 1 preliminary portion of the card, and for his next Octagon outing, I think it would make sense to see him take on Camozzi, who is coming off a second-round TKO loss to Randy Brown in his UFC debut a few weeks ago. I think this is a matchup that makes sense as a next move for both welterweights and would make a decent addition to the preliminary card for any upcoming UFC fight card.
