{"id":707595,"date":"2026-06-01T04:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T04:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/707595\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T04:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T04:57:09","slug":"matches-to-make-after-ufc-macau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/707595\/","title":{"rendered":"Matches To Make After UFC Macau"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC Macau<\/a> went down yesterday (Sat., May 30, 2026) inside Galaxy Arena in Macau, China which saw Song Yadong submit Deiveson Figueiredo in the main event of the evening (see it again here<\/a>). In the co-main event, Alonzo Menifield knocked out Zhang Mingyang in the very first round (highlights<\/a>), while Sergei Pavlovich knocked out Tallison Teixeira in 39 seconds (highlights here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Who He Should Face Next: Umar Nurmagomedov<\/p>\n

After securing one of the biggest wins of his career, Yadong is in line for a bigger fight with someone ranked in the Top 5<\/a> that can get him closer to his long-awaited title fight. And that someone should be none other than Umar Nurmagomedov. The former title contender \u2014 currently ranked No. 2 <\/a>\u2014 was also last seen defeating Figueiredo and is on a two-fight win streak. The rest of the Top 5 is matched up at the moment, so let\u2019s see if Song can capitalize and make his way to his first-ever championship fight with a win over Nurmagomedov.<\/p>\n

Who He Should Face Next: Nikita Krylov<\/p>\n

Menifield improved to 3-1 in his last four fights after starching Zhang Mingyang in the very first round (watch it<\/a>), putting him back in the win column after a brief setback against Volkan Oezdemir. As for what could next for the hard-hitting 205-pound contender, a showdown against Krylov might be in order. Krylov is currently ranked No. 13 and is coming off a big win over Modestas Bukauskas, stopping him with just three seconds left in the fight. The win snapped his two-fight skid.<\/p>\n

Who He Should Face Next: Loser of Pereira vs. Gane or Alexander Volkov rematch.<\/p>\n

Pavlovich improved his win streak to three after violently putting away Teixiera in less than a minute (see it again here<\/a>). The interim Heavyweight title will be up for grabs at Freedom 250 between Alex Pereira and Ciryl Gane, so Pavlovich will be a keen observer come fight night. Sure, the winner of the fight is expected to face Tom Aspinall in a title unification bout, but there is no telling when he will step back inside the cage. That said, Pavlovich taking on the loser of the bout is intriguing on many levels. If not, then a rematch against Alexander Volkov — who defeated Pavlovich two years ago — could also make sense to see who gets the nect title shot.<\/p>\n

Who He Should Face Next: Sandhagen vs Bautista winner<\/p>\n

It was a big day for Asakura because not only did he secure his first win inside the Octagon in three tries, but he walked away with an extra $100,000 in post-fight bonus money <\/a>thanks to his knockout win over Cameron Smotherman (see it here<\/a>). Granted, Smotherman isn\u2019t the biggest name out there, but a win is a win and Asakura is back on track in the Bantamweight division. There is no telling where \u2014 or if \u2014 he will land in the Top 15 come next week, but he should still get a decent name for his next fight. That\u2019s why I wouldn\u2019t mind seeing him take on the winner of the upcoming rematch between Cory Sandhagen and Mario Bautista, which is set to go down at UFC 329.<\/p>\n

Who He Should Face Next: Khaos Williams<\/p>\n

Matthews is knocking on the door of a Top 15 ranking following his big win over Carlston Harris, but he still might have a bit more work to do before he gets in since the division is very crowded. A win over someone like, however, could be the one that gets him over the hump. A few weeks ago, Williams secured a big win over Nikolay Veretennikov, getting him back in the win column. I wouldn\u2019t mind seeing a battle between these two rising, un-ranked fighters to see who gets closer to the Top 15.<\/p>\n

For complete UFC Macau results, coverage, and highlights click HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC Macau went down yesterday (Sat., May 30, 2026) inside Galaxy Arena in Macau, China which saw Song…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396,179146,6656],"class_list":["post-707595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-results"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}