{"id":508877,"date":"2026-03-02T05:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/508877\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T05:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:45:08","slug":"matches-to-make-after-ufc-mexico-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/508877\/","title":{"rendered":"Matches To Make After UFC Mexico City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winner: Lone\u2019er Kavanagh
Who He Should Face Next: Asu Almabayev<\/p>\n

Kavanagh \u2014 who is currently not ranked \u2014 will likely hop into the Top 15 (maybe even the Top 10) after defeating the No. 4 ranked fighter in the division. As far as a bout against Almabayev, it makes sense since he is the one who he stepped in for against Moreno to save the main event. Almabayev is currently ranked No. 8 in the division and is on a two-fight win streak, pushing his UFC record to 6-1 inside the Octagon.<\/p>\n

Winner: David Martinez
Who He Should Face Next: Mario Bautista<\/p>\n

Martinez has been nothing short of impressive in his first three fights inside the Octagon, securing a couple of big wins along the way against Rob Font and now Vera. There is no slowing down moving forward for him because I can see a fight against Bautista on the horizon. Bautista got back into the win column in his last outing by defeating Vinicius Oliveira via rear-naked choke<\/a>, improving his UFC record to 11-3 under the UFC banner.<\/p>\n

Winner: King Green
Who He Should Face Next: Michael Chandler \u2014 why not?<\/a> <\/p>\n

Green secured his first consecutive win streak in three years by defeating Daniel Zellhuber via second-round technical knockout (see it again here<\/a>). Green has been fighting inside the Octagon for 13 years now, so there aren\u2019t too many top contenders that he has yet to face. After his big win in Mexico, Green called for a figh<\/a>t against Michael Chandler\u2026and I kind of dig it. Chandler has been lobbying for a spot on the White House card, but it won\u2019t be against Conor McGregor<\/a>. Chandler is ranked No. 13 while Green isn\u2019t in the Top 15. That said, Chandler is on a two-fight losing streak while Green has won two in a row.<\/p>\n

Winner: Edgar Chairez
Who He Should Face Next: Steve Erceg<\/p>\n

Chairez improved to his record to 3-2-1 after defeating Felipe Bunes via split-decision. I like a fight between he and Erceg next. Erceg recently snapped his three-fight losing streak by defeating Ode\u2019 Osbourne in Aug. 2025, a much needed win since the last time he had his hand raised in victory prior to that was two years ago. Erceg is currently ranked No. 11 in the division but he has no room to be turning down fights against fighters ranked outside of the Top 15.<\/p>\n

Winner: Imanol Rodr\u00edguez
Who He Should Face Next: Alden Coria<\/p>\n

Rodriguez improved his record to 7-0 by impressing in his UFC debut with a TKO win over Kevin Borjas (highlights<\/a>), a great way to start his run with his new company. A fight against Coria will be pitting two young and rising 125-pound fighters. Coria hasn\u2019t tasted defeat in his last six fights and is 2-0 inside the Octagon, while Rodriguez has finished all seven of his previous opponents. This fight has fireworks written all over it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winner: Lone\u2019er KavanaghWho He Should Face Next: Asu Almabayev Kavanagh \u2014 who is currently not ranked \u2014 will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,139445,7788],"class_list":["post-508877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-results"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}