After he has settled as an annual pay-per-view destination in October, Abu Dhabi has now brought a fighting night card for two consecutive summers a fighting evening card. Last year it was Umar Nurmagomedov who beat Cory Sandhagen in a technical thriller. This time, Reinier de Ridder kept his perfect UFC record when he survived the middleweight top five pillar Robert Whittaker in the UFC Abu Dhabi Main Event.
The rest of the card was strong, because the fan favorites Petr Yan, Shara “Bullet” Magomedov and more intriguing matchups between ranked hunters contained. As usual it is now time for some matchmaking.
Reinier de Ridder
Although they are almost eliminated in round 3, RDR managed to get out of this Slugfest with a razor thin split decision victory. They don’t ask you how, they ask you how much, and the Dutch hunter has now successfully pushed his UFC Record on 4-0 and will enter the top five of the middleweight. In other divisions, this Run de Ridder would get a title shot, but I think there is a much better chance that the winner of Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho will fight for the next title.
Reinier has been pronounced about wanting to remain active and has held his word so far with four fights in his first nine months in the promotion. Assuming he wants to keep his activity levels informed, he will not wait a few months for his own title shot. Israel Adesanya may be an option, but I prefer the idea of RDR Against the loser of the coming middleweight title fight. Whether it is Dricus du Plessis or Khamzat Chimaev, both bumps with the knight sounds like an explosion.
The Ridder’s Next Fight: You Plessis/Chimaev Loser
Petr Yan
Apparently unable to find a dance partner in the top 10 for the UFC Abu Dhabi card, the promotion called 12one-Ranked Marcus Mcghee to face “no grace”. And while Mcghee had a very respectable show, Yan showed why he is still being seen as one of the most skilled hunters in the world. After one of the most enigmatic and unexpected three-fighter-losing streak in recent memory, the former champion now has his way back to a three-field win streak with a potential title shot on the Horizon.
Yes, the victory of Merab Dvalishvili in Yan was dominant when they met, but that should not disqualify the Russian to get the title shot he has rightly earned. Moreover, who has a better thing than Yan now? Let’s not consider this. Give this man the opportunity to earn back the belt he once held back.
Yan’s next fight: Dvalishvili/Sandhagen winner
Shara Magomedov
It was not easy, but the pirate got his hand lifted again after his first career loss against Michael “Venom” page in February. Despite his popularity, I think the UFC is aware of the limitations of Magomedov as a hunter and has no impression that he has written “future champion” over him. So why wouldn’t you use his popularity to stimulate someone else? I would have enjoyed the idea to book against the young Bazooka who is Ateba Gautier, but Gautier has already been booked before October 4one. So this made me think, wouldn’t Shara Bullet be the perfect opponent for Bo Nickal to come back in the win column? Shara has a striking and is vulnerable in a way that can realistically exploit Nickal. Sounds like a perfect pay-per-view main card opener for UFC 321, for me …
Magomedov’s next fight: Bo Nickal
As Almabayev
After he was overwhelmed in March by the speed of Manel Kape (and Pouring Eye), Almabayev wanted to bounce back against the younger José Ochoa, who filled in in the short term for Ramazan Temirov, on UFC Abu Dhabi. The Kazakh hunter defended his ranking by achieving a clean unanimous decision victory. Historically, flying weight has always been a fairly wide open division, which means that contenders can be booked in unpredictable ways. For that reason there are about nine names that I could see Almabayev realistic fighting. My first choice would be Tagir Ulanbekov. Because just as important as this victory had been for Almabayev, it was not exactly something that will shoot him up in the Top5, and Ulanbekov deserves a top 10 opponent.
Almabayev’s next fight: Tagir Ulanbekov
Bogdan Guskov
After he has dropped his promotion debut against Volkan Uzdemir in the short term, Guskov has now won four fights in a row from UFC Abu Dhabi and is perhaps in the top 10 of the division when the updated rankings are released. Carlos Ulberg, Jan Bachowicz, Jamahal Hill, Dominick Reyes are all names that Guskov could shout without sounding bizarre. However, I prefer the idea that Ulberg is fighting Reyes and Bachowicz Fighting Hill, who would leave Guskov as the strange man in this comparison. I know that Dustin Jacoby showed his interest to fight Guskov on social media, but there is a fight in Shanghai in less than a month between Johnny Walker and Zhang Mingyang. I think Guskov against the winner of that matchup would be very logical, given that he has been booked against Walker before and where would be Zhang when he came at the top.
Guskov’s next fight: Walker/Zhang winner
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