What’s Next For The UFC 228 Main Card Winners?

What’s Next For The UFC 228 Main Card Winners?

By Jon Prentice 

UFC 228 went down this weekend from Dallas, Texas, with the card proving to be arguably the most entertaining of the year to date. With 9 finishes from the 13 fights, featuring spectacular knockouts, incredible submissions including two fantastic kneebars and some all out wars, the event exceeded the expectations of many and delivered entertainment right through from the Fight Pass Prelims to the Main Event.

So let’s take a look at what could be next for the main card winners…..

Tyron Woodley (19-3-1):

The main event saw Woodley retain his welterweight title in emphatic fashion as he silenced his doubters, finishing the previously unbeaten Darren Till in spectacular fashion in the second round.

Woodley put on a masterful display as he reduced bookies favourite Darren Till to just one strike landed over the course of their encounter. Intelligently out striking Till in the first round, Woodley displayed his true arsenal of skills in the second round as he dropped Till with a powerful right hand, before landing nasty ground and pound and subsequently locking on the D’Arce choke forcing Till to tap.

The finish earned Woodley a performance of the night bonus and an additional $50,000 to boot.

With another succesful title defence under his belt, taking his number of defences to four, Woodley is seriously starting to add his name to the welterweight GOAT argument. The nature in which he finished his younger counterpart really emphasised Woodley’s current dominance in the division.

Immediately after the main event had drawn to a close, outspoken former interim title holder Colby Covington (14-1-0) called for his shot at Woodley, with the current champion stating he is down to face anyone. There is already talk of the fight taking place at UFC 230 going down from Madison Square Garden, New York in November.

For me, and most in the MMA community, this is definitely the fight to make, with both having gone back and forth on social media previously and many eagerly awaiting the showdown. Whether the fight takes place at UFC 230 or later on in the year, I can’t imagine any other direction the UFC will take for the welterweight champion.

Jessica Andrade (19-6-0):

The MMA world was treated to arguably the greatest knockout in strawweight division history as Andrade put Karolina Kowalkiewicz to sleep in the first round of their encounter.

Andrade proved that she has the power in her hands to worry anyone in the division as she left KK dazed and staring up at the lights following a monsterous right hook that connected clean on her jaw.

Andrade signalled her intent early, charging at her opponent from the first bell and appearing to rock her in their first exchange. After a number of flurries, Andrade eventually found her range and landed the clean right hand that ended the encounter with immediate effect.

The emphatic victory, Andrade’s sixth in seven outings since moving down from bantamweight to strawweight, earned her a $50,000 performance of the night bonus, and for me put her next in line for a shot at Rose Namajunas’ title.

Andrade has previously fought for the strawweight belt when Jedrzejczyk was the champion, going on to lose a unanimous decision at UFC 211 which also took place in Dallas, Texas. Now riding an impressive 3 fight win streak culminating in the devastating KK finish, Andrade puts herself on top of the contender pile, narrowly edging out Tatiana Suarez who also won in impressive fashion at the weekend and called for a shot at the title. I am fully expecting to see Andrade take on Namajunas when they both next step foot in the octagon.

Zabit Magomedsharipov (16-1-0):

The exciting Magomedsharipov continued the perfect start to his UFC career as he finished short notice, game opponent, Brandon Davis in round two of their featherweight clash.

After a relatively even first round contested mainly on the feet, Zabit displayed his fantastic ground skills in the second stanza as he locked up the second flashy kneebar finish of the night (following Aljamain Sterling’s earlier in the prelims) to record his 4th UFC victory and 12th successive win in all competitions.

During his post fight interview with Joe Rogan, the former ACB featherweight champion immediately called for a fight with Chad Mendes (18-4-0) following Saturday nights win, and a fight with the three-time title challenger would definitely prove a good litmus test as to where Zabit stands in the featherweight title picture.

“Money” Mendes is himself coming off an impressive performance of the night win over Myles Jury at UFC Boise in July following a break of over two years from action due to a failed USADA drugs test.

The fight with Mendes makes sense from a rankings perspective and if he can overcome the veteran, Magomedsharipov will have his eyes on a title challenge against Max Holloway or Brian Ortega, both fights of which have the potential to be FOTY contenders.

Jimmie Rivera (22-2-0):

Rivera put his 33 second defeat to Marlon Moraes in the main event of UFC Utica fully behind him as he got himself back in the win column as he overcame John Dodson via unanimous decision.

With the withdrawal of the Montaño vs Shevchenko flyweight title fight, the Rivera and Dodson scrap was promoted to the PPV section and played out as the only decision on the main card. In a relatively tentative affair that drew some displeasure from the Texas fans, Rivera pushed the pace and landed the more significant shots to record a fairly comfortable decision in a relatively forgettable encounter.

Rivera holds only one defeat in his last 22 outings and was firmly on track for a bantamweight title shot before being derailed by Moraes back in June. Ranked at number five in the 135lbs division, Rivera is still a couple of wins away from a title shot in my opinion. A clash with another bantamweight winner from Saturday night in Aljamain Sterling (16-3-0) makes sense going forward.

Sterling picked up a fantastic kneebar victory from the back over Cody Stamman on the prelim portion of UFC 228 to take his current win streak to two. His last defeat also came at the hands of Marlon Moraes back in December 2017, however he has looked very impressive in his last two displays to push for a spot in the divisions top 5.

Alternately, if the fight with Aljamain Sterling does not materialise, I would be more than happy to see Rivera and heavy-handed John Lineker (31-8-0) go to war, with Lineker sitting just behind Rivera in the 135lbs rankings.

Abdul Razak Alhassan (10-1-0):

The main card kicked off in incredible fashion as Alhassan put Niko Price to sleep on his feet in a welterweight clash that was almost guaranteed a finish one way or another.

With both competitors throwing heavy leather from the first bell, Ghana’s Alhassan landed some big shots to back Price up against the cage, where he proceeded to unload a barrage of bombs that put Price to sleep on his feet, forcing the referee to jump in and prevent any further damage.

Alhassan is an extremely dangerous welterweight with brutal knockout power in his hands. All 10 of his career wins have come by the way of first round KO/TKO and he is now riding a three fight win streak. His sole loss came via split decision to Omari Akhmedov back in May 2017 at UFC Stockholm.

Sitting just outside of the top 15, I would love to see a match up between Alhassan and Vicente Luque (13-6-1) when they next step foot in the octagon. Luque is 6-2 in his UFC career with all 6 of his wins coming via stoppage. He and Alhassan both have an opponent in common in Niko Price, both of whom came out victorious with stoppage wins. Luque is a very well-rounded individual who would be happy to stand and trade with Alhassan if necessary, and the encounter could prove to be a very entertaining spectacle.