What’s Next For The UFC Sao Paulo Main Card Winners?

What’s Next For The UFC Sao Paulo Main Card Winners?

By Jon Prentice 

UFC Fight Night 137 went down this past weekend from Sao Paulo, Brazil, in an event that took multiple injury hits, in particular to the main event which was changed on a number of occasions.

With the main event originally scheduled as Jimi Manuwa vs Glover Teixeira, the latter was forced to pull out, which set up a showdown between Manuwa and Thiago Santos who agreed to make the step up to light heavyweight. When Manuwa injured his hamstring the week of the fight whilst out in Brazil, Eryk Anders stepped in, also making the move up to LHW, to salvage a main event.

The 14 fight event saw a number of newcomers making their UFC debuts, and names for themselves in the process, as well as offering up some fun finishes and interesting fights. Here is a look at potential next moves for the main card winners:

Thiago Santos (19-6):

The ever exciting Thiago Santos and Eryk Anders made the move up to LHW in a battle of middleweights stepping up to save the day in a fun back and forth fight that ultimately picked up the Fight of the Night award.

It was Santos that subsequently came out victorious following the 3rd round of the contest. With Anders shooting for a takedown late in the round-up against the fence. Santos landed some brutal Travis Browne esq elbows which appeared to stun Anders who dropped to his knees. Santos landed a few more punches to Anders to ward off the takedown before the end of the round was signalled. Anders then proceeded to attempt to make his way to his corner on a number of occasions before crumpling to the floor and forcing referee Marc Goddard to wave off the fight.

Santos now has back to back wins over Anders and Kevin Holland following a defeat to David Branch back at UFC Fight Night: Barboza vs Lee back in April. He has always been a dangerous, fun to watch competitor in the middleweight division but has never quite had enough to break into the top-tier of fighters.

Having moved up to LHW for this event, initially to face off with Jimi Manuwa, I thought Santos looked great in the weight class. Already a big middleweight, he did not look undersized come fight night and personally I would love to see the UFC re-book Santos vs Manuwa. Santos has the potential to inject some lifeblood into the division and a fight between him and Manuwa, two spectacular knock out artists, could be a classic.

Alex Oliveira (20-5-1 2NC)

The co-main event saw “Cowboy” Oliveira dispose of Carlo Pedersoli Jr in spectacular fashion just over 30 seconds into the contest. Pedersoli, making only his second UFC appearance, attempted a side kick to which Oliveira countered with a stinging shot landing clean on the jaw and knocking the Italian down. A little ground a pound later and the referee was forced to intervene, giving Oliveira his fourth win in his last five outings.

Cowboy extends his impressive run to nine wins in his last twelve outings and he has four wins, all by finish, in five fights defeating Tim Means, Ryan LaFlare, Carlos Condit and now Pedersoli since the start of last year.

Sitting just a few places outside of the welterweight divisions top 10, I would love to see Oliveira welcome Gunnar Nelson back to the octagon once he recovers from injury. Both fighters are dangerous wherever the fight takes place and have the capabilities to finish the fight at any moment. A win for either would be the perfect set up to take on the divisions top ten in their next outing.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (23-8):

Little Nog rolled back the years at 42 years old to finish Sam Alvey in the second round of their light heavyweight contest, picking up a Performance of the Night bonus in the process.

After a relatively tentative first round, Little Nog put his superior boxing on display at the start of the second stanza to wobble Alvey. Nogueira proceeded to chase “Smilin” Sam down and landed a couple more heavy left hands before a beautiful shot on the temple took away Alvey’s equilibrium and the fight was stopped.

Nogueira successfully returned to action following a two-year absence following injury and a USADA investigation that he was subsequently cleared from. At his age and with many miles on his body I cannot see a run for the belt before he decides to call it a day, despite winning two of his last three against Alvey and Patrick Cummins, therefore I would look for more marquee fights.

A fight with Gokhan Saki would be fun and would pit two big names in combat sports with knockout power against one another. Saki is 1-1 in his UFC tenure since making the move from Glory Kickboxing, suffering a brutal KO defeat to Khalil Roundtree most recently following a win over Henrique da Silva in his UFC debut.

Andre Ewell (14-4):

Ewell successfully opened his UFC account as he picked up an impressive win over former Bantamweight Champion Renan Barao via split decision.

In a close contest between the newcomer and the veteran, Barao got the better of the first round with his superior grappling, however, Ewell came back strong and dominated the stand up exchanges in the final two rounds in the eyes of two of the three judges to take the win in Barao’s home country. The victory was even more impressive given the fact that Barao missed weight by over 5lbs for the bantamweight clash.

Ewell, now riding a five fight win streak, will no doubt be targeting a ranked opponent in his next outing having taken out the previous 135lbs champion in his promotional debut. I would be tempted to match him up with an opponent such as Thomas Almeida. Almeida is ranked just inside the top 15 but is currently on a two fight skid having suffered defeats to Rob Font and Jimmie Rivera, and he only holds one win in his last four outings. The contest would prove another tough test for Ewell against a top 15 opponent whilst also giving Almeida a relatively inexperienced opponent to attempt to get himself back in the win column.

Randa Markos (8-6-1) / Marina Rodriguez (10-0-1):

The opening bout of the main card saw Markos and UFC newcomer Rodriguez play out a rare majority draw after the full three rounds.

Markos implemented her usual wrestle heavy style in the first round to take Rodriguez down and dominate for the entirety to earn 10-8’s on the judges scorecards. However, it was Rodriguez who fared better in rounds two and three, getting the better of the striking exchanges to level things up in two of the judges eyes as the fight went the distance and was declared a majority draw.

Following the fight Markos stated that she felt she had done enough to get the nod and believed that “home cooking” played a part in the result.

Going forward I would quite simply let Markos and Rodriguez battle it out in neutral territory to settle the result once and for all.