What’s Next For The Winners at UFC Stockholm

What’s Next For The Winners at UFC Stockholm

By Ben Jessop

The UFC returned once again to Stockholm, Sweden last night and treated us all in the UK to a mid-afternoon start to the action. Despite a cancellation between Ilir Latifi and Volkan Oezdemir due to a back injury for Latifi, the main card still had everything we were hoping for.

The main card started with a bout between Daniel Teymur and Sung Bin Jo. The first round started energetically with both fighters having something to prove. This was Sung Bin Jo’s UFC debut, whereas Teymur was still waiting for his first win in the UFC after losing his first three fights. The height advantage of Jo became apparent almost instantly but Teymur continued to push forward and put pressure on Jo to engage in some way, and although some good shots were landed by both the fight slowed down massively in the second round to the point that Teymur lifted his arms to his corner in disappointment.

Teymur continued to engage and Jo continued to return fire but unfortunately for Jo it wasn’t enough in the eyes on the judges and a unanimous decision was handed to Teymur, who fell to his knees when the result was announced.

The question now is, who in the featherweight division should Teymur take on next? In my opinion, it would be a great fight between Daniel Teymur and Kyle Bochniak, who would be coming into that fight on a two fight loss skid to Zabit Magomedsharipov and Hakeem Dawodu in 2018. Both fighters have a scrappers mentality and it would be a real dog fight, if Teymur would be able to get passed Bochniak a whole new level of talent would be available to him. It will be interesting to see if his first win in UFC give Teymur some momentum to carry on and create an strong win streak.

Next up we saw a lightweight bout between Damir Hadzovic vs Christos Giagos, both fighters came into this fight off wins and in the most stacked division a win streak is something everyone needs to be able to move your way up the rankings. The fight was wrestling heavy, but despite a large amount of aggression from Hadzovic, it wasn’t quite enough to combat Giagos’ superior wrestling and after firing a ridiculous double leg takedown that took Hadzovic clean off his feet and into the cage it seemed to take the wind out of Hadzovic who struggled to get a rhythm back and the unanimous decision was handed to Giagos.

After this win, looking forwards, who could be next for Christos Giagos? I think it should be Joe Duffy who is currently on a two fight loss skid and desperately needs a win to get back on track and a win against Duffy would do wonders for Giagos moving up through the rankings.

The featherweights were back to put on a show next with a bout between Makwan Amirkhani vs Chris Fishgold. Amirkhani came into this bout 4-1 in the UFC with his only loss being handed to him by English prospect Arnold Allen, whilst Fishgold was 1-1 with his loss coming via Calvin Kattar in 2018.

This fight was always going to be about pushing your name to the next level within the rankings. Amirkhani has been in the UFC for longer than most people would imagine but he hasn’t been the most active of fighters, with only one fight a year since 2016, he has the hallmarks and the talent to be a big name within the division. This fight has plenty of controversy, first with an eye poke and then with a groin strike, both to Fishgold at the hands of Amirkhani.

In the second round Amirkhani was able to sink in an anaconda choke and force Fishgold to tap. Despite Amirkhani’s boxing skills not yet making waves in the UFC, this submission win is the tenth on his record and it something future opponents will need to avoid. With that in mind, who should be next? We are desperately close to the top fifteen when looking at who could be next for Amirkhani but before we get to that level, I’d be interested to see if Amirkhani could get passed Myles Jury, who is coming off two losses to Chad Mendes and Andre Fili but he does hold a black belt in BJJ and is experienced on the ground. This may force Amirkhani to show off his talent whilst on the feet, or really showcase a superior ability on the ground if he manages to stop Jury.

Our co-main event was up next, and it was undoubtedly the biggest upset of the night. Lasting only forty-seven seconds of the very first round, it wasn’t the outcome anyone had predicted. Of course, I’m talking about Jimi Manuwa vs Aleksandar Rakic.

Despite Manuwa being ranked #11 in the official UFC light heavyweight rankings, this loss is his fourth in a row, with now three of those losses coming via KO but none has stunned quite like this one. Rakic is one of the noisiest prospects in the entire division and is looking to shake up that top ten until he gets to the top and now on a four fight win streak in the UFC, his talent is undeniable and after this beautiful combination that resulted in an epic head kick to entirely switch off Manuwa, it’s hard to argue that he may be one of the most dangerous men in the division.

As it stands in the light heavyweight division, you have two young, talented and hungry men looking to shake up and take over the top ten. One being Rakic, the other being Johnny Walker and there is only one way to settle who is going for them top, and that’s to set up the fight between Rakic and Walker, both fighters have ridiculous KO power and the stamina to go the distance but this is a dangerous fight for both men, winning or losing decides your trajectory to the top ten and ultimately to the top of a division that is dominated by Jon Jones. We may be on our way to seeing a huge new star for the UFC.

The main event was next, a light heavyweight showdown between Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Smith. This was always going to be a fantastic fight, two of the highest ranked, most respected fighters in the entire promotion going to war to battle for another shot at the top guy.

Although both of these fighters have previously lost to the current champion Jon Jones, Gustafsson twice and Smith in his last fight prior to this, another shot to take that belt is something no one is going to pass up.

The very top of the division is currently gridlocked, despite some movement from #5 and below, with Thiago Santos now taking his first shot at Jon Jones and the belt the question, what’s left for everyone else in the top five? Anthony Smith finished Alexander Gustafsson via rear naked choke in the fourth round last night and Gustafsson in his post fight interview sadly declared that ‘the show is over’ and threw his gloves to the ground.

Perhaps the gridlock in the very top tier of this division helped in this decision, where would he go from here having lost to the champion twice already? Some people have speculated that he’ll come back to fight at heavyweight but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. The difficulty comes in placing Smith in his next bout. With Jones and Thiago Santos matched, Gustafsson retiring and it being almost impossible for DC to decide one of his last fights should be against Smith, the only place you can really look is to Dominic Reyes.

Currently ranked #5 and undefeated with a five fight win streak in the UFC, the match up makes more sense to Reyes than it does Smith but these two haven’t met inside the octagon and a win for either of them cements them for a shot at the title.