What is Next for UFC 281 Fighters?
Whether or not you liked the fighters on the UFC 281 card. Everybody can agree that it was a fantastic card. There were many unexpected outcomes that many MMA fans were not prepared for. This leads to a very popular question that many UFC fans have, what is next for the UFC 281 fighters?
Dan Hooker
Dan “The Hangman” Hooker is a fan favorite mixed-martial artist. Before his fight at UFC 281 against Claudio Puelles, he was on a five-fight losing streak. A lot of MMA fans lose faith in their favorite fighter after 2 consecutive losses, let alone 5. Many people believed that Hooker’s career was over. Hooker somehow proved these people wrong after beating Claudio Puelles by TKO in the second round by a body kick. After beating an opponent who is very talented at jiu-jitsu, Dan Hooker has won back fans and other fighter’s respect. I think a fight that would be both challenging for Dan Hooker, but entertaining for the fans, would be a fight between him and Renato Moicano, who was also on the UFC 281 card. He beat Brad Riddel, but in a unique fashion. Moicano has a very interesting fighting style that many of his opponents have trouble figuring out. Both Hooker and Moicano joined the organization in 2014 and have not fought yet. Moicano took a fight on very short notice in March for UFC 272 and many fans were impressed. Since fans like both Moicano and Hooker, this fight would be very entertaining to watch.
Michael Chandler
Win, lose, or draw, Michael Chandler always puts on an entertaining performance. He takes very challenging fights that many other fighters are not willing to take. Most of his losses in the UFC are because of minor mistakes. Since MMA is such a brutal sport, even the smallest of mistakes can cause you to lose a fight. Despite these minor mistakes, Chandler was a star in each and everyone of his performances. This being said, Chandler deserves a fight that gets everybody’s attention and quite a bit of money. One person who always seems to get attention and his opponent a lot of money is Conor McGregor. Conor has to test for the UFC for the next six months, so this gives Chandler quite a bit of time to recover from his brutal fight with Dustin Porier. Both Conor and Chandler are very good strikers which makes for an extremely entertaining match.
Dustin Porier
Dustin Porier always puts on an amazing performance. In 2019 he almost submitted one of the greatest lightweights to ever live, Khabib Nurmagomedov. Unfortunately for Dustin, he lost by submission during the third round of the extremely suspenseful fight. Although he lost to Khabib, he still managed to stay high in the rankings and climb his way back up to get another title shot against former lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira. Although Porier lost this fight towards the beginning of the first round, he put on an incredible performance in the first two rounds. Since he almost won both of these fights, the UFC still keeps him high in the rankings. Last night, Porier put on a great performance. Chandler seemed to be winning the first round, but at the end, Porier was dominate and it seemed like he might have won the round. In the second round, Chandler pretty much just punched Dustin the entire time which tired both fighters out. In the final round, Porier was able to get Chandler to the ground and submit him via rear naked choke. UFC Lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev, said that he was not going to fight the pound for pound fighter, Alexander Volkanovski, and instead was going to fight the winner of the Porier vs. Chandler fight. Despite Islam’s assertions, the UFC announced that Islam indeed was going to fight Alexander Volkanovski on February 11th. Whoever wins that fight, will most likely fight Porier.
Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira
Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira both put on an impressive performance. One thing that I noticed about Adesanya’s performance this time compared to past fights is that he was less cocky. Even in fights where he seemed to be losing, he was still super cocky. The second Robert Whittaker fight is a good example of this. While not being as cocky during the fight, the ‘last stylebender’ did not even consider not trash talking Alex Pereira. I think Adesanya was threatened by the fact that Alex Pereira knocked him out before and that was in the back of his head while fighting. Even though Alex Pereira knocked him out before, Adesanya still put on a very impressive performance. It seemed like he had won three of the first 4 rounds which meant that Pereira was going to need to finish Adesanya. Close to halfway towards the 5th round, Pereira hit Adesanya with some extremely hard punches which caused Adesanya’s eyes roll back and for him to almost fall over. While Adesanya did not fall over, referee Marc Goddard decided to end the fight. Although many people think this was a reasonable stoppage, Adesanya had his own opinion. “Bring back Steve Mazagatti, I would have been fine. You know, he might have won that round, but I would still be champion.” When asked about the stoppage, Dana White said, “Yeah, I didn’t have a problem with the stoppage. I don’t know. I mean, he was hurt. He obviously wasn’t out, but he seemed- he seemed pretty hurt to me.”
Obviously Adesanya has had the belt for a couple of years and should have a chance to get it back. The question is whether or not he will earn it back.
Alex Pereira put on an absolutely phenomenal performance. Between rounds 4 and 5, Glover Teixeira, former UFC Light Heavyweight champion and Alex Pereira’s coach and friend, hyped Alex Pereira up and Alex Pereira was able to capture the belt in the last round of the fight. Alex Pereira is probably going to fight Adesanya again.
UFC 281 gave us some amazing fights and some amazing fights to look forward to. Hopefully we will get some of these fights within the next year or so and there will be some changes to the
