Belal vs Shakvakt

UFC 310

The last PPV event of 2024 delivered as UFC 310 had exciting moments throughout the entire night. The moment that stuck out the most was by the reigning and defending flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja, absolutely dominating newcomer Kai Asakura by submitting him via rear-naked choke in the second round.

Pantoja just didn’t give Asakura any respect from the start of the fight, pressuring forward throwing heavy combinations, getting inside the clinch to get the fight into his wheelhouse. Once he was able to get the back of Asakura in round two it was all she wrote as he locked in the choke and put Asakura to sleep to successfully defend his flyweight title for a third time.

The co-main event was the most intriguing fight of the night between two undefeated rising welterweight contenders: Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Machado Garry. Throughout the fight, it was neck-and-neck with neither one doing a lot to stand out. It was only until the championship rounds that things started to heat up.

Garry’s takedown defense held up throughout the first three rounds until Rakhmonov was able to land his first takedown in the fourth round. While Rakhmonov didn’t do much with those takedowns, he was still able to secure the round. However, round 5 was the biggest moment of the fight where Garry got the back of Rakhmonov and attempted to lock in a rear-naked choke which looked tight, but Rakhmonov was able to work out of it to reverse the position where the fighters ended up back on their feet until the final bell rang.

Rakhmonov walked away with the close 48-47 unanimous decision victory, putting him in prime position to be the next contender for the welterweight championship. UFC 310 worked out to be a great night of fights from start to finish and now that the dust has settled, we take a look at who should be next for these flyweight and welterweight competitors in this UFC 310 edition of Matchmaker Monday!

Alexandre Pantoja

Alexandre Pantoja

Alexandre Pantoja has run through the flyweight division, winning seven fights in a row en route to securing his championship belt with a split-decision victory against Brandon Moreno to then defend his title three times in dominating fashion. With there not being a clear-cut No.1 contender in the flyweight division at the moment, this opens up the discussions for who deserves to be next.

If we take a look at the top 5 of the flyweight rankings, the only fighters Pantoja hasn’t fought in the UFC are Kai Kara-France, Amir Albazi, and Tatsuro Taira. The only one of these three fighters coming off a win is Kai Kara-France. Kara-France most recently decimated former title challenger Steve Erceg who gave Pantoja his toughest fight so far as the champion.

While Kara-France is just 1-2 in his last three fights, many believed he did enough to get the nod over Amir Albazi two fights ago. There certainly are other fighters that deserve a shot at the title, like Brandon Royval and Brandon Moreno who both won their last fights convincingly over top competitors, but it’s time to give Pantoja a new competitor to test himself against and as of right now, Kai Kara-France is the toughest competitor out of the bunch and would be an electric showdown for the flyweight championship.

Asakura RNC

Kai Asakura

Unfortunately, Kai Asakura came up short in his first title bid in the UFC. He wasn’t really able to showcase his striking prowess thanks to the daunting task at hand going against Pantoja’s relentless grappling pressure. While he did end up making weight successfully, his next move should be to fight in his natural weight class of 135 lbs.

Asakura certainly is a great addition to the flyweight division, but he already had his set on a move to bantamweight in an attempt to become double champ if he did win the title this past weekend. The bantamweight division is certainly stacked but adding Asakura to the mix wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Pairing up Asakura against a fighter like Chris Gutierrez would be something exciting for the fight fans. Fans would get to see Asakura fight to his full capabilities in his natural weight class, while also getting to have a fun striking match against another seasoned veteran in Gutierrez. A win against Gutierrez would then set him up for a potential fight for a ranking in his next fight, further helping grow Asakura as one of the next big things to come out of Japan.

Shavkat Rakhmonov

Shavkat Rakhmonov

While Shavkat Rakhmonov didn’t put on his most impressive performance to date, he certainly won the hardest fight during his time in the UFC when he defeated Ian Garry at UFC 310. This has set him up for the next welterweight title shot against the champion Belal Muhammad.

Even though he didn’t continue his torrid finishing streak and went to a decision for the first time in his professional career, the oddsmakers still made Shavkat the -200 favorite over the reigning and defending UFC Welterweight Champion.

Once Muhammad is all healed up and ready to go this is going to be a highly anticipated welterweight title fight that many were eagerly waiting to see happen at UFC 310. Expect to see either Shavkat Rakhmonov finally become the newest UFC champion as many believe he will be or Belal Muhammad solidify himself as the best welterweight on the planet right now.

Gerry vs Shavkat

Ian Garry

Ian Garry came up short in the biggest fight of his career against Shavkat Rakhmonov. While he did take the loss this weekend, his stock certainly has gone up. He passed the test of defending the takedowns and the grappling of Rakhmonov and showed off some grappling of his own by putting Rakhmonov in some submission danger late in the fight.

This sets up Garry for a potential big fight in the future that will set him up for a title shot. The one fight that makes sense for Garry to take to get into title contention would be taking on the former welterweight champion Leon Edwards and headline the next UFC London fight card on March 15th.

That would serve as Garry’s first main event fight and would pit him against a former champion. Edwards will be looking to get back into title contention himself and taking on one of the top welterweight contenders in the division would help him get back there with a win. It’s the perfect scenario where a win from either Garry or Edwards solidifies themselves as the next contender for the welterweight title.

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