What’s Next For UFC On FX 7’s Big Winners?

As the dust begins to settle on last night’s UFC On FX 7 event in Brazil we take a look at what might come next for the main card winners.

Vitor Belfort:

Belfort’s head kick finish against Bisping might have been impressive, but that’s certainly not going to allow him to get his wish to cast aside Chael Sonnen and get an immediate rematch against Jon Jones.

UFC exec Marshall Zelaznik hinted last night that Belfort’s future is more likely to remain at middleweight and he’s still a couple of fights away from a title shot rematch against Anderson Silva.

There’s a few options out there for him, but I’d suggest a fight with incoming Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold would be a good fight for both men.

CB Dollaway:

This was a pretty entertaining fight by Dollaway’s standards, though truth be told it was quite sloppy at times.

Despite getting co-main event honors on this occasion I don’t really see the UFC looking to put Dollaway into a major fight next time out and someone like Derek Brunson who produced an upset win over Chris Leben recently might be the kind of opponent he’s looking at nxet.

Gabe Gonzaga:

It’s nice to see Gonzaga going back to his grappling roots with two submission victories in a row, and it’s probably just as well as I can’t say I’m overly impressed with other aspects of his game these days.

Let’s see how he matches-up with Todd Duffee next.

Khabib Nurmagomedov

He may not have a catchy name or the look of a killer, but Murmagomedov is emerging as one of the most exciting prospects in the UFC’s lightweight division at this moment in time. Thiago Tavares is no pushover, yet the Russian bulldozed over the top of him in under two minutes to go 3-0 in the Octagon to date.

The UFC’s 155lb weight class is talent rich so he’s not going to have to patiently climb the ranks, but he needs a notable opponent next time out that’ll secure him another main card outing. I’d be interested to see how he does against a wiley veteran like Josh Thomson who’s heading to the UFC from Strikeforce, but Ross Pearson would be another good match-up.

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.