5 Fights We Need to See After UFC 297

Saturday's UFC 297 card marked the promotion's first pay-per-view of the year, and its first in Toronto since 2018. It wasn't a great night for the Canadian fighters, who went 2-7 on the 12-fight card, but it provided some pretty entertaining viewing for the fans inside Scotiabank Arena and those tuned in on screens around the world.

The card was topped by a middleweight title fight, with champion Sean Strickland defending against streaking South African contender Dricus Du Plessis.

The fight went all 25 minutes, and it culminated with a split-decision win for the challenger, but fans were immediately divided on their scorecards, with many arguing the American deserved the win.

There was also a title up for grabs in the co-main event, as bantamweight veteran Raquel Pennington took on surging submission threat Mayra Bueno Silva for the division's vacant throne.

Despite being the underdog, the American put forth one of the best performances of her career, pummelling her Brazilian rival to a clear-cut unanimous-decision win to claim the belt.

Earlier in the night, rising Canadian welterweight contender Mike Malott had his momentum derailed by a sizeable underdog in Neil Magny.

Malott started very strong and banked the first two rounds, but he faded in the third and was ultimately stopped by a barrage of Magny ground strikes.

Outside of the top three fights of the night, the biggest winner was probably Russian featherweight contender Movsar Evloev, who set himself up for a big trip up the rankings with a decision win over No. 4 contender Arnold Allen in the PPV opener.

While Du Plessis, Pennington, Magny and Evloev will now be taking some time to heal up from fairly taxing fights, they can look forward to big opportunities next time out.

Keep scrolling to see who we'd like to see each of them fight next—along with our preferred matchup for a rebounding Strickland.

Dricus Du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya

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Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis square off in Australia

Dricus Du Plessis is the new UFC middleweight champion, and he has some interesting options for his first title defense.

Among those are a rematch with Strickland and a showdown with Khamzat Chimaev.

However, UFC President Dana White poured cold water on talk of a Du Plessis vs. Strickland rematch at the UFC 297 post-fight press conference. And Chimaev shouldn't even be in the title conversation, having yet to defeat a ranked middleweight, so we're going to propose a third option that is bigger than either: A showdown with former champion Israel Adesanya.

The 34-year-old has not fought since he suffered a shocking decision loss to Strickland last year. He teased a multi-year hiatus after that defeat, but he has more recently expressed interest in returning soon.

Ordinarily, giving a title shot to a fighter riding a loss is a bit of a bad look, but Adesanya is not an ordinary fighter. He's clearly the second-best middleweight ever behind Anderson Silva and probably in the Top 15 or 20 greatest fighters of all time in the eyes of most fans.

He is also Du Plessis' chief rival at middleweight. The pair spent most of 2023 trash-talking each other, but they had their long-awaited showdown derailed by Adesanya's loss to Strickland.

Now that Du Plessis, 30, is the champion and Adesanya is plotting a return to the cage, it seems like the obvious time to match them up again. Whenever it happens, it will be one of the biggest fights of the year.

Sean Strickland vs. Khamzat Chimaev

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Sean Strickland

While Strickland can take solace in the fact that many fans—and White—believe he did enough to defeat Du Plessis on Saturday, there is no undoing the judges' decision, which was also not a robbery by any stretch.

He lost, he's no longer the champion, and he will need to return to the drawing board if he ever wants to be the titleholder again.

We'd like to see Strickland attempt to get back on track against unbeaten Khamzat Chimaev.

The Russian started his UFC career as one of the most active fighters on the roster, but he has spent most of the last two years cursed by long stretches of inactivity. His last fight occurred at UFC 284 last October when, after a grotesque scale failure in his final welterweight fight, he was set to step up to middleweight to battle Top 10 contender Paulo Costa.

Had Chimaev fought and beaten Costa, he might well have gotten a crack at Strickland before Du Plessis on star power alone. However, Costa was forced out of the matchup and replaced by former welterweight champ Kamaru Usman, who was debuting at middleweight.

Chimaev won the fight by decision, but Usman gave him all he could handle and might well have won the fight if he'd had more than 10 days to prepare.

That fight has left Chimaev, 29, in a tough spot. While he is one of the biggest names in the middleweight division, he has yet to beat anyone in the Top 15, and he's unlikely to get a title shot until that happens.

Who better to match him up with than Strickland? While the 32-year-old is way higher up the rankings than Chimaev, he would be hard-pressed not to accept the fight, as the Russian is one of the most hyped fighters on the roster today. He's just the kind of opponent who could put Strickland right back in the title conversation.

Both the buildup and the action itself would be extremely entertaining, and the fight could easily co-headline a PPV—perhaps even the same card Du Plessis and Adesanya fight on.

Raquel Pennington vs. Julianna Peña

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Raquel Pennington

Raquel Pennington is the new UFC women's bantamweight champion. It would have been unthinkable at the height of Amanda Nunes' title reign, but she is now retired, so here we are.

At this point, it's clear who the new champion will make her first title defense against: Julianna Peña.

Peña famously defeated Nunes by submission at the end of 2021, and while she was soundly beaten by the Brazilian legend in their immediate rematch in July 2022 and has done nothing since then, she is still considered the division's top contender, if only because there is nobody else in the running right now.

While this is far from a perfect title fight, it looks like an interesting one on paper, and it could turn out to be a pretty enjoyable watch.

Pennington and Peña have been in each other's orbits since debuting in the UFC in 2013 and were castmates on The Ultimate Fighter, so they know each other well and will both be well-equipped for the other's strengths.

Neil Magny vs. Nicolas Dalby

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Neil Magny defeated Mike Malott on Saturday.

Welterweight veteran Neil Magny was behind one of the most shocking moments of Saturday's UFC 297 card, surviving a two-round deficit to stop streaking Canadian contender Mike Malott with strikes in Round 3.

After his win, the American, 36, can expect another tough contest. However, because Malott was unranked, the No. 13-ranked veteran is unlikely to be matched up with anybody above him in the Top 15, most of whom are busy with other obligations anyway.

Having said that, our pick for his next opponent is Nicolas Dalby.

Much like Malott, the 39-year-old Dane is on a great streak, with four successive wins under his belt. However, he is far more experienced than Malott, and he is unlikely to make the same mistakes the Canadian made against Magny.

This is a great fight between two welterweights who have always been excellent but have never been consistent enough to make a serious title run. It may be too late for both now, but the winner of this potential matchup would be looking at a fight with somebody entrenched in the Top 15.

Movsar Evloev vs. Josh Emmett

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Movsar Evloev kicks Arnold Allen during their UFC 297 fight.

Movsar Evloev's UFC 297 win over Arnold Allen, competitive as it was, was clearly the biggest moment of his career, and it pushed his record to a very impressive 18-0.

Given that the English fighter was ranked No. 4 heading into the matchup, the Russian is now likely only one win away from a title shot.

Unfortunately for the 29-year-old, most of the Top 5 is booked up with other obligations, but there is one long-time contender available for a scrap: No. 6-ranked Josh Emmett.

The American is fresh off a jaw-dropping knockout win over Bryce Mitchell, which many fans and pundits hailed as the best KO of 2023. After that win, the 38-year-old called repeatedly for a fight with Max Holloway, but with the former champ now booked to fight Justin Gaethje at lightweight, Emmett is without a dance partner.

Enter Evloev. He is clearly deserving of the opportunity and will most likely be a spot or two ahead of Emmett by the time the rankings are updated.

It makes sense for both guys, and it looks like a very interesting fight on paper, as Evloev is one of the featherweight division's best grapplers and Emmett has bolstered his own solid wrestling with arguably the most knockout power in the weight class.