4 Fights We Need to See After UFC Fight Night: Muhammad vs. Bonfim

There is yet another new contender in the crowded UFC welterweight division. 

At the same time that fresh faces like Ian Machado Garry, Carlos Prates and Michael Morales are all angling for cracks at welterweight champ Islam Makhachev, Brazil's Gabriel Bonfim has now put himself in the mix with a hard-fought decision win over Belal Muhammad.

Bonfim's win over Muhammad, a former welterweight champ, headlined Saturday's UFC card at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas. It was an excellent performance from the Brazilian, highlighted by a strong jab, snappy kicks, and smooth combinations, and it clocks as the biggest win of his career to date.

With so many fearsome contenders already lining up for a crack at the champ, he almost certainly won't be next, but he's definitely close. 

The same is true for Brendan Allen in the middleweight division. He was back in action in Saturday's co-main event, taking on Edmen Shahbazyan.

It was a strange bit of matchmaking from the outset, as Allen is ranked much higher than Shahbazyan in the weight class, but in the end, he did what he was supposed to do and won a clear-cut unanimous decision.

A title shot is likely to elude him for the moment too, but there are just a few fighters ahead of him in the race. If he keeps winning, it's only a matter of time. 

Outside of the top two fights on the bill, there weren't a ton of high-ranked contenders in action on Saturday. That said, the card featured appearances from multiple rising prospects, several of whom impressed with quick finishes.

That includes Polish light heavyweight Iwo Baraniewski, who improved to 9-0 with a knockout of short-notice replacement Junior Tafa. He may not get a ranked opponent next time out, but he has proved himself as a fighter to watch in a division that is always desperate for new blood. 

Here are the fights we'd like to see next for the victorious Bonfim, Allen and Baraniewski, as well as our pick for the struggling former champ Muhammad.

Gabriel Bonfim vs. Sean Brady

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Gabriel Bonfim's 2023 stoppage loss to Nicolas Dalby did not bode well for his future in the welterweight division, as his cardio looked like it could be a serious problem going forward.

However, he has rebounded with five straight victories, including decision wins over former title challenger Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson and now former champ Muhammad.

Bonfim seems to have made the necessary adjustments to his training, and it looks like he has all the tools to compete with the division's best fighters. 

Unfortunately, a title shot isn't going to be next, as Ian Machado Garry, Michael Morales and Carlos Prates are all ahead of him in the running for a crack at champ Islam Makhachev, who fights very infrequently in the best of times. That means the Brazilian will need to keep fighting and winning to achieve his dream of claiming a UFC belt. 

On that note, our pick for his next opponent is Sean Brady. 

Brady is in a similar position to Bonfim. He's been on the edge of title contention for years, but he hasn't put together quite a strong enough streak to lock up a title shot and will need a few more wins to make it happen. 

Having recently rebounded from a brutal 2025 loss to Morales with a lopsided win over Joaquin Buckley, he's well on his way to doing that. A fight with Bonfim would be a great opportunity for him to take another big step toward the belt, just as it would be for the Brazilian. 

Book this fight for an Apex main event or numbered event main card, and let's see who truly belongs among the very best at 170 pounds. 

Belal Muhammad vs. Joaquin Buckley

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Belal Muhammad's sudden decline has been hard to watch.

Just a short time ago, he was the king of the welterweights. Now he's riding consecutive losses to Jack Della Maddalena, Ian Machado Garry and Bonfim, all of which were marked by a clear lack of the clever game-planning and versatile skill set that made him a champion. 

The clear regression of Muhammad's game suggests he may be dealing with an accumulation of injuries and wear and tear at the tail end of a long and impressive career. However, all of his three recent losses were fairly competitive, so it might be too early to write him off completely just yet.

Whatever the case, he's clearly not ready to retire, so let's go ahead and play matchmaker for him too.

From here, the best choice of opponent for Muhammad is probably Joaquin Buckley, who is riding a tough loss to Sean Brady, which was in turn preceded by a similarly decisive loss to Kamaru Usman. While he's clearly still capable of beating a lot of lower-ranked contenders, he's spiralling in much the same way Muhammad is, and is in desperate need of a W.

Matching these two up would tell us a lot about what they have to offer at this stage of their respective careers. The winner will prove they're not done yet, and the loser can safely be written off as a serious contender for good. 

Brendan Allen vs. Dricus Du Plessis

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Brendan Allen looked great in his Saturday decision win over Edmen Shahbazyan, but the victory isn't likely to do much for him.

He was ranked so far above Shahbazyan heading into the fight that the outcome is effectively meaningless and will leave him hovering more or less where he was beforehand.

That said, he was already ranked among the middleweight division's best, so he'll hopefully get a big fight next time out. Our pick for his next opponent, on that note, is former champ Dricus Du Plessis.

Du Plessis was enjoying one of the best title reigns in recent memory, with defenses over Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland to his credit, before he lost the belt with a decisive decision defeat to Khamzat Chimaev last year. He has not fought since then, and he's definitely going to want to remedy that soon if he hopes to stay relevant in the weight class.

Du Plessis is probably hoping to walk right into a title shot with new champ Sean Strickland, who recently took the belt from Chimaev with a razor-close decision. If that's the way he's thinking, he's not totally out of line, as he holds two recent wins over Strickland.

That being said, it's a bit problematic to give a title shot to a guy riding a loss as decisive as his defeat to Chimaev, so he will probably need to get himself back in the win column before he gets a chance to reclaim the belt.

In that case, a fight with Allen seems like the perfect option.

Allen has a ton of momentum right now, with three straight wins behind him. He's just the kind of guy Du Plessis should be looking to beat to make himself a contender again.

Meanwhile, Du Plessis is just the kind of name Allen needs to turn away to get his long-awaited chance at a UFC belt.

This fight would make a great addition to any upcoming card and would have huge implications for the immediate future of the middleweight division. Book it.

Iwo Baraniewski vs. Modestas Bukauskas

Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Time will tell how far Poland's Iwo Baraniewski can go in the perilous UFC light heavyweight division, but his Saturday destruction of Junior Tafa is certainly a good sign.

With the win over Tafa, Baraniewski is now 9-0 overall, and 3-0 in the UFC. That's probably not quite enough to earn him a fight with a top-15 opponent, but he's certainly close.

From here, it makes sense to match the Polish finisher up with somebody like Lithuania's Modestas Bukauskas.

Bukauskas hasn't been the most consistent fighter in the UFC light heavyweight division, but he has spent most of his recent career battling fairly high-level opposition—certainly tougher opponents than anyone Baraniewski has fought to date. At the moment, he's riding a decision win over Christian Edwards. That win separated him from a tough loss to Nikita Krylov, and put him right around the level Baraniewski finds himself at after Saturday.

Pit these two against each other on one of the UFC's increasingly frequent visits to Europe, and let's see who is ready for a fight with a top-15 opponent.