Someone Show this to Joe Silva: 5 Fights To Make Following UFC 123

Last nights UFC 123 event was better than expected. Although the main event wasn’t the most exciting fight we have seen, it was a decent scrap and showed that a focused Rampage was still a contender at 205.

Meanwhile, BJ Penn looked like the same Prodigy that destroyed Caol Uno back in the day, as he quickly came out and beat down Matt Hughes in 21 seconds.

Rising stars Phil Davis and George Sotiropoulos both showed off their ground games by getting second round submissions over Tim Boetsch and Joe Lauzon respectively.

Although a few of the stars already have fights lined up*, lets take a look at some  fights that need to be made following UFC 123.

*Note: BJ Penn vs Jon Fitch and George Sotiropoulos vs Dennis Siver are both already set for UFC 127

Rampage Jackson vs. Randy Couture

Rampage looked like he was back in Japan last night, fighting aggressive and looking very composed as he snuck by Machida.

Jackson is in the mix for a title shot, but with Shogun-Rashad held up until March at the earliest, it’s probably best for Rampage to get back into the Octagon soon.

Enter Couture. The Hall of Famer said he would only take fights that interest him, and how could he pass up a scrap with Rampage?  Two of the biggest stars in the UFC, these two are both always near the top of a division due to their name value alone.

A win for either fighter will likely earn them a title shot, as Rampage will have deserved it, and you know the UFC would love to give Captain America one more shot at greatness before he retires.

Lyoto Machida vs. Matt Hamill

Machida earned a win in the eyes of a lot of fans (and quite a few mma journalists) last night, but there are 3 people whom he didn’t win over. The first two were the judges who scored the fight in favor of Rampage. The last one was UFC president Dana White.

Dana said repeatedly that he thought Rampage won the fight at last night’s post-fight press conference and that seems to send Machida to the outskirts of the top 10 with two straight losses.

After Hamill’s win over Tito Ortiz at UFC 121, White said that Hamill would be getting a top 10 opponent in his next fight. With the rest of the 205lb division already matched up, this fight seems logical.

A win for Hamill would send him skyrocketing up the rankings and Machida is in dire need of a victory, which he would expected to earn against Hamill.

Phil Davis vs. Vladimir Matyushenko

It’s hard to give anyone other than BJ Penn the “Most Impressive Fighter” award, but Mr. Wonderful gave him a run for his money. After a fairly one sided first round, Davis just overwhelmed Tim Boetsch, and even created a new submission along the way to a second round submission.

Matyushenko just earned himself a quick and controversial 1^st round TKO at last weeks UFC 122 event and is always a tough matchup at 205.

Davis is being built up a lot like Jon Jones has been, so I think they should continue to give him tougher opponents without overwhelming him. The UFC obviously wants to make Davis into a star, and I think they realize that a matchup against a striker might be career suicide for the young wrestler. Matyushenko would be a great test for one of the top prospects in MMA.

Matt Hughes vs. Dennis Hallman

It’s impossible to say anything about Matt Hughes’ performance last night other than he simply got caught. BJ Penn is a fantastic fighter when he’s on his game and he showed that last night.

However, Hughes needs a win to stay relevant again and the UFC owes Hallman a marquee fight after back-to-back wins over Ben Saunders and Karo Parisyan.

This could be the perfect fight for Hughes to get back on track and they have a built in storyline, as Hallman has already handed Hughes two of his losses, (both of which were 1^st round submissions) in less than a minute combined.

Jake Ellenberger vs. Dan Hardy

Neither one of these two fought last night, but Ellenberger ended up being affected by the event as much as anyone.

After finally earning himself a big time fight, Ellenberger’s UFC 126 fight with Jon Fitch was scrapped in favor of a BJ Penn-Fitch UFC 127 fight.

Since the UFC already took a main card bout away from Ellenberger at UFC 111, they owe him a big time opponent and Hardy seems to be a good fit.

Hardy has dropped two straight and is in desperate need of a win, so he will likely look to rebound quickly. The fight could even be set up in time to be put on either the UFC 126 or 127 card.