Matches to Make After UFC on ESPN 34

It may not have electrified the fans, but Belal Muhammad’s performance on Saturday makes him increasingly difficult to ignore as a welterweight title contender.

In the main event of UFC on ESPN 34 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, “Remember the Name” used lateral movement, heavy kicks and above all his offensive wrestling to control and frustrate Vicente Luque for five grueling rounds. With the unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 48-47), Muhammad snapped Luque’s run of four straight wins, extended his own unbeaten streak to eight on a row and avenged his 2016 loss to the Brazilian.

The question now is what to do with Muhammad. The lone speed bump in his recent run, a no contest thanks to a Leon Edwards eye poke last March, felt very much like a possible title eliminator at the time — at least for Edwards — and all the 33-year-old Chicago native has done since then is rattle off three more wins against Top 10 foes in Demian Maia, Stephen Thompson and now Luque. Much like Edwards himself, Muhammad seems set to continue grinding out businesslike wins until the UFC can no longer justify overlooking him.

In the wake of “UFC Vegas 51,” here are matches that ought to be made for Muhammad and the rest of the main card winners.

Belal Muhammad vs. Gilbert Burns

After his win on Saturday, Muhammad called out Colby Covington, the consensus No. 2 guy in the division. That isn’t a bad matchup, and it would answer the question of how Muhammad would fare against a superior wrestler, but it also leaves open the possibility that “Chaos” would win, eliminating Muhammad as an immediate title contender while leaving Covington himself not especially closer to a third shot at Kamaru Usman. Burns is a better option; as a close friend and longtime training partner of Luque, there is a revenge narrative already there, and while Burns has also lost to Usman, he has only done so once, and actually had the champ in serious trouble early in their fight. A Burns win, coupled with his valiant performance against Khamzat Chimaev earlier this month, leaves him as a viable title challenger, while Muhammad would be all but undeniable with his fourth straight Top 10 win. Book it while Usman sorts out his business with Edwards and possibly Chimaev, and the title picture is clear through the end of 2022.

Caio Borralho vs. Wellington Turman

Borralho’s bout with Gadzhi Omargadzhiev in Saturday’s co-main event will be remembered chiefly for the bizarre and controversial technical decision that resulted from the fight-ending knee strike Borralho landed on his grounded foe. However, that should not entirely overshadow the fact that the Brazilian was about 60 seconds away from completing a thorough domination of his fellow Dana White's Contender Series alum. If not for that blow, ill-advised and illegal as it was, the main talking point right now would be the revelation of Borralho’s ground game, which showed a blend of positional soundness and constant submission threats that surely made his mentor Demian Maia proud. Between handing Omargadzhiev his first career loss, and his pair of lopsided Contender Series wins last fall, Borralho has earned a bit of benefit of the doubt in the UFC middleweight division, which is wide open at the moment anyway. What he needs is a matchup with a fighter who is on a win streak but still outside the Top 15. There are plenty of candidates who fit that description, such as the winner of next month’s Dusko Todorovic-Chidi Njokuani fight, but Turman needs a date now. While he has come back from the brink with a pair of nice wins, they have come against Sam Alvey, who has been cut by the UFC, and Misha Cirkunov, who easily could have been. He and Borralho could each prove something with a win over the other.

Andre Fialho vs. Bryan Barberena

To the extent that it is possible for a fighter who only turned 28 this month to seem like a late bloomer, Fialho does. After a mildly promising stint in Bellator MMA and a less-promising one in Professional Fighters League, he racked up four straight knockout wins in 2021 — his finishing sequence against UFC vet James Vick at XMMA 8 was one of the most brutal of the year — to earn a call from the UFC. It was a tough assignment: a short-notice pairing with Michel Pereira which was then postponed by a week, but Fialho acquitted himself well, winning a round from the fringe contender on the way to a competitive unanimous decision loss. In his sophomore outing Saturday, he engaged in a back-and-forth battle with Miguel Baeza for most of a round before a series of hockey-style uppercuts closed the show. At Sanford MMA, Fialho has matured into a deliberate, technically sound striker who generates surprising power without loading up, and an immediate person of interest in a welterweight division that is both aging and crowded at the top with fighters who have already faced one another. A couple of wins over solid names could propel Portugal’s top fighter — apologies to Pedro Carvalho — into the fringes of contention in a way that would have been virtually impossible just two or three years ago. Barberena, who outlasted Matt Brown at “UFC Columbus” earlier this month, would be a great start.

Mayra Bueno Silva vs. Gina Mazany-Shanna Young winner

Bueno Silva’s move from 125 to 135 pounds was a success, as she beat up Yanan Wu for most of three rounds in their main card feature to earn a unanimous decision. The bad news is that it was a slightly qualified success: Wu was 1-3 in the UFC coming into their fight and might well be cut after this third straight loss, so winning was more or less the minimum expectation. The good news is that Bueno Silva’s new division is an absolute shambles right now, so mediocre wins will propel her up the ladder almost as well as good ones, at least for the moment. She has certainly earned a next matchup with a fellow bantamweight coming off a win, and the Mazany-Young scrap two weeks from now should provide one. Like Bueno Silva, whoever wins that fight will be looking to continue to rebound from a run of rough performances; if it happens to be Mazany, the similarities will extend to “refugee from flyweight.”

Pat Sabatini vs. Damon Jackson

Sabatini entered the Apex on Saturday as the biggest betting favorite on the card against T.J. Laramie, and lived up to the 6-to-1 odds, dominating in all phases of the fight on his way to a victory that felt even more lopsided than the unanimous 30-26 scorecards might imply. The former Cage Fury Fighting Championships champ has now won six straight, the last four the Octagon, and even in the churning piranha tank that is the UFC featherweight division, that should be enough to earn a matchup with a fellow fringe contender. Unlikely though it might have seemed just a couple of years ago, Jackson fits that description perfectly. “The Leech” spent most of the 2010s as Legacy Fighting Alliance’s signature fighter, punctuated by a winless three-fight run in the UFC, a couple of one-off appearances in Bellator MMA and a spot on the wrong end of a PFL highlight reel thanks to Movlid Khaybulaev, but since getting a return invite to the UFC he has gone 3-1 with the only loss coming against undefeated mega-prospect Ilia Topuria. Like Sabatini, Jackson emerged from collegiate wrestling to distinguish himself as not merely a good submission artist, but an outstanding one. Theirs is the kind of grappler’s delight matchup that seems likely to actually deliver.

Mounir Lazzez vs. Francisco Trinaldo-Danny Roberts winner

Over a year removed from his first UFC loss, the “Sniper” got back on track with a unanimous decision win over Ange Loosa in the main card opener. Lazzez seemed a step or two ahead of Loosa throughout the fight, landing in combination while Loosa returned fire with single strikes on the way to winning all three rounds. The questions now are all regarding that January 2021 loss: Will that first-round demolition at the hands (and feet) of Warlley Alves go down as an anomaly on Lazzez’ journey to contender status, or as the moment we first saw his ceiling as a prospect? Is the real Lazzez the smooth kickboxer who outclassed Loosa and Abdul Razak Alhassan, the guy who got melted by multiple unblocked body shots from Alves, or a bit of both? It’s probably too much to ask of his next matchup to answer those questions conclusively, but Lazzez certainly deserves a fight with a solid UFC welterweight coming off a win. “Massaranduba” and “Hot Chocolate” meet on May 7, and the winner would be an appropriate choice.