Matches to Make After UFC on ESPN 37

Josh Emmett entered the Octagon on Saturday in Austin with one mission: to make his case as the next featherweight title challenger.

In the main event of UFC on ESPN 37 at University of Texas’ Moody Center, the burly Californian prevailed over Calvin Kattar by split decision. It might not have been the emphatic statement he would have liked—especially atop a card that featured an eye-popping six first-round knockouts—but Emmett’s power trumped Kattar’s superior volume on two judges’ scorecards, running his win streak to five straight since his brutal 2018 loss to Jeremy Stephens.

After the result was announced, Emmett took the microphone and made an impassioned appeal to fight the winner of next month’s Alexander Volkanovski-Max Holloway trilogy fight. Whether his wish will be granted remains to be seen, but in any case he needs a next step of some kind. Here are some matchups that ought to be made for Emmett and the other main card winners from “UFC Austin.”

Josh Emmett vs. Alexander Volkanovski-Max Holloway winner

It doesn’t help Emmett’s case that he did barely enough to win—not enough, in the eyes of some observers—but it does help that he isn’t Kattar. If “The Boston Finisher” had been the one to have his hand raised in Austin, we would probably need to wait on the result of Volkanovski and Holloway’s title tilt at UFC 276 in light of Kattar’s one-sided loss to the Hawaiian last January. Emmett, on the other hand, is a fresh face for whomever emerges with the title. The only likely obstacle is yet another immediate rematch if Holloway wins, but here’s hoping the UFC doesn’t choose that route if it comes to it. At 37 and with a history of injury layoffs, Emmett has found his health and his groove at the perfect time. It’s now or never for the Team Alpha Male standout, so let it be now.

Kevin Holland vs. Neil Magny-Shavkat Rakhmonov winner

In the co-main event, “Trailblazer” logged the only submission on a night full of knockouts, but probably could have had almost any finish he wanted, as he rocked Tim Means into shooting for a bad takedown attempt early in the second round, then locked up a brabo choke for the tap. It was a nifty bow to put on a thoroughly dominant performance, his second straight since dropping to welterweight. Considering his penchant for exciting fights—in victory, at least—and outsize personality, Holland is likely to skip the line just a bit in the ultra-crowded 170-pound division. Takedown defense remains the biggest question mark hanging over the 29-year-old Texan, which makes his postfight callout of Sean Brady quite a ballsy request. That would be a great test for both men, but the winner of next week’s Magny-Rakhmonov matchup might be even better, as both of them can rival Holland’s sheer size and test his defensive wrestling, while Holland provides a measure of name value as an opponent.

Joaquin Buckley vs. Gregory Rodrigues

Buckley thrashed Albert Duraev in their main card middleweight feature, lighting him up with punches and high kicks from both sides until the cageside doctor was forced to stop the fight after the second round on account of Duraev’s horribly swollen left eye. While it might not have been the kind of breathtaking one-shot sniping that populates Buckley’s highlight reel, it was in some ways his most impressive performance in the UFC, as he maintained aggression and volume for two full rounds while fighting off repeated takedown attempts from a skilled, determined wrestler. Buckley is now on a three-fight winning streak; his next matchup should position him on the fringes of the Top 15 if he can make it four straight.

Rodrigues, who demolished Marquez on the “UFC Austin” main card just two fights before Buckley-Duraev, finds himself in a similar situation. “Robocop” overwhelmed “The Cuban Missile Crisis” with punches just 3 minutes and 18 seconds into the first round and is now 3-1 in the UFC, with the only loss coming in a narrow split decision against super-prospect Armen Petrosyan. Rodrigues would provide another stern test of Buckley’s defensive wrestling—and ability to overcome the height and reach of true big-bodied 185-pounders. It would also measure Rodrigues’ fight IQ, as the decorated Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner greatly prefers to stand and bang, a choice that could backfire badly against one of the UFC’s most terrifying quick-strike knockout artists.

Damir Ismagulov vs. Rafael dos Anjos-Rafael Fiziev winner

Like Emmett, Ismagulov was the beneficiary of a contentious split decision, as he did enough to sway two out of three judges in his main card tilt with Guram Kutateladze. It might be worth giving Ismagulov a bit of a pass on the closeness of the fight; it is the first time in five Octagon appearances that the former M-1 Global has even been pushed very hard, after handling Top 10 lightweight Thiago Moises and a couple of top prospects in Rafael Alves and Joel Alvarez. Just as importantly, Ismagulov triumphed over his real nemesis: the scale. After missing weight several times in M-1, Ismagulov blew weight so badly for his scheduled matchup with Magomed Mustafaev at UFC 267 last October that the fight was scratched. On Saturday, on the other hand, Ismagulov made weight without incident and showed no particular deficit of cardio. That opens the door for the UFC to take him seriously as a title contender, because on the eyeball test—whom he has beaten and how—he may be a Top 5 talent. Former champ dos Anjos and red-hot rising contender Fiziev meet in the headliner of UFC on ESPN 39 on July 9. The winner would be a fine match for the surging Ismagulov.

Adrian Yanez vs. Pedro Munhoz-Sean O'Malley winner

If Yanez was feeling any extra pressure as he entered the cage against Tony Kelley on Saturday, it would have been understandable. Their fight had been promoted to the main card following the cancellation of Donald Cerrone-Joe Lauzon. There was a certain amount of extracurricular drama thanks to Kelley’s controversial comments while cornering girlfriend Andrea Lee last month, turning the Texan—at least for the moment—into Brazil’s favorite son. Yanez was one of the biggest betting favorites on the card, which always creates the sense, fair or not, that simply winning would not be enough to raise his stock.

However, if there was any pressure, Yanez shrugged it off in exactly the manner one might expect of the UFC’s most preternaturally mature 28-year-old. Facing a big, hard-swinging kickboxer—who missed weight, to boot—Yanez refused to be drawn into a brawl, instead sniping his aggressive foe with deadly accurate counters before putting him down for good late in the first round. The win is Yanez’s ninth straight, the last five of them in the UFC, and firmly positions him as one of the best strikers and most exciting overall prospects in the bantamweight division. His next fight should be against someone with the competitive mettle to propel him to the fringes of the Top 15, and the name value to occupy space on a pay-per-view main card. The winner of the Munhoz-O’Malley fight at UFC 276 is it. O’Malley is the other dazzling up-and-coming striker at 135, the rainbow-haired, brash counterpart to the calm, poised Yanez. Munhoz has been on a rough run, but has only lost to the best of the best. If he should derail O’Malley’s hype train on July 2, he will have earned the chance to swat down two prospects in a row.