Conor's back!

Pereira vs Jones is way more interesting than Jones vs Old Man Stippe

He was already back at 232lbs on Saturday morning so 235 sounds more than reasonable. That would be a 15% gain from weight-ins which is on the higher end but not crazy. At UFC 298 two months ago, 5 out of 10 main card fighters gained 15%+. Geoff Neil who didn't even look that huge went from 171 to 201. Pretty sure Pereira was never below 215-220 when he fought at 185.

As far as next fight, I think he has at least one more fight at 205 before challenging for the HW belt. For opponent, I guess Jiri - Rakic was sort of a little eliminator, they just didn't announce it as one because of the possibility of Hill beating Pereira? They'll let Ankalaev fight for the belt in Abu-Dhabi or Saudi-Arabia (or home county of the opponent) once Pereira is gone. Nobody in the US wants to see Ankalaev and there's zero reason to have Pereira fight him.

I doubt Jones is interested in that. Would be a way better matchup for him than Aspinall though. I don't think there are many people left who believe Jones is going to fight any serious heavyweight contender though. Also absolutely no reason for him to do that unless he really needs money.

But Pereira just KO'd Jiri so cant really do that

Wouldn't Jones just wrestle/grapple Pereiera? I think he would be very opponent to that at HW

Why can't they do that? Jiri is the #1 contender after yesterday. Hill was #1 but will drop, Jiri was #2 already ahead of Ankalaev before last night. Rakic would have been #1 with a win over Jiri.

Pereira - Jiri 2 is a pretty easy sell as a co main event in New York if they manage to get Jones - Stipe to headline there. Maybe I underestimate how much of a challenge Alex seeks but fighting Ankalaev makes zero sense from a business perspective and he's obviously in a position to just say "no". That's not a Pennington kind of champion who is going to get the Sterling treatment of "fair enough, you don't have to fight Kayla. We'll find someone else who wants to fight her for the title on that date".

The BMF fight ended in such a Gaethje way. With <10 seconds he could have taken the final bell but ended up flat on his face. It was going to be a loss either way.

I can't see Pereira doing well at HW. He'll just get ragdolled by anyone decent.

Kayla Harrison looks like a future champion to me. Although I don't follow women's UFC much.

I'd think Pereira is above co-main status at this point, atleast for now

he just KOd jiri like what, 6 months ago? i dunno, seems early but maybe it is light on options

yeah kayla should dominate, my guess is once she gets the title ufc tries to get nunes back in there since there isnt really anyone else to fight

Would be a year by that time. Alex is def. one of the bigger PPV draws these days but if rumors are true and they want to make Jones vs. Stipe in NYC as big as UFC 205 (still the biggest gate in UFC history) they need Conor or at least one more really big fight in addition to Jones - Stipe.

We won't know anything before the summer anyway because of Conor who might say he wants NYC if he beats Chandler. Also depends on if Islam takes as little damage as expected against Poirier and could headline a Abu Dhabi card in October. If not and they're doing Abu Dhabi anyway, they might be limited to Khamzat for the 185 title (needs to beat Whittaker first though) or Alex vs. Ankalaev. FWIW, Pereira even said that Ankalaev should be next. I just don't think his management and the UFC agree.

One of the huge advantages the UFC has over boxing is their flexibility in scheduling. Pereira vs. Hill was obviously supposed to headline UFC 301 in Brazil in 3 weeks but they were able to just pivot, put that fight on 300 and let Pantoja vs. Erceg (that most casual fans probably don't even know) headline Brazil.

In a weird development, Nunes kinda complained that Kayla didn't call her out. That's the only fight that makes sense I guess after Kayla beats Pennington for the belt. Women's 145 is obviously dead anyway and 135 barely existent. Kayla to the UFC served three purposes: 1. Dana holds grudges forever and didn't want for Cyborg to get a shot at Kayla. 2. Outside of Ngannou that also would have been the only PFL/Bellator fight to get mainstream attention. 3. Kayla probably watched her second fight against Pacheco on tape and decided that fighting Cyborg wouldn't be a great idea.

Harrison vs. Holm was basically the female version of Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage with the difference that Brundage at least looked like he was trying instead of forcing a clinch/grapple exchange.