5 Fights We Need to See After UFC Fight Night 202

UFC Fight Night 202, which went down Saturday night inside the promotion's Apex facility in Las Vegas, was a quintessential Fight Night experience: It offered almost nothing in terms of big names but managed to produce some memorable action.

In the main event, Dagestan's Islam Makhachev—far and away the biggest name on the card—picked up a first-round TKO win over Bobby Green, who replaced the injured Beneil Dariush on short notice.

In the penultimate bout of the night, Brazil's Wellington Turman weathered some early adversity to defeat Canada's Misha Cirkunov with a second-round armbar.

Other highlights of the night included impressive wins from Armenia's Armen Petrosyan and Arman Tsarukyan, who defeated Gregory Rodrigues and Joel Alvarez, respectively. Keep reading for the fights we're hoping to see when the dust has settled.

Islam Makhachev's first-round TKO win over Bobby Green was as lopsided as victories come. The context of the fight, however, is important.

Makhachev, the UFC's No. 4 lightweight contender, was originally supposed to fight No. 3-ranked contender Beneil Dariush on this card. If that fight had gone ahead and Makhachev had won, we would probably be calling for him to receive a title shot.

But that's not what happened. Dariush was forced off the card and replaced by Green, who, while talented, is not ranked at lightweight. Makhachev made the most of the situation, but beating a guy like Green just doesn't do much to improve his situation in the division.

So, we're hoping the UFC will take another stab at the Makhachev-Dariush booking. The fight still makes sense from a rankings standpoint, and it's the kind of stiff challenge Makhachev needs before he contends to the title. As great as he's looked, he's still only ever beaten one fighter in the lightweight Top 15: Dan Hooker, who has since dropped to featherweight.

Bobby Green deserves some props for stepping up to fight a juggernaut like Islam Makhachev on short notice, but the fight sure didn't go his way. Instead, he suffered one of the worst losses of his entire career, wilting under a storm of first-round ground strikes.

Still, Green is unlikely to lose much ground in defeat. Everybody loses to Makhachev. It's hard to fault the American for doing so with little preparation.

From here, we're hoping to see him matched up with Alexander Hernandez. Hernandez, like Green, has been floating on the precipice of the lightweight rankings for years but has struggled too much with consistency to secure a spot on that lofty list.

He's fresh off a tough loss to Renato Moicano at UFC 271 earlier this month and will soon be looking for an opportunity to get back on track.

In the penultimate fight on the Fight Night 202 main card, Brazilian middleweight Wellington Turman survived a slow start to defeat former light heavyweight contender Misha Cirkunov by second-round submission.

A win over Cirkunov, who has most likely fought his last fight in the UFC, is not as valuable as it was when the Canadian had just started knocking people around in the light heavyweight division. Still, it was Turman's second win in a row after a split decision win over Sam Alvey, and it should set him up for another big fight. 

Here's hoping he's matched up with Brendan Allen.

Allen has shown flashes of brilliance in the Octagon but has struggled with consistency. In his most recent appearance, he picked up a submission win over Alvey at light heavyweight, but he's made it clear that he intends to drop back down to middleweight. A fight with Turman makes plenty of sense when he does. The fact that the two middleweights have identical 18-5 pro records is the cherry on top.

Arman Tsarukyan is looking more and more like a future lightweight title challenger—maybe even a champion. The Russia-based Armenian picked up his latest impressive win on the UFC Fight Night 202 main card, stopping Spanish submission wizard Joel Alvarez in the second round.

Tsarukyan was already ranked No. 13 at lightweight heading into the fight. In victory, he'll be looking for another step up in competition. Poland's Mateusz Gamrot, a former champion in the country's famed KSW promotion, would be just that.

After a decision loss to Guram Kutateladze in his UFC debut, Gamrot has bounced back with violent stoppage wins over Scott Holtzman, Jeremy Stephens and Diego Ferreira and is now ranked No. 12 at lightweight.
Match him up with Tsarukyan and see who's ready for an opponent inside the Top 10.

Armenian middleweight Armen Petrosyan—not to be confused with the successful Armenian-Italian kickboxer of the same name—made a successful UFC debut on the UFC Fight Night 202 undercard, defeating Gregory Rodrigues by split decision. The Contender Series product definitely could have made more of a statement, but it was still a solid way to kickstart his time in the UFC.

From here, we'd love to see him matched up with striking specialist Chidi Njokuani, who also earned his place on the UFC roster on Contender Series.

Njoukuani made his own UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 200 earlier this month, starching Canada's Marc-Andre Barriault to a first-round knockout. When Petrosyan is healed up and ready to return to the Octagon, this is the fight to make.