5 Fights We Need to See After UFC Fight Night 212

UFC Fight Night 212 went down Saturday night inside the promotion's Apex facility—this time, with more than just Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, in attendance.

The card was topped by a clash of flyweight contenders, as the No. 5-ranked Alexa Grasso took on No. 6-ranked Viviane Araujo. Mexico's Grasso ultimately won the fight by unanimous decision, cementing her position near the top of the weight class.

In the co-main event, fan favorite veteran Cub Swanson made a late-career drop from featherweight to bantamweight, taking on rising prospect Jonathan Martinez. Unfortunately for Swanson, there were no greener pastures to be found in the new division, as he was chopped down and stopped by leg kicks in Round 2.

Other highlights of the card included big wins from fighters like Alonzo Menifield, who scored a devastating knockout win over Misha Cirkunov on the event's main card, as well as rising Japanese flyweight Tatsuro Taira, who stayed unbeaten as a pro with a second-round submission win over CJ Vergara on the undercard.

Keep scrolling for the fights we're hoping to see when everybody is healed up and ready to get back in there.

When Mexico's Alexa Grasso signed with the UFC in 2016, she was widely viewed as a future strawweight title challenger—maybe even a future champion. She was undefeated, she was young and she had shown off some big power in the early phases of her career. Yet the first chapter of her UFC run didn't go quite the way her supporters expected, as she alternated wins and losses in the first six fights.

Then she moved up to flyweight and has looked every bit like the fighter her supporters thought she was when she arrived in the UFC. She's gone 4-0 since changing divisions, first scoring decision wins over Ji Yeon Kim and Maycee Barber, then submitting Joanne Wood, and most recently, defeating Viviane Araujo by unanimous decision in the UFC Fight Night 212 main event.

After the win, Grasso has as strong a claim to a shot at UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko as anybody. Only Taila Santos, who lost a controversial split decision to Shevchenko earlier this year, could be argued to have a better argument.

Yet, speaking at the event's post-fight press conference, Grasso mentioned she would like one more five-round fight before she challenges for the title. That works for us, as it would give Shevchenko and Santos the opportunity to run it back in pursuit of a more decisive outcome.

Our pick for Grasso's next move, if that's the way things go down, is a fight with Lauren Murphy. Murphy recently rebounded from a lopsided TKO loss to Shevchenko with a decision win over former bantamweight champ Miesha Tate. While her days as a title threat are over—if she ever was one to begin with—she would make a great final test for Grasso before the Mexican star challenges for gold.

Jonathan Martinez picked up the biggest win of his career in the UFC Fight Night 212 co-main event, chopping featherweight veteran Cub Swanson down with a processional of leg kicks at bantamweight.

In victory, the 28-year-old striker is now 8-3 in the UFC, with wins in his last four fights. In other words, he's primed for a big opportunity in the bantamweight division. Our pick is a fight with Ricky Simon.

Simon, a grappling specialist who has been ranked previously, is on a five-fight streak at bantamweight, highlighted by wins over Ray Borg, Raphael Assuncao and, most recently, Jack Shore, whom he choked out earlier this year.

The fight makes sense for both guys, and it looks like a fun clash of styles on paper. It's anyone's guess who would win it, but it would be difficult to deny the victor a fight with a ranked opponent.

In the end, Cub Swanson's bantamweight debut didn't go the way he planned, as he was felled by a series of crippling low kicks from his foe, Jonathan Martinez.

Still, it's hard not to be excited about Swanson's options going forward. While it's clear his days as a title challenger are over, and that retirement is probably just around the corner, he has a wealth of new matchup options at his fingertips in his new weight class—and some of them are pretty cool.

Our favourite, which was suggested by MMA reporter Alex Behunin on Twitter, is a fight with fellow veteran Urijah Faber. Faber and Swanson shared space on the WEC roster for years and have been in the UFC together for ages, but they've surprisingly never crossed paths in the cage.

Faber hasn't fought since a 2019 knockout loss to Petr Yan—who went on to become a UFC champ—but has not officially retired in the time since and could certainly be convinced to come back for one last dance with Swanson.

Make it happen somewhere in California, whether it's on Swanson's home turf in the south or Faber's in the north, and make sure both men retire, win or lose, when the fight is over.

If Faber can't be convinced to return to the cage, call up Dominick Cruz and suggest the same arrangement to him.

At this point, it seems very unlikely that Alonzo Menifield will ever contend for the UFC light heavyweight title. He just isn't consistent enough.

Nonetheless, it's clear the American has enough firepower to stop any fighter in the weight class—whether they have a belt around their waist or not. He proved that again at UFC Fight Night 212, when he levelled Latvian Canadian grappler Misha Cirkunov with a volley of hooks in Round 1.

After his win inside the Apex facility—his second first-round stoppage in a row—we'd like to see Menifield matched up with Moldovan hulk Ion Cutelaba.

Cutelaba is riding two straight first-round submission losses, which makes this suggestion a little unusual—usually, the UFC likes to pit winners against winners and losers against losers. But at this point, Cutelaba is one of the few fringe contenders the always-busy Menifield has yet to fight, and it looks like a pretty ridiculous matchup on paper. Both men are known for their aggression and fight-ending power, while we also know both men can be knocked out.

The chances of this one going the distance seem almost nonexistent. In fact, it's hard to imagine it leaving the first round.

Book it for a future Fight Night, and see if Menifield can put together the first three-fight streak of his nine-fight UFC run.

Tatsuro Taira is one of the best Japanese prospects to arrive in the UFC in quite a while—potentially since the promotion signed the great Kyoji Horiguchi back in 2013.

The 22-year-old flyweight is a former Shooto champ—a title that means something on the Asian circuit—and after a bonus-winning submission win over CJ Vergara on the UFC Fight night 212 undercard, he's now 2-0 in the UFC and 12-0 overall.

That's the recipe for another step up in competition.

Our pick for the former Shooto champ's next challenger is 34-fight veteran Tyson Nam. Nam, who had to move mountains to finally earn a spot on the UFC roster in 2019, has been a bit inconsistent in the Octagon, but he is riding a big knockout win over Ode Osbourne—proof of his vicious knockout power.

A veteran of his ilk would make a great test for a rising prospect like Taira. And between his firepower and Taira's submission game, it's hard to imagine the judges will be needed for this one.