7 Fights We Need to See After UFC 272

UFC 272 went down Saturday night in Las Vegas, and while there was no title on the line, the card seemed to capture widespread fan attention nonetheless.

Much of the buzz can be attributed to the main event, which pitted former training partners Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal against each other in a heated welterweight grudge match. Covington won the fight with a clear-cut unanimous decision, reaffirming himself as one of the best fighters in his division in the process.

In the co-main event, former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos picked up a decision win over short-notice replacement opponent Renato Moicano in a 160-pound catchweight bout. The former champ might well have earned a stoppage had it not been for the astounding leniency of referee Marc Goddard.

Elsewhere on the card, we witnessed impressive wins from Bryce Mitchell, Kevin Holland and Marina Rodriguez. It was the kind of event that opened the door to a plethora of exciting matchups.

Keep scrolling for the scraps we're hoping to see going forward.

Colby Covington backed up all his talk versus his former training partner and roommate Jorge Masvidal. He was dropped by a punch in the fourth round, but beyond that, it was as effortless-looking as victories come.

Unfortunately, the win won't do much to improve his station at welterweight. While Covington is clearly one of the division's best fighters, he already has two losses to its reigning king Kamaru Usman—one of which was just a few months ago—and likely has more work to do before earning a third opportunity.

Thankfully, he has made things easier for the UFC's matchmakers. After his win over Masvidal, he called out another former stablemate in Dustin Poirier.

Having just lost to lightweight champion Charles Oliveira, Poirier finds himself in a similar position to Covington. He's also expressed his willingness to move up to welterweight and has made no secret of his desire to put hands on Covington.

Under normal circumstances, it would make no sense, but these aren't normal circumstances. Why not let them settle their differences?

This loss is going to sting worse than any other in Jorge Masvidal's career. That's not just because it came against his archnemesis, but because it's his third setback in a row after a pair of decisive losses to reigning champion Kamaru Usman.

However, the 37-year-old welterweight veteran seems determined to return to the drawing board and ultimately the cage.

When he's healthy, we're hoping to see him take on Neil Magny, the UFC's No. 8-ranked welterweight. Magny will need to get by Max Griffin on March 26, but if he does, this will be the fight to make—not just because it will make sense from a rankings standpoint, but because the two fighters have some history.

Despite sharing the welterweight division for the better part of a decade, they've never shared the Octagon. The time is now.

Former lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos dominated Renato Moicano from pillar to post in the UFC 272 co-main event, ultimately winning a unanimous decision. He probably would have won by TKO if not for referee Marc Goddard, who inexplicably let Moicano suffer through an inhumane amount of punishment, but that's MMA.

It was an impressive victory, but Dos Anjos is unlikely to gain too much ground given that Moicano took the fight on just a few days' notice. From here, we'd like to see the former champ matched up with the man he was originally supposed to fight at UFC 272, once-beaten Kyrgyz striker Rafael Fiziev, who was forced off the card because of a COVID-19 diagnosis.

The fight still makes sense, and as MMA reporter John Hyon Ko pointed out, it would be a great addition to the UFC's planned return to Singapore. Dos Anjos has trained extensively at Singapore's Evolve MMA and knows the city well, while Fiziev trains a short flight away amid the palm trees at Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket, Thailand.

The fact that the fight would probably be a barnburner is the cherry on top.

Camo-covered Arkansas native Bryce Mitchell picked up the biggest win of his career in the middle bout of the UFC 272 main card, wrestling former lightweight star Edson Barboza to a dominant unanimous-decision win at featherweight. Actually, "dominant" might not do it justice. The scores were 30-27, 30-26 and 30-25.

After his lopsided win over Barboza, who entered the cage as the UFC's No. 10-ranked featherweight, Mitchell deserves a big step up in competition. Our vote is for a fight with former featherweight title challenger Brian Ortega.

Even after his win over Barboza, Mitchell will likely be some distance behind the No. 2-ranked Ortega. But Ortega is one of the few fighters on the featherweight roster with the skills to match Mitchell on the mat. After a grueling decision loss to featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski, he could probably use a step down in competition anyway.

Kevin Holland needed to make a statement, and he did exactly that.

Holland was back in action in the second bout of the event's main card, taking on skidding Brazilian Alex "Cowboy" Oliveira at welterweight. He previously competed at middleweight, but after going 0-2 with one no contest in his last three fights in the division, he headed south in search of greener pastures.

Holland dealt with some adversity in the first round, surviving both big shots and submission attempts. In the second, however, he added to his already expansive highlight reel, stapling his foe to the canvas with a procession of vicious elbows.

In his post-fight interview, Holland set his sights on another "Cowboy": fan-favorite veteran Donald Cerrone. It was a clever callout, but let's not subject a legend like Cerrone to that kind of late-career cruelty.

Instead, let's match Holland up with Brazilian berserker Michel Pereira. Pereira is one of the few fighters on the UFC roster who can match Holland in excitement and unpredictability, and now they're fighting in the same weight class. The Brazilian is probably a few steps ahead in the welterweight pecking order, but who cares.

It wasn't easy, but Marina Rodriguez got the win.

The Brazilian strawweight, already ranked No. 3 in her division, took on China's Yan Xiaonan, ranked No. 4, in the penultimate bout of the undercard. Both women were more deserving of a main card spot than Greg Hardy, Sergey Spivak, Kevin Holland and Alex Oliveira combined, but that's beside the point.

Rodriguez used her trademark striking to beat Xiaonan by split decision. It was her fourth win in a row, and it would be enough to earn her a crack at strawweight champion Rose Namajunas under even slightly different circumstances.

Unfortunately for Rodriguez, No. 2 contender Carla Esparza has a stronger argument for a title shot from every conceivable angle. She's on a longer win streak that includes a more decisive win over Yan. She has a win over Namajunas. And most importantly, she also has a fairly recent win over Rodriguez.

All that to say, Rodriguez will need to wait for a yet unscheduled Namajunas-Esparza fight to happen before she gets her title shot. But provided she's willing to wait, that's what should be next for her.

Umar Nurmagomedov—a cousin and protege of the great Khabib Nurmagomedov—entered his UFC 272 undercard fight with Brian Kelleher as the biggest betting favorite of the night. To say he proved the oddsmakers right would be an understatement.

After wowing commentators Joe Rogan and Michael Bisping with his slick kicking game for a little over half a round, Nurmagomedov was able to get the fight to the mat, where he locked up a fight-ending rear-naked choke.

The win pushed the bantamweight prospect to an impressive 14-0 overall. From here, we're hoping to see him take another step up in competition against gritty Brazilian veteran Douglas Silva de Andrade, who dazzled fans with a comeback submission win over Sergey Morozov at UFC 271 last month.

Nurmagomedov made it clear post-fight that he hopes to compete again soon, so hopefully the UFC can make it happen sometime before summer.