UFC Fight Night 81 Matches to Make

Ilir Latifi vs. Ed Herman

Outside of his late replacement bout against Gegard Mousasi, Latifi is 4-1 in the UFC with four first round finishes in his four wins, but his loss still hold shim back from getting a shot at the top. Herman made a huge return to 205 with his knockout over former contender Tim Boestch. Plus, even though he is 3-3 in the last two years his losses have only came against top ten fighters at 185, and with the new IV ban he does not feel it is healthy to make Middleweight anymore. With big finishes for both, it makes sense to have these two face off next.

Paul Felder vs. Chris Wade

Felder has rebounded after two straight losses with a submission win. Although, he only sits at 3-2 inside the Octagon he has a bigger name than Wade. Whereas Wade has won four straight but mostly fallen under the radar. Let these two fight it out to see who should keep the title of prospect and potentially challenge someone in the top 15.

Patrick Cote vs. Winner of Tarec Saffiedine vs. Jake Ellenberger

Cote is having a resurgence at Welterweight with him going 5-1 in his new division with TKO wins in his last two fights. All three of these fighters are floating around to top 15 with Saffiedine somehow still being ranked in the top ten. Cote may never make it to a title shot, but he should have a shot at breaking int the top ten which a win over the winner of the Saffiedine and Ellenberger bout should be able to give him.

Francisco Trinaldo vs. Evan Dunham

Francisco has rebounded after a 1-2 run from late 2013 into mid 2015. He has now won five straight which is capped off with a win over the always tough Ross Pearson. Dunham has a recent win over Pearson as well and knows about coming back from rough spots in his career after breaking a 1-4 run with a 3-0 run over the year of 2015. Let these two elder statesman of the Lightweight division face off for a chance to crack the top 15.

Travis Browne vs. Junior dos Santos

Browne, with a few extra eye pokes, won his return fight after a domestic violence charge kept him out of the cage for nearly nine months. He is now only 2-2 in his past four fights despite his number five spot in the UFC rankings. Even though JDS is coming off a loss, he is still a former champion who would be a huge win for Browne. This is the logical fight if he wants to get back to a number one contender status.

Eddie Alvarez vs. Nate Diaz

Eddie Alvarez did what he had to to get the win in the fight against Pettis, but it did not do much for his career to have it be such a boring affair. The current champion beat Pettis at his game to take the belt while Alvarez barely skated by on a split decision. With dos Anjos locked in a fight with Conor McGregor, and Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov most likely fighting for the next title shot, it is most likely that Alvarez will need two fights before a title shot. Nate Diaz seems like a good fight, a logical next fight for the two fighters and a fight that is big enough to intrigue Diaz.

Anthony Pettis vs. Edson Barboza

The oft injury prone fighter has now fought twice in as many years and lost both, even though this was close. Barboza is an exciting striker who ha shad his ups and downs as of late. This fight just makes sense for the fans since they both will have amazing exchanges.

Dominick Cruz vs. TJ Dillashaw II

No one really ants to see Faber fight for the title and the rest of everyone else is too green. This was a close fight with some varying factors. Dillashaw had a lot to prove in this fight and had to be affected by all the drama following the split with TAM. Cruz of course had one fight in four years with multiple ACL injuries. This fight should go again to determine a real winner between the two due to the closeness of the fight.

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