Matches to Make After UFC Fight Night 205

Jessica Andrade’s return to strawweight couldn’t have gone much better, and she may not be far from a shot at regaining the title she once held.

“Bate Estaca” weathered some brief adversity on the feet against Amanda Lemos in the main event of UFC Fight Night 205 at the UFC Apex on Saturday before getting her hands on Lemos, whereupon she employed her crushing strength to lock up the first standing arm-triangle choke submission in Octagon history.

As a feat of sheer physical prowess, the standing sub is nearly as impressive as the massive slam with which Andrade knocked out Rose Namajunas to win the strawweight belt three years ago, and the win over a Top 5 opponent in Lemos indicates that Andrade is just as competitively potent as she was when she left the division after losing back-to-back fights to Weili Zhang and Namajunas. At strawweight, Andrade still has only lost to other champions: Zhang, Namajunas and Joanna Jedrzejczyk. The stocky Brazilian has been too much for everyone else — usually by a wide margin. The question is how quickly the UFC can or should give her a shot at regaining the title.

Whether it’s an immediate title shot, a title eliminator fight or the long road back, Andrade will need some kind of opponent. In the wake of “UFC Vegas 52,” here are matches that ought to be made for the former champ as well as some of the other prominent winners.

Jessica Andrade vs. Rose Namajunas-Carla Esparza winner

The bad news for Andrade is that there have been five champions in the history of the UFC strawweight division, and she has already faced three of the other four, going 1-3 against them. The good news is that the others have been beating up on one another as well, so she isn’t exactly alone in that regard. The 115-pound division is truly unique in that all of its former champions are still top contenders, and all are still in or near their apparent primes. The rest of the group all have upcoming dates with one another (yet again): Namajunas defends her belt against inaugural champ Carla Esparza on May 7, while Zhang and Jedrzejczyk meet on June 11 in a rematch of their all-time classic first clash from 2020. If Namajunas defends successfully in May, the Zhang-Jedrzejczyk winner is in a tough spot, as both women are 0-2 against Namajunas, with one loss by brutal stoppage and one by convincing decision apiece. Andrade, who is 1-1 against Namajunas and has not yet faced Esparza, is the safer choice to slot in as the presumptive next challenger.

Claudio Puelles vs. Grant Dawson-Jared Gordon winner

The “Prince of Peru” had something of a coronation in Saturday’s co-main event, ensnaring Clay Guida in a beautiful kneebar from guard and forcing the veteran to surrender in barely three minutes. While “The Carpenter” is 40 years old and clearly in the final act of his career, he remains quite capable of taking care of himself on the ground, still only gets tapped out by very good grapplers, and few manage to make it look quite so easy. Guida’s name is a solid addition to the résumé, but more importantly Puelles has now won five straight fights since losing his UFC debut as a raw 20-year-old prospect. Better yet, after injuries and COVID travel problems limited him to just three appearances in his first three years under contract, he has now fought three times since last June. The 26-year-old appears poised for a run at the Top 15, and all he needs is to stay busy and meet another fighter who can say the same. Dawson, a contender on a similar trajectory, and the ever-tough Gordon meet this coming weekend at UFC Fight Night “Font vs. Vera.” The winner would be a great matchup for Puelles.

Maycee Barber vs. Molly McCann

Barber won a competitive but well-deserved unanimous decision over Montana De La Rosa in their main card feature, her second straight win since the back-to-back losses that derailed her rise in 2020 and 2021. After the hard-fought win, Barber said all the right things, in a way that should reassure observers — myself included, admittedly — who once saw hubris and the seeds of downfall in the young phenom. The young woman who went by “The Future” and once boldly proclaimed she would be the youngest UFC champ ever, now claims to want a reasonable path to contention, explicitly wishing not to “skip any steps.” That kind of mentality, combined with her ever-impressive physical gifts and young age — unbelievably, she has gone from can’t miss prospect, to bust, to redemption story, all by age 23 — mean that Barber is far from a lost cause, and in fact a reasonable path to contention is exactly what she needs. Better yet if that path keeps her apart from the rest of the under-25 up-and-comers at flyweight, such as Erin Blanchfield and Casey O’Neill. “Meatball Molly,” who stole the show at the UFC’s return to London last month, is neither a kid nor an up-and-comer, but she is on a two-fight win streak of her own, and deserves a winnable marquee fight. Theirs is a matchup that could easily slot high on a Fight Night card.

Charles Jourdain vs. Darren Elkins-Tristan Connelly winner

“Air” Jourdain got it done on the ground this time, slapping a guillotine choke on Lando Vannata in the first round and thereby short-circuiting the fast-paced kickboxing match UFC matchmakers probably expected. The boisterous 26-year-old Canadian is still prone to head-scratching losses from time to time, which spells trouble in the featherweight division where fighters often must string together five or six wins in a row to merit a Top 15 matchup, but he is 3-1 in his last four and remains a reliably entertaining fighter. He also does not lack for cojones; earlier this year he cheerfully stepped up on short notice to face uber-prospect Ilia Topuria, and when Topuria ended up withdrawing from the bout, Jourdain made weight in the hotel lobby and posted it to Instagram. That kind of personality and attitude can help a fighter jump the line just a little bit, but with undefeated fighters like Topuria and Movsar Evloev occupying the next shelf up, Jourdain simply needs another good, solid win now. Elkins and Connelly, a couple of grizzled, well-traveled veterans, meet this weekend at “UFC Vegas 53.” The winner would provide a suitable foil and an interesting stylistic look for Jourdain.

Marc-Andre Barriault vs. Wellington Turman

Don’t look now, but Barriault is a real, live UFC middleweight. Two years ago, “Power Bar” could only be termed a massive disappointment, as he entered the UFC as a former two-division champion in Canada’s TKO organization, only to lose his first three fights, looking mostly flat and uninspired in the process. Since then, Barriault has won four fights and lost only one, even if one of the wins, his knockout of Oskar Piechota, was later overturned for a positive PED test. On Saturday, Barriault bounced back from that one recent loss, his 16-second splattering by Chidi Njokuani, by outstriking Jordan Wright, then turning a takedown attempt by “The Beverly Hills Ninja” into a nasty mounted guillotine. Barriault has gone from the brink of being cut to not only secure his job for the time being, but show some signs of life as well. A fellow UFC middleweight who can say the same is Turman, who weathered a 1-3 start to his Octagon run to win back-to-back fights, the most recent of which was his second-round submission of Misha Cirkunov in February. In the desperately thin UFC 185-pound division, a win by one of these men over the other might propel him the outer fringes of the Top 15. Book it.