4 Fights We Need to See After UFC on ESPN 64

Brandon Moreno may not be the UFC flyweight champion, but there's no question he's one of the division's top dogs.

Moreno, a two-time flyweight champ, was back in action in the main event of the UFC's Saturday-night return to Mexico City. The former champ was looking to make it two in a row, having rebounded from a pair of split-decision losses to Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval with an impressive win over Amir Albazi last November. In the end, he succeeded on his mission, routing his opponent Steve Erceg over five fun rounds.

The win pushed Moreno right back into title contention, though it's yet to be seen if the UFC will grant him the opportunity next, or if he still has more work to do. 

While Moreno and Erceg lived up to expectation in Saturday's main event, the Mexico City card took a major blow at the last minute, when the co-main event fell apart. The co-main was supposed to see rising middleweight contender Joe Pyfer take on former interim title challenger Kelvin Gastelum in a contest that would have had massive impacts on both of their careers, but unfortunately it fell apart just hours ahead of time, when Pyfer was forced out of action with an illness he blamed on travel outside the United States.

Thankfully, the rest of the card made up for it, with a number of young fighters making huge statements. Chief among those fighters were Mexican lightweight Manuel Torres, who shut the lights off on crafty veteran Drew Dober in the first round of their main card encounter; and Cameroonian middleweight Ateba Gautier, who scored a devastating first-round KO of Jose Medina in his Octagon debut on the undercard.

It may not have been quite the night fans imagined ahead of time, but it was still a great card, and one that set a number of fighters up for huge opportunities next time out.

Here are the fights we'd like to see next.

Things are complicated at the top of the UFC flyweight division.

Alexandre Pantoja has established himself as the best champion the division has seen since Demetrious Johnson set sail for ONE Championship, and at the same time, Kai Kara-France, Manel Kape, and Brandon Moreno all arguably deserved to fight for his title. So too does Pantoja's training partner Kyoji Horiguchi, who recently re-signed with the UFC after a long stint in RIZIN, and who might be better than anybody on the promotion's flyweight roster at present.

Having said all that, we're here to talk about Moreno, who is now back in title contention after back-to-back wins over Amir Albazi and Steve Erceg. Outside of Horiguchi, Moreno is probably the most popular flyweight on the roster, which strengthens his argument for the next crack at Pantoja. However, the Mexican star has already lost to Pantoja multiple times—and once less than two years ago. Because of that, we can expect the next title shot to go to somebody else.

It's hard to say how the UFC will move, but the most likely option seems to be that Horiguchi will walk right into a title shot against Pantoja—assuming the two training partners are willing to fight each other. If not, the opportunity will probably go to Kara-France.

That leaves Kape and Moreno on the outside looking in, so they may as well fight each other in the meantime. It may not be what either guy wants, but it's a fantastic fight on paper—legitimately a barnburner—and the winner would be undeniable for a title shot.

As we've already covered, Joe Pyfer and Kelvin Gastelum were set to meet in Mexico City's co-main event, but the fight fell through at the last minute. It was a real shame, because it was a big fight for both men.

For Pyfer, it was a chance to recapture some of the mystique he once held. By early 2024, he was one of the hottest contenders in the middleweight division, with a string of knockouts in the rear-view. Then, in February of last year, he was comprehensively out-fought by veteran contender Jack Hermansson—a major blow to his hype. However, he has since rebounded with a thudding KO of Marc-Andre Barriault, and had he beaten Gastelum, likely would have been looking at another ranked foe.

It was also a crucial test for Gastelum. After a hot-and-cold run during his recent years as a middleweight, he dropped back down to welterweight, where he started his UFC career. Unfortunately, the weight class-switch was a disaster for him. In his first fight back, he was absolutely whooped by Sean Brady, and in his next, a fight with Daniel Rodriguez, he missed weight so badly that the fight had to be moved to middleweight. That meant that, even when he won, he was still in a bad spot, with a tarnished rep.

Beating Pyfer would have done a lot to improve his reputation among fans and UFC brass, but it wasn't meant to be.

Given that there aren't many better options for either guy at this moment, it only makes sense for the UFC to rebook the fight once Pyfer is feeling healthy. Of course, it remains to be seen whether they will grant his wish and only book him for fights on US soil.

Manuel Torres was easily one of the biggest winners of Saturday's card in Mexico, scoring a blistering first-round KO over a proven opponent in Drew Dober.

It was a very important win for Torres ,as it separated him from a knockout loss to Ignacio Bahamondes in his last fight—the lone loss of his five-fight UFC career to date—and reestablished him as a prospect worth keeping an eye on at 155 pounds.

He's probably not ready for a ranked opponent just yet—his recent foil Bahamondes just earned that opportunity himself—but he's definitely due for another tough foe.

Our pick would be Slovakia's Ludovit Klein. Klein is now 7-2 with one no contest in 10 UFC bouts, which includes wins over Bahamondes, as well as Thiago Moises and Roosevelt Roberts. He's closing in on the rankings himself, but like Torres, probably needs another win first before it happens. Pit them against each other on any fight card in the Americas or Europe, and see who's ready for the next step.

You know there's something special about a fighter when they're being compared to Francis Ngannou in their UFC debut.

That was precisely the case for Cameroonian middleweight Ateba Gautier at Saturday's card in New Mexico. From the moment he walked out to the Octagon, he was being compared to the lineal heavyweight champion, and when he knocked out his opponent Jose Medina in round round, he took a big step toward justifying those comparisons.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether Gautier can live up to the bar Ngannou set. The former heavyweight champ left the UFC on bad terms, but is unquestionably one of the best heavyweights ever, and one of the most influential fighters to ever grace the Octagon, at least in terms of the decisions he made and conversations about fighter pay that he helped start.

We'd like to see Gautier take another step in Ngannou's footsteps by taking on Abdul Razak Alhassan.

Alhassan is far more experienced than Gautier, particularly in terms of Octagon appearances, but he is winless in three straight fights, and at 39, is seemingly on the way out. His veteran savvy will make him a great test for Gautier, and even if he's a tad slower than he once was, he still boasts impressive knockout power—much like the 22-year-old from Cameroon.

Book it.