4 Fights We Need to See After UFC on ESPN 66

Ian Machado Garry is back on track.

Toward the end of last year, the Irishman was one of the hottest contenders in the welterweight division, and seemed to be headed for a title shot. However, in a short-notice fight with fellow undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov at the end of the year, he suffered a razor-close decision loss that cast his future in uncertainty to start 2025.

Garry returned to the Octagon in the main event of Saturday's UFC card in Kansas City, where he took on streaking Brazilian knockout artist Carlos Prates in another fight contested under somewhat short-notice conditions. Despite a late scare, the Irish star ultimately walked away with a unanimous decision win that reaffirmed him as one of the sport's top welterweights.

The big question now is who he fights next.

The same is true for China's Zhang Mingyang. Zhang picked up the biggest win of his career in Kansas City, sending former light heavyweight title challenger Anthony "Lionheart" Smith into retirement with a bloody TKO loss. Much like Garry, he is likely looking at a fight with a big name in his next visit to the Octagon. Yet it remains to be seen who the UFC chooses for him.

Keep scrolling for the fights we'd like to see next for Garry and Zhang, as well as a few of the other stars of the UFC's return to Kansas City.

Garry's 2024 loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov was competitive enough that he didn't lose much ground in defeat, and his Kansas City victory over Carlos Prates served to push him right back into title contention. In fact, were it not for the existence of Rakhmonov, Garry might be looking at a fight with the winner of Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena's UFC 315 title fight.

However, with Rakhmonov waiting in the wings, Garry will likely need one more win before he gets his long awaited title shot, and as luck would have it, there's an obvious choice for him: Sean Brady.

Brady recently earned the No. 1 spot in the UFC welterweight rankings with a lopsided finish of former champion Leon Edwards. Like Garry, he is right on the cusp of title contention, but will most likely need one more win, thanks largely to the fact that he lost to the champ Muhammad quite recently.

Garry vs. Brady is a perfect No. 1 contender fight at welterweight, and a great style clash on paper, as Garry is among the division's sharper strikers, and Brady is an excellent grappler. Even better, the pair have been trading plenty of trash talk of late, so there is an obvious score to settle.

Not all losses are created equal.

Much like Garry's 2024 loss to Rakhmonov, Prates' loss to Garry in Kansas City was competitive enough that it won't hurt his standing at welterweight too much. All it will take is another win or two for people to be calling him a future title contender again.

Our pick for his next opponent is the loser of an upcoming fight between Vicente Luque and Kevin Holland. Luque and Holland, two flashy strikers with underrated BJJ, are set to clash at UFC 316 on June 7. The winner of their fight will probably be matched up with somebody else riding a victory, but the loser will be in a very similar position to Prates. No matter who it is, they would make a great opponent for the Brazilian.

It's a little too soon to claim Zhang Mingyang could become China's second UFC champion after Zhang Weili, but the Chinese light heavyweight is on one heck of a roll.

On the surface, his 19-6 MMA record isn't exactly stunning, but there's a little more to his resume than meets the eye. He has finished every single one of his victories in the first round, which is objectively staggering. That includes three wins in the Octagon, most recently his bloody TKO defeat of the retiring Anthony Smith.

After beating Smith, Zhang will almost certainly land in the light heavyweight top-15. From there, he could be matched up with anybody in the back half of the rankings. Given the matchups that are already signed, however, our pick is the No. 14-ranked Alonzo Menifield.

Menifield is a good fighter, but his spot in the rankings is more a reflection of the dire state of the UFC light heavyweight division than anything else. Regardless, he has proven he can hang with all but the best fighters in the weight class, and looks like a perfect test for the surging Zhang right now. And given that he is also known for explosive stoppages, it seems extremely unlikely that this one reaches the end of the third round. Book it.

It's an exciting time for the UFC featherweight division, with a bunch of fresh contenders crashing into the rankings. That includes Youssef Zalal and Jean Silva, and most recently, David Onama.

Onama, who was born in Uganda but calls Kansas City home, showed out for the fans in the building, defeating No. 12-ranked contender Giga Chikadze by decision in his first fight with a ranked opponent.

It was his fourth win in a row since losing a 2022 Fight of the Night brawl with Nate Landwehr, and it will catapult into the featherweight top-15.

He's got options for his next fight. Silva is certainly an option — Zalal is Onama's teammate, so that won't happen — but there's no point in killing off a promising contender by matching any of them up with each other. For that reason, let's match Onama up with Dan Ige.

Technically speaking, the No. 14-ranked Ige is a step down from Chikadze, but the Hawaiian has proven he can hang with the division's best, and recently thwarted another rising contender in Sean Woodson. Let's see if he can turn Onama away too, or if the Ugandan-born American can continue to insert himself in the division's rankings.