The entertaining UFC Fight Night 104 took place February 4th from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The fifth Houston-held UFC event took place in front of a confirmed 8,119 people drawing a total gate over $600,000. In the main event, Chan Sung Jung made success of his octagon return, knocking out ranked featherweight Dennis Bermudez inside one round. The co-main event featured The Ultimate Fighter 20 competitor Felice Herrig end the undefeated streak of 23-year-old Alexa Grasso. Light heavyweight Volkan Oezdemir scored an split decision upset victory over former interim title challenger Ovince Saint Preux. Another upset took place on the main card, seeing natural light heavyweight Marcel Fortuna knockout a 48-pound heavier Anthony Hamilton inside the first round. The most exciting “Fight of the Night” kicked off the FS1 main card, seeing Jessica Andrade earn a decision over Angela Hill.
Following the Houston event, we provide the top five fights to make after UFC Fight Night 104.
5. Chas Skelly (17-2) vs. Charles Oliveira (21-7, 1 NC)
If you’re looking for a good scrapper, Chas Skelly is your guy. His second-round finish win over Chris Gruetzemacher was his third submission in his last three octagon victories, two coming by way of rear-naked choke. His jiu-jitsu skills can carry him far, holding 10 of his 17 total mixed martial art wins by submission. An opponent sitting high in the featherweight rankings who can match his skill set is Charles Oliveira, currently riding a two-fight losing streak. A win for Oliveira could reassert his position at 145 pounds, while a win for Skelly could see him crack the Top 15 rankings. The possibility of this fight is slim, due to Oliveira’s recent struggles to make the featherweight limit. If he were to manage, however, a battle between he and Skelly would be truly exciting to watch.
4. Felice Herrig (12-6) vs. Michelle Waterson (14-4)
The hype surrounding undefeated Alexa Grasso came to a halt with Felice Herrig’s impressive unanimous decision performance. Her striking looked much improved in comparison to previous performances, putting together combinations and leaving Grasso circling the outside. The win moves Herrig to 3-1 in the UFC, having suffered her lone promotion loss to Paige VanZant. In her post-fight interview, Herrig asked for her rematch with VanZant or a possible bout with “The Karate Hottie” Michelle Waterson. Instead of seeing a rematch that happened just the other year, let’s see how a healthy Herring fairs against Waterson, who continues to make significant strides in the strawweight division. Waterson recently returned in December of last year following a year layoff, displaying a dominate performance over VanZant.
3. James Vick (10-1) vs. Joe Lauzon (27-12)
A double-knee setup and a failed takedown shot from Abel Trujillo led to the eventual third D’arce choke victory for James Vick. Despite a knockout loss to Beneil Dariush in June of last year, Vick held together an undefeated record containing nine straight victories with four by submission. This fifth submission added to his already impressive resume, as Vick continues to show mass improvements with every fight. A definite and reasonable opponent for Vick next comes in Joe Lauzon, a 23-fight veteran of the UFC with 15 post-fight bonuses. Lauzon is coming off a controversial split decision win over Marcin Held and another controversial split decision loss to Jim Miller in his last two appearances. A scrap between Vick and Lauzon has the sound of a possible “Fight of the Night,” and the fans would sure get their money’s worth.
2. Chan Sung Jung (14-4) vs. Yair Rodriguez (10-1)
“The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung came back vengeance, knocking out cold Dennis Bermudez following a right-hand uppercut halfway into the first round. Jung had not stepped foot in the octagon for three and a half years, going home to his country of South Korea to perform mandatory military service. Jung’s last UFC showing came for the featherweight championship in August of 2013, suffering a shoulder dislocation loss in the fourth round to Jose Aldo. He is still one of the most entertaining fighters on the roster, having a WEC “Fight of the Year” with Leonard Garcia in 2010 and a UFC “Fight of the Year” with Dustin Poirier in 2012. Jung is deserving of an equally exciting fighter, and a perfect opponent could be that of Yair Rodriguez. “El Pantera” rides an eight-fight win streak with notable victories over Andre Fili, Alex Caceres, and UFC Hall of Fame veteran BJ Penn. a dominate performance from the winner of this match-up could see them possibly being the next to contend for the featherweight championship.
1. Jessica Andrade (16-5) vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk (13-0)
The success of Jessica Andrade has been nothing but impressive since her division drop from bantamweight to strawweight. Her decision win over Angela Hill Saturday night was hard fought but unanimously in her favor, using an aggressive striking approach to batter Hill against the cage. She remains undefeated here at 115 pounds, also scoring stoppage victories in 2016 over Joanne Calderwood and Jessica Penne. I think we can all agree Andrade is probably the most deserving fighter to deserve a shot at UFC gold against current strawweight title holder Joanna Jedrzejczk. The Polish champion has failed to lose in her mixed martial arts career, holding 13 wins dating back to May of 2012 with four UFC title defenses. A fight between Andrade and Jedrzejczyk would be each lady’s hardest test to date,and the winner would rightfully claim their spot as the best strawweight around.
Other fights to make after UFC Fight Night 104:
Victorious
Volkan Oezdemir vs. Ilir Latifi
Marcel Fortuna vs. Devin Clark
Curtis Blaydes vs. Marcin Tybura
Ricardo Ramos vs. Joe Soto
Tecia Torres vs. Maryna Moroz
Niko Price vs. Mike Perry
Khalil Rountree vs. Ion Cutelaba
Defeated
Dennis Bermudez vs. Andre Fili
Alexa Grasso vs. Alex Chambers
Abel Trujillo vs. Drew Dober
Ovince Saint Preux vs. Steve Bosse
Anthony Hamilton vs. Viktor Pesta
Angela Hill vs. Nina Ansaroff
Adam Milstead: one year off to heal his knee
Chris Gruetzemacher vs. Michael McBride
Michinori Tanaka vs. Ian Entwistle
Bec Rawlings vs. Amanda Cooper
Alex Morono vs. Sultan Aliev
Daniel Jolly vs. Bojan Mihajlović
MAIN IMAGE:
