Where are the winners of UFC 123 headed?

UFC 123 has come and gone, but where should the winners from last Saturday’s event go from here?  This is my list of where I would like to see the fighters that pulled out a W at 123 fight next.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson— Won a close decision over moderately favored Lyoto Machida.  I’d like to see Rampage take on the winner of UFC 126’s Rich Franklin vs. Forrest Griffin bout.  I don’t want to see it called a number one contender bout though.  Franklin would not deserve a title shot after beating Chuck Liddell, Griffin, and Rampage back to back.  If Griffin won, his 3 fight win streak would be Tito Ortiz, Franklin and Rampage.  If Rampage wins, that’s only two straight.  Unless the winner of this 3-way logjam puts on a dominating performance, he should have to win one more somewhere down the road.  

BJ Penn— Electrified the crowd with a 21 second knockout of Hall of Famer, Matt Hughes.  A matchup between Penn and Jon Fitch has already been announced to take place at UFC 127 and I love it.  Time-wise Jake Shields getting a title shot at the winner of UFC 124’s GSP vs. Josh Koscheck makes sense, but I don’t want Shields there yet.  He has won one UFC fight, and it was a pretty lackluster split-decision win over Martin Kampmann.  I would like Penn/Fitch to be the number 1 contender bout because in my opinion both guys would deserve the shot.  If Penn wins, I’d be impressed because no one else can solve the style of Jon Fitch. Coupled with the highlight reel knockout of Hughes, I wouldn’t mind him getting a title shot at 170.  Fitch has done everything possible to get another shot at the belt and beating a very game Penn is just icing on the cake.

Maiquel Falcao— Won a decision over the favorite Gerald Harris.  Although the fight wasn’t anything special, I saw glimpses of how fast this guy’s hands can fly at times.  I’d like to see a step up in competition for Falcao since he surprised a lot of pundits by winning here.  Even though this fight is probably a pipe dream, I would love to see Falcao take on Alan Belcher in his return.  From what I can find out though, Belcher’s return is uncertain.  A more realistic 2nd fight for Falcao would be Yoshihiro Akiyama. 

Phil Davis— I expected dominance from Davis at 123 and he delivered.  It’s time to start giving this future title contender some better competition.  The first two guys he beat in the UFC Stann and Gustafsson are arguably better than his last two, Wallace and Boetsch.  Let’s see him take on somewhere near the top ten.  I’d like to see Matt Hamill take a crack at Davis, since he is the only man to beat Jon Jones so far.  Cough, cough.  It’d be a good test to see where he stands right now at 205.

George Sotiropoulos— Withstood Joe Lauzon’s fast paced attack in round 1, but then easily subbed the gassed fighter in round 2.  Apparently he is already slated to take on Dennis Siver at UFC 127 in Sydney.  This is an okay matchup, but I would have rather seen him take on the winner of UFC 126’s Kenny Florian vs. Evan Dunham fight.  The loser of WEC 53’s Anthony Pettis vs. Ben Henderson sounds better to me also.  I know Dennis Siver has won 6 of 7 UFC bouts, but c’mon now.  The only 2 guys on his list that do anything for me are Paul Kelly and Spencer Fischer.  Sotiropoulos beating Joe Stevenson, Kurt Pellegrino, and Joe Lauzon is quite a bit more impressive to me.  Oh well, Sotiropoulos vs. Siver it is.

Brian Foster— Choked out Matt Brown in the 2nd round.  I don’t have too much insight on his future, but a matchup with recent winner Amir Sadollah sounds good on a free Spike card.

Mark Munoz— Won a unanimous decision over fellow wrestler Aaron Simpson.  Munoz is a bit of a sloppy fighter, but I’d like to see him test the top ten waters again.  Since the bout of Chris Leben vs. Wanderlei Silva is not going to happen, how about Munoz vs. Silva in his return?

Dennis Hallman— Laid out Karo Parisyan in the 1st round.  The fight I want to see happen here is Hallman vs. Hughes 3.  I know Hallman technically has already won the “series”, but I think it would be a good fight, with Hughes definitely wanting to salvage those losses.  

Edson Barboza— Won an impressive TKO via leg strikes over Mike Lullo.  Barboza fired those kicks in a very Aldo-esque way.  Josh Gross from ESPN was singing his praises before the fight and I am a believer as well.  That said, I don’t want to see him jump all the way up the ladder because of one impressive performance against a fellow newcomer.  I like to see possible future stars brought up slowly.  I think Barboza vs. Paul Taylor with the British fighter’s walking papers on the line sounds good.

Paul Kelly— Won a dominating TKO over late fill in TJ O’Brien. I’m not sure if Kelly will ever be anything more than a gatekeeper in the 155 division.  He gets by the lower tier guys, but falls to anyone decent.  With the influx of the WEC 155’s his job could be on the line.  How about Kelly vs. Rafael dos Anjos, when his jaw gets better.  

Nik Lentz— Won a huge upset over Tyson Griffin via split-decision.  Love him or hate him, Lentz keeps on winning.   He wasn’t supposed to beat Griffin and has actually been an underdog in every bout except when he faced Rob Emerson.  Give this guy another mid-level name.  Ideally, Siver vs. Sotiropoulos would get cancelled, leading to Siver vs. Lentz, but that won’t likely happen.  My top choice is the loser of the WEC bout Henderson vs. Pettis bout gets “The Carnie”.