UFC 301 did not disappoint. I don’t know whether my expectations were lowered just because it was following one of the greatest PPVs of all time. A great main card culminating in a great back and forth between Pantoja and Erceg.

Despite one judge scoring the fight 49-46 to Pantoja, I believe most fans thought this was 48-47 to either fighter. I myself have this 48-47 Erceg, giving Pantoja rounds 1 and 5. Round 3 was the closest round and there is a strong debate for both fighters to have earned the 10-9 but I gave this Steve purely for the elbow that cut Pantoja. I guess this opens up a bigger debate on how much one damaging blow can effect an entire 5 minutes of fighting. Either way, it was not a robbery and I wouldn’t have been surprised for either fighter to have hand their hand raised.

This does however, open up an interesting flyweight division picture. Steve Erceg has proved he can hang with the best and despite the loss on his record, his stock has only rose. I think his next opponent should be Alex Perez after his great outing against Matheus Nicolau. As I write this Muhammad Mokaev has just been scheduled to fight Manel Kape at UFC 304. Both of these fights could be considered title challenge eliminators. I think Kape has to show he makes weight and Mokaev has to show he is title fight ready.

Pantoja has announced he is going to rest up for a while and we can all agree he has earned it. A dominant fight from either of these 4 contenders could put them in line for the title shot next. Depending on how long Pantoja is to have off, there is even a debate whether the winners of these fights will have to face each other before the next number 1 contender is announced.