5 Fights We Need to See After UFC Fight Night 197

The UFC kept its streak of amazing events going Saturday night, following up on the unforgettable UFC 267 and 268 pay-per-views with the action-packed UFC Fight Night 197 card in Las Vegas.

The card was headlined by a featherweight showdown between former champion Max Holloway and the all-action Yair Rodriguez. The fight was expected to be a barn-burner, and it lived up to those expectations, as Holloway defeated a Teflon-tough Rodriguez by unanimous decision in one of the year's best fight.

Other highlights of the card included big wins from a number of rising prospects and contenders, including South Korean light heavyweight Da-un Jung, Chinese bantamweight Song Yadong and American welterweight Khaos Williams.

When all was said and done, it was the kind of card that opened the door to a plethora of incredible matchup possibilities.

Keep scrolling for five we're hoping to see once the dust has settled.

With his win over Yair Rodriguez, Max Holloway demonstrated that he's ready for the opportunity to reclaim the UFC featherweight title, which is now owned by streaking Australian Alexander Volkanovski.

Holloway has fought Volkanovski twice, first in late 2019 and then in mid-2020, losing via decisions both times. Both verdicts were controversial, however, and Holloway has been a forced to be reckoned with ever since, defeating Calvin Kattar and Rodriguez in two of the best featherweight fights of all time.

Volkanovski is fresh off a successful title defense against Brian Ortega—a decision win in a similarly thrilling contest—and is now awaiting his next challenge. Holloway should provide that. Nothing makes more sense, and UFC President Dana White seems to know it.

"I don't know what's next for Max, but it does make sense to see him and Volkanovski again," White said at the event's post-fight press conference.

Yair Rodriguez didn't get the win he sought Saturday night in Las Vegas, but waging a competitive five-round war on one of the greatest fighters in featherweight history proved that he is, as many have long suspected, one of the best featherweights on Earth today.

From here, Rodriguez's first priority will be healing up following his war with Holloway. Once he's patched up, he should look to get back on track against two-time featherweight title challenger Brian Ortega.

Ortega is on the mend after losing a decision to featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski in September—one of the few featherweight fights this year that can rival Rodriguez's war with Holloway in terms of excitement.

Once they're both healthy, they should be booked to face each other. The fight makes sense from a rankings perspective—Ortega and Rodriguez are ranked Nos. 2 and 3, respectively—and they seem almost guaranteed to put on an incredible show.

Rising welterweight contender Khaos Williams picked up one of, if not the biggest win of his career at UFC Fight Night 197, bombing Miguel Baeza en route to a vicious first-round knockout.

The win should set up the powerful American for more big fights in the welterweight division. While some fans will likely want to see him challenge a ranked opponent next, we would like to see him brought along just a little more slowly than that. After all, it was just two fights ago that he lost a decision to Michel Pereira.

Our pick for his next fight is a showdown with a veteran Niko Price, who has fought several of the sport's best welterweights and always seems to be on the precipice of the division's top 15.

Not only do he and Williams match up beautifully on paper—both have a predilection for exciting fights—but he would provide the rising knockout artist with a great test.

If Williams passes that test, it would be hard to deny him a fight with a ranked foe.

Chinese bantamweight Song Yadong is looking more and more like a future title challenger.

The 23-year-old, who trains at Team Alpha Male in California, took another step toward that goal in the first bout of the UFC Fight Night 197 main card, smashing Julio Arce to a second-round stoppage—the product of a high kick and straight right hand.

In victory, Song built on the momentum of a split-decision win over Casey Kenney in August and justified his perch at No. 15 in the official UFC bantamweight rankings. He also set himself up for another big fight.

We're hoping he's matched up with Ecuador's Marlon "Chito" Vera, who recently rocketed up the bantamweight rankings with a third-round knockout win over former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.

Song has beaten Vera once before, winning a decision in 2020, but the bout was as close as they come, and many people scored the fight the other way around—including the Ecuadorian, as he told ESPN:

"It's something really, really frustrating. Because it's not one of those fights you regret, 'Oh, I could do this, I could do that to win.' It was 100 percent clear the fight was in one side. First round, we feel each other, we started quick, but we feel each other more than anything. Second and third round, I slapped the guy. I broke the guy, took him down, landed more punches, made more damage, walked him down."

With both bantamweights riding big stoppage wins, the time has come for them to run it back.

South Korea has a legitimate light heavyweight contender on its hands in Da-un Jung, who reaffirmed himself as such in the first bout of the UFC Fight Night 197 card, hacking into Kennedy Nzechukwu with elbows en route to an impressive first-round stoppage.

The win kept Jung unbeaten in the UFC at 4-0-1 and extended his current win streak to 14. Those marks should earn him a spot opposite somebody in the division's top 15. We're hoping it's No. 15-ranked contender Ion Cutelaba.

Moldova's Cutelaba is one of the most exciting fighters in the light heavyweight division—with an intense personality to match. He would make for an excellent test for Jung at this stage and should give us a sense of weather the South Korean is destined for the upper echelon of the division.

The fact that the fight should be entertaining is merely a bonus. Book it.