UFC Vegas 113 is in the books, and Mario Bautista is all the way back. On Saturday, Bautista ran over Vinicius Oliveira to reassert himself as one of the best bantamweights alive. So, let’s talk about
the UFC’s return to the APEX, Shavkat Rakhmonov’s removal from the rankings, and more.
Mario Bautista
I thought Bautista looked incredible..What do you think about Sean O’Malley Vs Bautista. Merab Dvalishvili vs Petr Yan. Not sure what to do with Umar Nurmagomedov in this scenario. Thank you.
He did look incredible! The best Bautista has looked in a long time. Unfortunately, I highly doubt it’s going to lead to him getting a huge opportunity next, because this happened on an APEX card and, all due respect, Baustista does not draw a ton of interest.
Look, I wish the UFC was a place where merit was all that mattered. But you know the adage about wishing. The UFC simply does not operate that way, especially not in 2026. Bautista is one of the 10 best bantamweights alive, but because he cannot find a way to be broadly compelling to the fanbase, he’s on the Leon Edwards/Belal Muhammad/Movsar Evloev path forward: he’s gonna need to win nine in a row to fight for a title. And while Sean O’Malley isn’t the same as a title, it’s pretty close.
Like, why would O’Malley accept that fight? “Suga” is angling for a title shot (that he might get), and if he doesn’t get it, he’s not going to fight Bautista. That’s a hard fight with minimal upside, the worst thing in the world for prize fighting.
My best guess is the UFC does do the trilogy between Yan and Merab, and O’Malley either sits and waits for the winner or maybe he fights Umar Nurmagomedov or Cory Sandhagen. In the best-case scenario, Bautista could maybe get the other person in that trio, but the much more likely scenario is that the UFC pairs Bautista up against Aiemann Zahabi in the main event of another APEX card down the road.
UFC Vegas 113
Besides Horiguchi potentially solidifying himself for a title shot (even though his first round against wasn’t good), did any of the fights on UFC Vegas 113 actually mean anything? Mario Bautista looked great but he’s not getting a title shot any time soon, and all the other fights seemed low-stakes (except for fighters like Barriault and Niko Price who are both likely getting cut soon).
Nope! Welcome to the APEX!
Let’s be clear, every fight this past weekend was supremely meaningful to the fighters who competed. They got paid, advanced (or took a step back in) their careers, and had another opportunity to grow as fighters. That is good, and it’s the exact purpose of “junior” tier events like APEX shows. The machine can’t be all gas, all the time. These sorts of shows are necessary to keep the wheels spinning and to allow rising talent to showcase a reason why they should be moved up the pecking order. Bautista did that on Saturday. Kuniev and Almeida did the opposite.
But the flip side is that these events are never meaningful in the broad scheme of MMA. We are not going to talk about UFC Vegas 113 beyond this week, because it is not a destination event; it’s a stepping stone event. The best you can hope for with cards like these is to have fun watching them, and for this one at least, I certainly did.
Shavkat Rakhmonov and the rankings
With Shavkat’s removal from the welterweight rankings due to inactivity, should the UFC start being more strict on removing inactive ranked fighters, and set a standard length of time between bouts before a fighter is removed?
Probably, but let’s be honest, it’s not like it really matters.
I have absolutely no issue with Shavkat getting removed from the UFC welterweight rankings. He hasn’t fought in 14 months, and with his new injury, he’s unlikely to fight this year. If the man is going to be on the sidelines for two full years, it’s fine to pull him, especially because you can just reinsert him when he returns.
At MMA Fighting, we have an 18-month rule we follow, where we bounce fighters from the rankings once they hit 18 months of inactivity. We debated doing a 12-month timeline, but ultimately decided that lots of fighters sit for a year, or close to it, and we wanted to allow for some wiggle room.
But the question remains, why would the UFC care? They currently have carte blanche to do just about whatever they want with the rankings, and even so, they still just ignore the rankings when they choose to. So, what does the promotion gain from imposing some sort of system of rules to follow? I promise you, whenever he returns, his ranking or lack thereof won’t have any influence on what fight the UFC gives him. It’ll be whatever the promotion feels like at the time.
Trial of the Seven team
“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is so good it has me looking through all the GOT & HOTD eps for references to “Ser Duncan the Tall” and “Aegon V” or “egg” Targaryen… Question: Who would you pull from the UFC roster to make your “Trial of Seven” Team? I also wanted to see who you would pull to make your Rugby 15’s side since the co-lead Peter Claffey was a legit Rugby Union player for Ireland U20 team….Jiri would definitely be my 8-man & he would be picking it up and running at least 50% of the scrum downs lol.
There’s not a chance I’m going through the work of actually thinking through a 15-man team. So, this is gonna just be vibes:
- Tight Head Prop — Curtis Blaydes
- Hooker — Dricus du Plessis
- Loose Head Prop — Tom Aspinall
- Second Row — Valter Walker
- Second Row — Johnny Walker
- Blindside Flanker — Jiri Prochazka
- Openside Flanker — Dominick Reyes
- 8-man — Khamzat Chimaev
- Scrummie — Alexander Volkanovski (I know he played front row, but he knows ball)
- Fly — Robert Whittaker
- Wing — Ilia Topuria
- Inside Center — Michael Morales
- Outside Center — Islam Makhachev
- Wing — Kyoji Horiguchi
- Fullback — Diego Lopes
Man, once I started doing that, I really realized just how few great athletes are in MMA. We’d hold up in the front, but the backs are a liability. At least we’ll be decent tacklers, I guess.
As for a Trial of the Seven team:
- Tom Aspinall
- Alex Pereira
- Sergei Pavlovich
- Waldo Cortes-Acosta
- Alexander Volkov
- Jon Jones
- Jiri Prochazka
There’s no need to overthink this one. You don’t get bonus points for having lighter guys. Take the best big men for your Trial of Seven team, and, in general, favor strikers over grapplers. In a big old brawl, situational awareness and throwing hammers matter more than anything else. Well, and cardio. The goal is to get one guy out as early as possible, and then leverage the numbers advantage. I’d feel quite confident in that group against any seven-man team.
Thanks for reading, and thank you to everyone who sent in questions. Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send them to me. Every Sunday (sometimes I forget and it happens on Monday), I’ll put out a call for questions on The Feed. Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane; just drop your questions in there and let’s have fun.
