With the hype that it built throughout Fight Week, UFC 305 delivered on its expectations. All but one fight on the main card gave fans exactly what they were hoping for, leaving the sold-out RAC Arena satisfied at the end of the event.
Dricus Du Plessis defended his middleweight title against Israel Adesanya in the main event before burying the hatchet with his bitter rival immediately afterward. With a fourth-round submission, Du Plessis was the third fighter on the main card to end his fight with a finish, following Carlos Prates in the pay-per-view opener and Kai Kara-France in the co-main event.
Although the main event delivered on all aspects, the Fight of the Night award was given to lightweights Dan Hooker and Mateusz Gamrot in the third fight of the main card. Hooker squeaked out the split decision in a back-and-forth bloody dogfight to leap into the top five of the 155-pound division.
With the fights now concluded, here are our predictions for who each winner of the UFC 305 main card will face next.
Dricus Du Plessis
Next fight prediction: Sean Strickland
Predicting the next fight for a defending champion is usually a straightforward task but is even easier for Du Plessis. During his post-fight interview following “Dana White’s Contender Series” on Tuesday, White all but guaranteed that Strickland would fight the winner of the UFC 305 main event.
The fight will be a rematch of the UFC 297 main event that made Du Plessis the new middleweight champion. After a five-round affair, “Still Knocks” took home the split decision win, though it was one that many, including White, felt that Strickland should have won.
White also said that if Du Plessis defended his title against Adesanya, he would get a future title defense in South Africa. That remains to be seen but his next defense will likely be a rematch with Strickland.
Kai Kara-France
Next fight prediction: Kai Asakura
Kara-France alluded to this matchup in his post-fight interview, saying he is the “real Kai” of the UFC. As a potential No. 1-contender fight, there are few other flyweights the UFC could put together that make more sense.
Assuming Amir Albazi comes out of his hiatus to be the next challenger for Alexandre Pantoja, Asakura will need at least one fight in the UFC before immediately jumping into the title picture.
Asakura could certainly slot into a title fight for his debut as the Rizin bantamweight champion at the time he left for the UFC. However, that is not how the UFC has handled similar situations in the past.
Anderson Silva, Michael Chandler, Manel Kape and Michael “Venom” Page — all big-name fighters the UFC signed in free agency — all had to fight at least once in the Octagon before fitting into the title picture.
Dan Hooker
Next fight prediction: Charles Oliveira
Per Oscar Willis of The Mac Life, Hooker was approached by Hunter Campbell after his win over Gamrot about a potential fight with Oliveira for him next. With Hooker now being a top-five contender in the division, the fight makes practical sense.
For a while, Hooker was considered a gatekeeper in the lightweight division after losing four of his five fights from June 2020 to March 2022. That has all ended with an unlikely three-fight win streak he has put together beginning at UFC 281 that has now included two gutsy victories in Fight of the Night-worthy performances.
Since losing the belt, Oliveira has lost two of his last three fights but is still the No. 2-ranked contender in the division. Both fighters are popular and there is no reason the UFC should halt the momentum Hooker currently has. Even if this fight does not happen, Hooker should be in a No. 1-contender fight in his next outing.
Jairzinho Rozenstruik
Next fight prediction: Marcin Tybura
It was not pretty, but Rozenstruik reentered the top 10 of the heavyweight division with a methodical win over Tai Tuivasa in a surprisingly lackluster bout. That is now back-to-back wins for Rozenstruik, giving him his first win streak since 2019, though he did not gain the favor of the UFC with the win.
With heavyweight lacking depth, there are not a lot of fighters in the top 10 who Rozenstruik has not already fought. If Derrick Lewis beats Alexandr Romanov at UFC Edmonton, that is certainly a viable option for him.
Of the names currently in the top 10, Tybura sticks out as a fighter who has not fought Rozenstruik yet and is ranked one spot above him at No. 9.
Coming off a loss to Serghei Spivac, Tybura will certainly need to fight back in the rankings and presents a different challenge to Rozenstruik as a wrestler. Given the performance on Saturday night, it seems unlikely that the UFC would want to give “Bigi Boy” a contender ranked any higher.
Carlos Prates
Next fight prediction: Michael “Venom” Page
Prates called out Khaos Williams, who reciprocated his callout on social media after becoming the first fighter to knock out Li Jingliang. Should that fight happen, it would not be anything anybody would complain about, but after his performance at UFC 305, Prates is a guy everyone wants to see climb the ranks.
At the time he last fought before his lengthy layoff, Jingliang was a borderline top-15 contender in the division. Prates smoked him as if he was an amateur. The time is now for the former Muay Thai fighter to get his shot against a ranked fighter, and he has a myriad of options in the back end of the rankings. As another high-level striker, Page makes perfect sense.
With Page’s unorthodox karate style, he will present a different approach than any other that Prates has ever faced before. Likewise, Page has never fought a striker as disciplined and powerful as Prates. After losing to Ian Machado Garry at UFC 303, Page will need to fight an unranked opponent, and no other option is better for him than Prates.
