In the wake of an outstanding event in Miami last weekend, attention in the MMA world has shifted to UFC 300 next month in Las Vegas.

An absolutely stacked fight card that includes two title fights, a battle for the ceremonial BMF title, and 10 more dynamic pairings, people are understandably skimming over the four events between tomorrow’s return to the UFC APEX and the April 13 showcase at T-Mobile Arena, focusing in on what’s on tap and counting down the day until it gets here.

For the record: there are 29 days until UFC 300.

But while everyone is getting ready for the promotion’s tricentennial, my mind is fixated on figuring out what comes next after the April extravaganza and how to pair off the elite talents at the top of various divisions. And honestly, it’s pretty straightforward and easy: just book the fights that make sense.

NO MORE ‘CHAMP VS. CHAMP’ FIGHTS

After his win at UFC 299 last weekend, bantamweight titleholder “Suga” Sean O’Malley asked UFC CEO Dana White to get him a private jet so that he could fly to Spain and fight featherweight champ Ilia Topuria.

While it’s a tremendous fight on paper, this is one-hundred percent not the time to make it happen.

These things used to mean something — they carried weight, not simply because two champions were sharing the Octagon together, but because each had spent a considerable amount of time atop their individual weight classes, and the matchups were fantasy pairings that everyone had thought about for quite some time.

We never got Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre, but we pondered it forever and longed for it for years. When we got “GSP” and BJ Penn for the welterweight title, they had history with one another, standing as legitimate superstars in the sport, and no one that had established themselves as next in line, so the timing worked.

Even when Conor McGregor went up to challenge for the lightweight title, he was originally doing so after hunting down the one-and-only featherweight champion and was the biggest star in the sport. It was gonna to do gangbusters at the box office, and so even after it got delayed by twin bouts with Nathan Diaz, it ended up being an absolutely monumental bout to headline the company’s first trip to Madison Square Garden.

Since then, the “Champ vs. Champ” fights have been less exciting and more hastily put together, to the point where O’Malley is looking to venture up a division after a single title defense, despite the fact that he has an obvious challenger at the ready.

The capper was last October when Alexander Volkanovski jumped into his second lightweight title fight against Islam Makhachev on short notice, ultimately losing by first-round knockout. Their first fight was riveting and a sequel felt like it would eventually materialize, but two bouts in less than a year without Makhachev defending the belt against an actual lightweight was too much too soon and it went sideways.

As great as their first fight was, even it was an odd pairing, as Makhachev had just won the belt, and while it made sense for the long-reigning Australian to climb the divisional ladder and challenge for a second belt given all he’d accomplished, it created unnecessary chaos in the 145-pound ranks, chaos that could have been avoided if each of these champions just defended their titles against challengers from their own weight classes.

These fights should be reserved for instances where champions have successfully defended their titles multiple times and don’t have an immediate challenger waiting in the wings. Until those criteria are met, the UFC should press pause on putting two champions in the Octagon against one another.

JUST MAKE THE OBVIOUS FIGHTS

O’Malley doesn’t need to bother with trying to make a fight with Topuria happen right now because he should just defend his title against established No. 1 contender Merab Dvalishvili. The fight is sitting right there, has come together organically, and even has a little addition juice to it, given that Dvalishvili is the best friend and chief training partner of Aljamain Sterling, the man O’Malley took the bantamweight title from last August.

It’s an obvious and easy pairing to make that works as a clear pay-per-view main event, and is just one of a couple different championship matchups that the UFC should just put together and roll out.

Like Dvalishvili, welterweight contender Belal Muhammad has done more than enough to merit a championship opportunity against Leon Edwards. He should have been in the Octagon with Edwards in December when he defended his belt against Colby Covington, and the pairing could have been booked as the main event for UFC 300.

Even Topuria has an obvious opponent at the ready — unbeaten Russian Movsar Evloev, who ran his record to 8-0 in the UFC and 18-0 overall with a win over Arnold Allen at UFC 297 in Toronto. Though not the sexiest matchup in terms of name value, it’s the fight that makes the most sense in the moment, and those are the types of fights the UFC needs to get back to making more regularly.

We spend so much time talking about the biggest names and wanting to put together the most high profile bouts imaginable, but just going with the matchups that keep divisions moving forward and give athletes that merit opportunities their chances is far easier, and often works out better.

Folks weren’t jazzed about Edwards fighting Kamaru Usman, and that turned out to be one of the most amazing finishes in UFC history. Now, a lot of those same folks recognize Edwards’ elite talents, and keep trying to find flashy matchups for him, even though Muhammad is sitting right there.

Volkanovski wasn’t a particularly hyped challenger when he stepped in against Max Holloway either, and their first two fights were outstanding and he became a beloved, respected, long-reigning champion.

Look at the heavyweight title situation, where very few people are overly excited about the legacy fight between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic, largely because it doesn’t feel like 41-year-old Miocic is should be fighting for championship gold after a three-year layoff and after getting knocked out in his last outing.

It’s going to happen, but after that, it has to be interim champ Tom Aspinall, no question.

GOOD THINGS WILL HAPPEN

A big part of the matchmaking strategy has always been to deliver the biggest possible matchup with designs on maximizing pay-per-view revenues, but here's the thing: the fights haven’t always worked out, so why not just book the fights that make sense?

Look how things worked out with Edwards and Usman, Volkanovski and Holloway, and so many other lower profile pairings that were booked and turned out to be pretty entertaining and enjoyable.

Jones’ last few fights at light heavyweight weren’t particularly compelling matchups, but his fights with Anthony Smith, Thiago Santos, and Dominick Reyes all had memorable moments, and the most shocking moment of 2023 came when Sean Strickland subbed in to fight for the middleweight title and upset Israel Adesanya.

He’s was the next man up, jumped at the opportunity, and chaos ensued, but the good kind of chaos that garnered a ton of attention and interest and elevated the polarizing middleweight to a new level of fame and notoriety.

So rather than trying to force marquee names trying to entice as many casuals as possible to the event, just make the fights that make sense and trust that good things are going to happen, because they will.

Trust me.

And thank me later