Fantastic win for Fiziev. I've got nothing but respect for RDA and Fiziev was just the better fighter. I think him being up 3-1 going into the 5th is correct, but obviously getting the finish instead of squeaking out a 48-47 decision (which was the direction it was trending) looks much, much better. A little bit of a concern with the cardio, but otherwise, he looked fantastic. Lightning fast hands, great TDD, looked to be stronger than RDA who's obviously a big guy and fought at WW, power carried late, ate some big shots.
Tough call on what to do next. As good of a win as it was, I'm still not a 100% believer in him vs. a Poirier or Gaethje or Chandler. I'm not a 100% believer in Dariush, either. So if you put those 2 guys against Poirier/Gaethje/Chandler, it's a risk they both lose and if Oliveira beats Islam (big IF), what's next? I guess maybe you give Volk a shot. I don't know. I don't usually support guaranteeing to kill off a potential title challenger, but in this case, I think I'd do Fiziev-Dariush in a #1 contender's fight. Give us some big name fights with some combination of Poirier, Gaethje, Chandler, and Conor.