Geoff Neal has been hovering around the top of the UFC’s welterweight rankings for a few years. Given the current landscape of the division, Fortis MMA head coach Sayif Saud believes he’s just a couple of fights away from a title shot.
Neal (16-6 MMA, 8-4 UFC) made a lasting impression in his 2017 Dana White’s Contender Series performance. He was signed to the UFC and ripped off five straight wins. Included in that mix was a unanimous decision win over the current champion, Belal Muhammad.
“Geoff is an explosive guy; he knocks people out, he’s exciting,” Saud told MMA Junkie. “His win over Belal obviously ages well. It’s the last time Belal lost, and Belal fought good that night. Belal’s amazing. Geoff is just – when he’s on point, I don’t know if there’s anyone like him. Look, he’s had some unbelievable fights, and I would love to see him fight Gilbert (Burns) or fight Colby (Covington) or fight one of those other guys and get his shot.”
Since that initial burst through the division, Neal has produced mixed results against the top names at welterweight. However, simply looking at his record wouldn’t give you the full story. Neal dealt with serious health complications outside of the cage that nearly cost him much more than his career.
Saud believes Neal hasn’t been at his best in some of his most recent appearances that led to a 3-4 record since starting 5-0 in the UFC, but has still managed to give the toughest names on his schedule some incredibly tough battles.
“We saw his fight with Shavkat (Rakhmonov) – he was not healthy for that fight,” Saud said. “In hindsight, I look at that fight, and I’m like, man, that fight was life and death. The Ian Garry fight was super close, you know? And it was a weird fight. Not to take any credit away from him, it wasn’t like ‘wow.’ These are the two guys who just fought. Super close fight at the top, and the guy that’s the champ, he has a win over.
“So, I just feel like he’s very relevant in the division, but he’s gotta get a big win against one of those top guys, and one of those guys gotta give him a shot. Sean Brady’s trying to call those guys up in front, I would just, you know Geoff fought back a few times. I would like to see him fight up and just get one more shot at going for the gold. Belal won it at an older age with a lot of respect and hard work. I feel like I would just love to see Geoff get back up there.”
Neal’s last performance was a TKO win over Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 308 in October. The win snapped a two-fight skid that included a Fight of the Night submission loss to Rakhmonov and a split decision loss to Ian Machado Garry. While he doesn’t have a fight on the books yet, Saud wants to see his fighter get another crack at fighting higher ranked opponents rather than getting suck always fighting guys looking to crack into the top of the division.
“I just want to see him at his best, and that’s exciting I think for everybody,” Saud said. “It’s not even, ‘He deserves a title shot.’ People say that, it’s like, man, once you lose, you fall back down on that totem pole. You gotta win. But if Geoff knocks two people out, people will want to see him fight for the title. He’s one of those guys that could do that.
“We’ll see what the UFC has. I would like to see him fight up since he just fought back. And then he could fight back as these young guys are coming in, (Carlos) Prates and all these killers – and I think those are good fights too. But he’ll never go anywhere if he’s always fighting the up and coming guy. He’s fought everybody. He’s fought Shavkat, he’s fought Ian Garry, he’s fought ‘Wonderboy,’ he’s fought Belal, Vicente – he’s really fought ’em all. He’s a guy I would like to see get a chance to go up.”
