It's safe to say Saturday's UFC on ABC 5 event in Jacksonville, Florida was one of the promotion's most exciting offerings of the year so far.

The event was topped by a high-stakes featherweight clash, with unbeaten contender Ilia Topuria taking on Top-15 mainstay Josh Emmett. The pair closed out an entertaining card in style, engaging in a five-round, Fight of the Night-winning battle that Topuria won by unanimous decision.

The co-main event was also a thriller, with ranked flyweights Maycee Barber and Amanda Ribas slugging it out until the former put a stop to things with a nasty salvo in Round 2, picking up what could be the biggest win of her career so far.

The card was not without disappointments. Most notably, a heavyweight fight between Justin Tafa and Austen Lane ended with a no-contest after the latter landed an accidental eye poke less than 30 seconds into the first round.

However, that letdown was preceded by an impressive submission win from rising middleweight contender Brendan Allen, a pair of decision wins from welterweight veterans Neil Magny and Randy Brown, and plenty more.

Keep scrolling for the fights we're hoping will be made in the wake of this action-packed card in Jacksonville.

Ilia Topuria vs. Volkanovski-Rodriguez Winner

After bloodying and battering Josh Emmett to a lopsided unanimous-decision win at UFC on ABC 5, Ilia Topuria is now 14-0 overall and 6-0 since joining the promotion's roster.

Most of his wins in the Octagon have come against solid opposition—none more so than Emmett, who seemingly survived their 25-minute encounter on toughness alone.

At this point, there is no question Topuria, 26, is one of the best featherweights in the world. The big question is whether he's ready for a title shot, or if he needs to pass one more test before that happens.

The better option would seem to be just giving him a title shot since there aren't really any better choices at the moment. Arnold Allen just had his 12-fight win streak derailed by Max Holloway, who is booked to fight "The Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung in Singapore later this summer. So, let's give it to Topuria.

That would mean pitting him against the winner of undisputed champ Alexander Volkanovski's UFC 290 title defence against interim champ Yair Rodríguez. Either way, we get an extremely exciting matchup that looks very competitive on paper.

Josh Emmett vs. Arnold Allen

Josh Emmett showed plenty of toughness in his five-round loss to Ilia Topuria, but he offered little in the way of serious resistance to his unbeaten foe.

With his loss, the 38-year-old is now on a two-fight skid, having come up short in an interim title fight with Yair Rodríguez earlier this year.

From here, the obvious choice for him seems to be a fight with Arnold Allen.

The Englishman and Emmett have been posted right beside each other in the rankings, sitting at No. 5 and No. 4, respectively, ahead of Saturday's card. Emmett will drop a little further after his loss to Topuria, but he and Allen will still be in each other's orbits. And given they're both in the loss column, it makes sense to pit them against each other.

Allen is probably itching to return to action after his April loss to Max Holloway, but if he's willing to wait for Emmett to rest up—he'll need some time after all the punishment he took on Saturday—this seems like the fight to make.

Maycee Barber vs. Jennifer Maia

Maycee Barber picked up, arguably, the biggest win of her career in Jacksonville, bloodying Amanda Ribas en route to a second-round stoppage victory.

It was her fifth win in a row, and the latest bit of evidence that she is finally living up to the hype she's had since the beginning of her UFC career.

It's too early to be talking about a flyweight title shot for the 25-year-old, especially because a couple of her recent decision wins have been somewhat dubious. But after the beating she put on the No. 9-ranked Ribas, she deserves another tough test.

Our pick is another Brazilian in the No. 8-ranked contender Jennifer Maia. Some might feel Barber deserves a bigger step up, but let's not forget how tough Maia is. She gave former flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko one of the toughest challenges of her reign and derailed the highly regarded Casey O'Neill—a streaking prospect not unlike Barber.

Book this one for a pay-per-view main card, and see if Barber can get past one of the division's best established contenders. If she can—particularly in the fashion she took care of Ribas—it may be time to talk about a title eliminator.

Austen Lane vs. Junior Tafa

Austen Lane's UFC debut ended in disaster. The former Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end landed an inadvertent eye poke on New Zealand's Justin Tafa in the first exchange of their fight, and when his opponent could not continue, the bout was ruled a no-contest.

After that disappointing result, it's tempting to suggest a rematch between Lane and Tafa. But the latter's eye looked jacked up after the accidental foul, so it's hard to imagine he'll be ready to fight any time soon.

Lane, meanwhile, is probably going to want to get back in the Octagon as soon as possible to put the ugliness of his UFC debut behind him.

If that's the way things shake out, then let's book Lane against Tafa's brother, Junior.

Lane was actually matched up with Junior back in February, but he was forced out of the fight with an injury. Junior went on to lose his own UFC debut in April—a snooze-inducing decision defeat against Mohammad Usman—but is probably just about ready to get back to business.

It makes sense given their positions in the heavyweight division and the fact that they were scheduled to fight before, and there's even a bit of a revenge narrative after Lane's foul in Jacksonville—accidental though it was.

It seems like an obvious choice for September's UFC 293 card, which will mark the promotion's return to Australia.

Brendan Allen vs. Jack Hermansson

No. 13 middleweight Brendan Allen had some big callouts prepared after his impressive submission defeat of Bruno Silva in Jacksonville, mentioning the likes of reigning champ Israel Adesanya, No. 3-ranked contender Jared Cannonier and Khamzat Chimaev, who is allegedly headed up to 185 pounds after an embarrassing scale fail at welterweight last year.

It was nice to see Allen trying to take advantage of the moment, but it's too early to be talking about him fighting the likes of Adesanya and Cannonier, as he has yet to beat anyone in the middleweight Top 10.

A fight with Chimaev would be fun, but it seems unlikely, as the 27-year-old likely isn't a big enough name for the Chechen-Swede, who has become one of the UFC's biggest stars. And frankly, Chimaev doesn't even deserve an opponent as high-ranked as Allen, considering he has only beaten one fighter at middleweight since joining the UFC: the unranked Gerald Meerschaert.

So, having addressed all of that, how about a fight between Allen and No. 10-ranked contender Jack Hermansson?

The pair were actually set to fight earlier this month, but the Scandinavian, 35, was forced out of the matchup with an injury. It definitely still makes sense, and it's just the kind of fight Allen needs to win if he wants to mix it up with the division's top dogs.

When Hermansson's healed up, book it.

Neil Magny vs. Randy Brown

Neil Magny is one of the most experienced fighters in the UFC, and despite all the battles he's been through, remains a staple of the welterweight Top 15.

The 35-year-old defended his No. 11 spot in Jacksonville, defeating the unranked Philip Rowe over three rounds, but the close split-decision verdict did not inspire a ton of confidence about his status as a top welterweight.

From here, it would be fair to get back to matching Magny up with ranked opponents. There was really no need to give him an unranked foe to begin with, given that his most recent loss came against Gilbert Burns, one of the division's top fighters.

Still, it feels like a good choice to keep matching the veteran up with lower-level foes for the time being, and given that everybody below him in the Top 15 is booked, he might have no choice but to take on another unranked opponent.

Our pick is Randy Brown, another experienced welterweight who is well-positioned for a fight with somebody of Magny's ilk after beating Wellington Turman earlier on Saturday's card.