A lot of these recent international UFC cards, especially those tucked firmly in the shadowy crook of a far larger event, are going unnoticed by the MMA public.
UFC Fight Night 66, which aired Saturday morning from Manila in The Philippines exactly one week before the massive UFC 187 pay-per-view will find new owners for not one but two UFC championship belts, appears to fall into that crevasse.
The numbers will ultimately how interested people are, but on paper, this was a far more interesting card than your average obscurely located cable broadcast, and may not have deserved the wholesale write-off it received from a wide swath of the vocal hardcore fan set.
At the top, you have two fighters very much at the top of their games. Recent champion Frankie “The Answer” Edgar and perennial contender “The California Kid” Urijah Faber meet at featherweight—a weight class not exactly a natural home for either—to determine what, exactly, we still have in these immensely popular but aging veterans. Could be title shot, could a place on the novelty circuit.
There’s more. Filipino-American Mark Munoz announced before that his fight here against Luke Barnatt will be his last, regardless of outcome. And in the co-main event, Gegard Mousasi tries to take a big step forward against tough boxing specialist Costas Philippou.
Stories abounded across the 12-fight slate. And as usual, the final stat lines only reveal so much. Here are the real winners and losers from Manila.
As usual, for the literal-minded among us, full results appear on the final slide.