After UFC Fight Night 68 last weekend in New Orleans, which featured 10 finishes in a dozen fights, UFC 188 had a lot to live up to. And judging from the crowd’s reaction to some of the bouts in Mexico City on Saturday night at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico, it didn’t come close.
Boos rained down on several fights, including Tecia Torres‘ win over Angela Hill, and Cathal Pendred’s workmanlike victory over Mexico native Augusto Montano.
In the post-fight press conference, a media member asked UFC president Dana White what he thought of one of the tougher crowds in recent memory.
“No, no you’re wrong,” he said. “It was an educated crowd. You know how happy that makes me to be in Mexico City, Mexico, and when a guy steps over and gets side control, they cheer? And when they were booing, they deserved to boo. I didn’t disagree with one f—ing boo that happened tonight. When they were booing, [the fighters] deserved to be booed.
“It was a very educated crowd, and a huge moment for us — huge moment for me because I’ve been waiting for so long to get into Mexico. And then when the main event started, there was not one…when this thing sold out, when you talk about a sell out, there’s a lot of times we’ll sell out an arena and there’ll be some single seats left. There wasn’t one single seat left in this arena. Completely sold out. And in the main event, I don’t know if any of you looked around, packed to the rafters and everybody had their lights on. It was awesome, man. It wasn’t a tough crowd, it was an educated crowd. Amazing.”
White reiterated, too, that Mexico has traditionally been a country of boxing fans.
UFC 188 had an announced crowd of more than 20,000 people, many of whom fell silent when Fabricio Werdum upset Cain Velasquez in the main event to become the UFC’s undisputed heavyweight champion.