There was a lot to love about UFC 178. From the sensational main card to the return of long-missing fighters and much, the event was arguably the best of the year. Yet, there was controversial officiating, some languid performances and a fact about that card that wasn’t properly appreciated.
It’s time to separate the best from the worst, the winners from the losers and the signal from the noise from Saturday night.
Least Appreciated Fact of UFC 178: It’s Durability
Most Significant Change Award: Dominick Cruz and Cat Zingano
My wife is a fan of Cat Zingano. As she watched her cage entrance, she told me something was different about her this time. She was as competitive as ever, but was notciably less happy. There were no trademark smiles. She looked mean, my wife told me. She looked scarred and hurt, and was ready to lash out at the world. I hadn’t noticed that myself upon first viewing, but caught it the second time around. Zingano competed with what appeared to be a deep-seated rage, of which Amanda Nunes was the recipient.
Cruz didn’t talk to himself as he walked to the cage, but the ferocity he unleashed on the helpless Takeya Mizugaki was as unexpected as it was damaging. Cruz was a fighter before his three-year layoff of considerable talent, but appeared to have few finishing instincts or true savagery.
Whatever else their layoffs did – very different layoffs with their own unique challenges – the one common bond between Cruz and Zingano is that it gave both a measure of barbarism I’m not sure was there before. Zingano’s always been a physical fighter, but she didn’t seem to have an off switch when the contest was over. And Cruz? We’ve never seen him hurt someone like that before, which is saying something given how credible a talent Mizugaki was and is.
I would never look at their times away from the sport as some sort of net positive, but it’s hard to deny that the unfairness and brutality of life itself didn’t confer upon them an extra little bit of welcome inhumanity.
Worst Aspect of Main Event: It’s Position
Flyweight title fights do not need to be main events. Main events need to be main events. The UFC desevers some measure of respect for holding onto the idea title fights matter and should be treated with reverence. Fine, but they shouldn’t be treated with more reverence than they merit. I’m a fan of this season of The Ultimate Fighter, but if the ratings are any indication, having the 115-pound champion headline a pay-per-view seems like asking to take a financial bath. The UFC desperately needs to open themselves to the idea that putting a title fight third or fourth on the card doesn’t devalue it. The fans walking out during a flyweight main event, however, does.
Best Photo of the Night: Berto and McGregor Have a Laugh
This is peak McGregor, if I’ve ever seen it. Photo via Esther Lin.
Most Overshadowed Performance: Jorge Masvidal and Stephen Thompson
In a card filled with significance, it’s hard to standout. That’s true generally and particularly, especially when you’re competing on the preliminary card without any other outsized narrative boosting you forward. Still, Masvidal and Thompson deserve a tip of the cap. In the case of the ATT product, he beat Krause everywhere, outboxing him, pushing him backwards, mauling him in the clinch, and overwhelming him in all facets of the ground. True, he was unable to stop a clearly inferior opponent, which counts against him, but he has done more than enough to be placed opposite a top-ranked opponent.
As for Thompson, he’s on a tear. His takedown defense is massively improved and he pieced-up Cote for three solid rounds. ‘Wonderboy’ failed to finish Cote when given the opportunity, so it deseves mention his friendliness was an obstruction to greatness, but his game has rapidly matured just the same.
Biggest Difference Between Strikeforce and Bellator Rosters Award: Eddie Alvarez
Every time a competitor to the top promoter in the sport dies or is bought off, the subsequent number two organization is further away than their predecessor. We’re seeing that played out in terms of matriculating rosters with Strikeforce and Bellator. Whereas Strikeforce fighters made and continue to have dramatic impacts on a number of key divisions, Bellator fighters have had mixed success. Many fail to make much of an impact, although they hang on for some UFC longevity. Yet, bigger names struggle a bit. Hector Lombard seems to be rejuvenated at welterweight, but had a less than auspicious UFC beginning. Alvarez looked good on Saturday, but was only able to turn in a performance that places him somewhere in the wide swathe of elite lightweights who are worthy of respect, but nowhere close to the title.
This isn’t to impugn the quality of top Bellator fighters who crossover. That they’re very good and can compete with the best in the UFC is incontestable. What’s missing, however, is what Strikeforce had: deeper divisions with a wide array of top talent. It goes to show when a competitor to the UFC dies, what takes is place is no replacement at all.
Best Way for Fighter and Promoter to Work Together: Conor McGregor and the UFC
Stars are largely self-made products. Promoters play a role, but much of that is either getting out of the way or providing just enough exposure to let the star-in-the-making do the rest of the work. It’s a combination of soft engineering and hard serendipity. We are witnessing the near perfect exemplification of this handshake with McGregor and the UFC. He’s being given the kind of promotional pedestals when necessary. UFC is stepping out of the way and letting McGregor do the work himself when that’s more prudent. That’s as true for matchmaking as it is promotion.
Catching a fighter’s initial rise to stardom is arguably the most exciting time in their career. It’s when, generally speaking, the most questions get answered, with those responses typically being emphatic, scintillating and game shifting. Yet, even a star’s rise can be fraught with promotional mismanagement, a fighter’s inability to properly leverage opportunity or an inability of the pair to work well in tandem. I’d argue Jon Jones and the UFC have suffered from this and continue to do so. But not with McGregor. I don’t know how much longer this can go on or how much better McGregor can get, but up to this point, you’ve witnessed a borderline perfect storm of deft, substantive promotional prowess intersecting with defiant, spectacular fighter self-promotion.
Worst Handling of Controversy: The Nevada Athletic Commission
Here’s the problem with what happened in the Tim Kennedy-Yoel Romero bout. It’s essentially impossible to prove anything was premeditated. What is more likely and frankly observable, is that a series of small errors collectively amounted to a major problem. It’s actually not so easy to assign blame as some suggest (and if you see anyone arguing blame is very easy to find, ignore them). That isn’t to say there isn’t blame to go around, but there wasn’t one gaping problem to point to as the cause of the issue. In addition, Kennedy’s holding of the gloves, while itself an infraction, has nothing to do with why, from a rules infraction standpoint, Romero found himself 28 extra seconds.
Yet, the NAC says nothing will be done. What a negligent, inert and bureaucratic response that is. Are we really to believe they couldn’t draft a memo for public consumption that explains precisely what should have happened and where things diverged? How did we actually get 28 extra seconds? Can they not use their rules and officiating expertise to point this out as an edifying exercise for us all?
I’m not calling for anyone’s head. I’m begging for transparency. I’m asking for leadership. I’m pleading with this commission to do something more than say, ‘Eh, thems the breaks.’
This sport needs public trust for it to function and while this one incident won’t do nearly enough to erode it, their current method of doing nothing because doing something is hard and takes work only serves to undermine whatever faith is left in their ability to protect the integrity of these contests.