Of all the great pieces of art — from the Mona Lisa and The Kiss to The Scream and The Birth of Venus — I think we can all agree that nothing comes close to the esthetic of a perfectly done UFC/MMA event poster.
And of all the great artists throughout history — from Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh to Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso — I think we can all agree that nothing comes close to the creators of the UFC’s posters… Okay, that might not be true.
While most major promotions have a generic background for headliners, the UFC produces unique posters for all of its events. Unfortunately, a number of them are negatively received by the fanbase, some of whom actually create better ones for each card themselves.
But just how good (or bad) were the UFC’s selection of event artwork in 2024? Let’s find out by ranking them all — good, bad, and ugly — from worst to best.
42. UFC 300: Pereira vs. Hill
There are not enough words in the English language to do justice to how disastrous this poster truly was.
On the face of it, was it the worst design this year? I’m sure you’ll be seeing at least a few that are worse. But when it comes to the magnitude of the event and expectation? I’m not sure a design in sporting history has ever fallen so far short.
A flag with the event name on it. That is literally it. And it’s even a stretch to call the flag golden. It’s more a Colman’s English Mustard (other mustard brands are available) shade of yellow.
I don’t think we’ve ever thought those responsible for creating UFC posters put much effort or time into it. But the fact that a graphic designer managed to recreate the exact design in just 10 minutes for a YouTube video is pretty damning.
An incredible event. Undoubtedly the best I’ve covered in my career. But an absolutely diabolical poster.
41. UFC Fight Night: Hermansson vs. Pyfer
Excuse me, you can’t park there.
The poster for Jack Hermansson vs. Joe Pyfer appears to have stopped in the middle of the road. For me in the UK, yellow lines mean no parking zones. A brief Google search has taught me that in the Unites States, a solid yellow line indicates that passing is prohibited.
While clearly unintended given how much the promotion likely wanted Pyfer to win, that is an incredible piece of symbolism. The veteran contender whom many expected “Bodybagz” to make his name off of and rise into the rankings at the expense of held his ground and did not allow the young prospect to pass.
George Orwell would be proud.
If only that was deliberate, because the poster is ultimately garbage and has only been saved from bottom spot by the UFC 300 travesty.
40. UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs. Gaziev
One of the worst posters of the year to accompany the worst main event.
It’s UFC 297 with blue instead of red. But to be honest, I’m not sure I’d try to create a good design for this absolute heavyweight slop.
So for that, congratulations. You created a boring poster that perfectly encapsulates the effort that went into forming that event.
39. UFC Fight Night: Pereira vs. Hernandez
I’m not sure any poster this year demonstrates the lack of creativity most struggle with quite like this.
I feel like I’ve seen this design at least 25 times in the last three years.
38. UFC Fight Night: Perez vs. Taira
The strip of color that “flyweight bout” is written on actually looks like a great concept for a poster. It’s just a shame they decided to go with 10 percent of that and 90 percent f**k all else, if you’ll excuse my French.
37. UFC Fight Night: Tuivasa vs. Tybura
Erm, are we sure this wasn’t just taken from the music video for Technotronic’s Pump Up The Jam?! It’s got to be either that or a graph signaling the epicenter of a hurricane…
36. UFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad
This will be the only poster where I use the vertical version, because the UFC isn’t getting away with the saving grace that comes with landscape.
I’m not one to advocate for sackings, but whoever pitched sideways fighters as a good poster idea needs at the very least a performance review.
Perhaps it’s supposed to represent how the headline athletes felt competing at 5 AM in the morning?!
35. UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Aliskerov
Saudi Arabia = green.
That’s how I imagine the creative process for this poster went.
34. UFC Fight Night: Royval vs. Taira
Poor Tatsuro Taira, man. Give the boy a good poster, dammit!
I don’t hate the colors so, sure, let’s put this higher than Taira’s first headliner of the year.
33. UFC Fight Night: Namajunas vs. Cortez
If a poster this year had any interesting detail at all — and didn’t have a background that looks like skin — it’s probably higher than this…
32. UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Nascimento
What is it with Derrick Lewis and contour lines?
The poster for “The Black Beast’s” clash against Serghei Spivac last year looked like some kind of terrain guide for a mountain range, and the same can be said for his St. Louis battle with Rodrigo Nascimento.
But hey, at least the color scheme is unique this time. Every cloud…
31. UFC Fight Night: Nicolau vs. Perez
This event came one week after UFC 300. This event was nowhere near at the level of UFC 300. This event had a much better poster than UFC 300.
Make it make sense.
30. UFC Fight Night: Ribas vs. Namajunas
Can someone explain to me why the black paint covers the entire bottom of the poster but stops two thirds of the way across the top?!
I can’t unsee that.
29. UFC Fight Night: Ankalaev vs. Walker
I’ve seen worse, much worse. But I feel as though I also would have seen similar posters for a teen-centric vampire television series. 5/10, I guess?
28. UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs. Royval
Events overseas such as those in Mexico always present opportunities to create eye-catching designs connected to the country hosting Octagon action. But as far as this year’s visit to Mexico, slightly underwhelming.
It’s not bad, but it feels somewhat lazy for the location.
27. UFC Fight Night: Magny vs. Prates
My word, that is a luminous font.
If the Stake F1 Team had a UFC poster equivalent, this would be it.
26. UFC 309: Jones vs. Miocic
Don’t let your anger at Tom Aspinall not getting the fight influence where you put this poster. Don’t let your anger at Tom Aspinall not getting the fight influence where you put this poster. Don’t let your anger at Tom Aspinall not getting the fight influence where you put this poster.
It wouldn’t be a year of UFC action without at least one city skyline getting a look in. Unfortunately, this one slightly underwhelmed, in the same way a champion facing an ageing veteran coming off a near four-year layoff instead of the division’s interim titleholder does.
25. UFC Fight Night: Covington vs. Buckley
It’s not often you see orange.
That is my analysis for UFC Tampa.
24. UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs. Borralho
I do like this poster (overall), and it probably should be much higher. I just can’t stop noticing the fact that Caio Borralho’s ear is clear and Jared Cannonier’s isn’t.
It’s the small things.
23. UFC Fight Night: Tybura vs. Spivac 2
This is the kind of poster I’d expect to see outside an underground fight club in which bails of hay create the ring.
For Central and Eastern European behemoths, it’s appropriate.
22. UFC Fight Night: Lemos vs. Jandiroba
It’s sometimes difficult to judge a poster for what it is rather than the fighters who have been chosen for it. Amanda Lemos vs. Virna Jandiroba is among the most questionable main event matchups in recent memory.
The poster itself, however? Solid futuristic vibes. It got some slack from the community, but had it been some bigger names and faces on it, I imagine this would have received better reviews.
21. UFC Fight Night: Burns vs. Brady
Let’s use some AI to explain why this poster isn’t the worst.
“Yellow and blue make a striking combination, and are often used together in design and fashion. Blue is a cool and calming colour, while yellow is warm and vibrant. Together, they can create a sense of balance and harmony.”
Nothing says balance and harmony like cagefighting.
20. UFC 297: Strickland vs. Du Plessis
I’m hoping the red mist between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis wasn’t meant to be a prediction of a bloody brawl between the pair. Anyone expecting that of a Strickland fight at this point is sorely mistaken…
That aside, a nice color scheme that makes for a solid design — despite the fact it likely took all of 15 minutes to create. But hey, at least that’s longer than UFC 300!
19. UFC 302: Makhachev vs. Poirier
If vanilla ice cream was a UFC poster.
Everybody likes it, but nobody loves it. At the end of the day, it’ll do.
18. UFC Fight Night: Dolidze vs. Imavov
I’m torn. On one hand, it’s different. On the other hand, the UFC’s graphic designer has brought in a piece of A4 paper that their kid went to town on with some crayons and added the heads of Roman Dolidze and Nassourdine Imavov…
A for creativity. C for delivery.
17. UFC Fight Night: Sandhagen vs. Nurmagomedov
It was a good year for orange (see UFC Tampa).
16. UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs. Imavov
It’s giving cargo ship container.
Some lovely shadow work though, I must say.
15. UFC 307: Pereira vs. Rountree
Simplicity can go one of two ways. In this instance, I think it worked.
Black and gold (shoutout Sam Sparro) is hard to beat as a combination, and that just about saves this from steering toward the outright bad section of this list.
14. UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Vettori
Well how about that? It’s not often you see purple.
The design is super simple, but also satisfyingly clean. Sharp, that’s the word to describe this. Double point for strong purple utilization has this poster in the mid range (it’s saying something that we’re approaching the top 10 and still describing posters as “mid”).
13. UFC Fight Night: Blanchfield vs. Fiorot
Any poster that doesn’t follow a ‘choose a color, add fighters facing each other’ format tends to find itself relatively high up this list, even if they aren’t that spectacular.
That was the case for the Atlantic City-held event this year, which was solid enough without being special. Although, I’m not sure about the red space created in the outline of each fighter’s head. It’s given Joaquin Buckley a somewhat Vulcan look…
12. UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs. Albazi
I feel almost tied to putting this right next to UFC Atlantic City because they are so similar. So, which was better?
Well, I prefer the blue and black over red, and the addition of the matchups in brick-like blocks is a nice touch. Oh, and there’s no shoddy Microsoft Paint work with shadows.
11. UFC Fight Night: Yan vs. Figueiredo
Pink to make the MMA fans wink.
10. UFC Fight Night: Moicano vs. Saint Denis
I appreciate the fact that the designer was so desperate to sneak the Eiffel Tower in while avoiding a cliche “we’re in Paris” poster that they snuck in a little drawing in the bottom corner.
I’m a fan of rippy posters — to use a technical term. With that, it’s a shame Imavov and Brendan Allen block the bottom of it, but this design is still good nonetheless.
9. UFC Fight Night: Barboza vs. Murphy
We often get two to four big heads plastered on posters, so it was refreshing to see half-body Edson Barboza and Lerone Murphy donning a cracked wall for their Apex-held UFC Fight Night main event.
8. UFC 306: O’Malley vs. Dvalishvili
I’m not one to question somebody’s choice of tattoo, but the green “Suga” ink on Sean O’Malley’s face gets a prominent look here…
Nevertheless, the poster itself was one of the year’s strongest, largely because of the glimpse of the Sphere at the bottom. Basically, lots of golden spherical lines equals something suitable for such an event.
7. UFC 310: Pantoja vs. Asakura
“I’m a fan of rippy posters” – Harvey Leonard, two posters up.
6. UFC 299: O’Malley vs. Vera
Eye. Catching.
UFC 299 was one of the most stacked and highly anticipated events of the year. And in somewhat of a rarity, the poster design matched the occasion. The gold glints are cool, but how about the shining outline of the fighters?
Dustin Poirier really was shining bright like a…you know the rest.
5. UFC 308: Topuria vs. Holloway
This poster almost has a stained glass window affect to it, sort of akin to what you’d see behind the alter in a church.
I’m not a religious man, but Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway was such a good matchup that I’d happily pray to a higher power if knelt underneath this design.
4. UFC 303: Pereira vs. Procházka 2
I didn’t think much of this poster when it was Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler headlining International Fight Week. After all, an inactive Irishman who often has beer in hand and an inactive Chandler who does whatever said Irishman says isn’t exactly fitting for what are supposed to be intimidating screams.
But a stoic knockout machine like “Poatan” and an opponent who sits in a dark room alone for days on end?! Better.
3. UFC 305: Du Plessis vs. Adesanya
In a word? Atmospheric.
If you swap Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya for Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, Christopher Nolan would have a decent poster for Interstellar.
2. UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria
Yes, yes, yes. Yes. YES.
Sometimes the UFC’s poster simplicity pays off in a big way. UFC 298 was one such moment. Perhaps that’s because the beautiful gold font looks like it was written by the prized gel pens that teachers used to keep behind lock and bolt in school art lessons.
1. UFC 301: Pantoja vs. Erceg
An absolute beauty.
You could have told me this was a recently discovered design from Vincent van Gogh that fetched millions at a Sotheby’s auction and I’d have believed you.
See, UFC. You can do it!
