2014 has been a trying year as an MMA fan. We have been given a plethora of fight cards, but many have come up short on excitement. Those that have delivered have not been big on drawing power.
The current shortlists for Fight of the Year and Fighter of the Year are not as deep and compelling as year’s past, but one name that is on both is Robbie Lawler—the challenger in the UFC 181 main event. And his previous fight against Johny Hendricks for the UFC welterweight gold is on that Fight of the Year shortlist.
In the co-main event, The Ultimate Fighter season 20 coaches Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez get in the cage to battle for Pettis‘ lightweight belt. Pettis has been out of action for some time thanks to injuries and filming the reality show, but now fans get to see him back in action.
And the fun doesn’t stop there. The UFC put a violence-ensured heavyweight scrap and the debut of Holly Holm on the main card. And no one should gloss over potential Fight of the Night: Tony Ferguson vs. Abel Trujillo.
Yet, we have not touched the group of prospects on the undercard that is headlined by Urijah Faber. UFC 181 is top to bottom one of the best offerings of the year by the UFC.
It sets everyone up nicely heading into 2015, where we should see the return of numerous top names and fantastic fights. The troubling 2014 is almost over, and to close it out we will get to see a phenomenal event.
Let’s take an early peek at the event and hope nothing bad happens between now and December 6.