Call it the case of the Headless Fight Card. And just in time for Halloween.
UFC Fight Night 76 went down Saturday from Dublin, Ireland. But it didn’t go down the way anyone had hoped.
At least not on paper. Just weeks before the card, a fun co-main event matchup fell by the wayside when Stipe Miocic pulled out of his heavyweight bout with Ben Rothwell. (Miocic, oddly, soon leapfrogged Rothwell for an even better fight, but that’s another story.)
Then, barely a few days before the curtain was set to rise, headliner and hometown fave Joe Duffy withdrew from his main event with Dustin Poirier.
So, yes. Suddenly fans were left with an event that didn’t have much of anything on top—hence headless, eh?
But there were still several UFC fights, with the topper being flyweight Paddy Holohan facing off with Hawaiian Louis Smolka to determine who was ready to take a big step up in the 125-pound division.
As with anything, real results never equal paper potential, and the final stat lines only reveal so much. These are the real winners and losers from The Emerald Isle.