This Saturday’s UFC 185 fight card is good. It is very good. The preliminary card is deep, and the main card is full of interesting fights. Henry Cejudo returning to flyweight? It is true that Friday’s weigh-ins are perhaps more interesting from a Cejudo perspective. But still, he’s an interesting addition to the flyweight division, provided he can make the weight.
The other four main card fights are sublime. Roy Nelson vs. Alistair Overeem will likely be violent. The same goes for Matt Brown vs. Johny Hendricks. We have Carla Esparza’s first strawweight title defense, and it’s against an opponent with excellent striking and good takedown defense. And then there’s the main event with Anthony Pettis, one of the most exciting fighters in the UFC defending his belt against an unheralded but tough challenger.
So yeah, it’s a good card. Still, I can’t help but turn my gaze toward May 23 and UFC 187, when the UFC brings one of the most stacked cards I can remember to the MGM Grand.
Jon Jones vs. Anthony Johnson. Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort. Both are sublime title fights in two of the UFC’s marquee divisions. Both feature the champion defending against the top contender.
We get to see how Jones, the best fighter in the world and perhaps in the entire history of the sport, handles himself against Johnson, one of the hardest hitters in the UFC. And we’ll find out if Vitor Belfort is any good without testosterone replacement therapy.
But take a look at the rest of the card. Donald Cerrone vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov will likely determine the next lightweight title challenger. Andrei Arlovski and Travis Browne are former teammates at Jackson’s MMA, and both have the ability to put their opponents away in violent fashion. Joseph Benavidez vs. John Moraga? That’s one heck of a flyweight fight.
To me, the card is indicative of a new UFC booking philosophy, at least for pay-per-view events. For the past few years, we have mostly seen cards anchored by one attractive fight. For a perfect example of what I’m talking about, look at UFC 183. You had Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz. That was a big-money fight. No doubt about it.
But then you had Tyron Woodley vs. Kelvin Gastelum in the co-main event, and Gastelum had enough troubles with his weight that the fight being pulled from the card would not have been an impossibility. What would’ve happened if Silva or Diaz had pulled out of the fight with an injury? What if Silva’s drug test results came back at a normal time? He likely would have been yanked from the card by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, leaving Gastelum vs. Woodley as the main event.
And if Gastelum hadn’t been allowed to fight after his weight issues, well, Joe Lauzon vs. Al Iaquinta would have been your headlining fight for UFC 183. No disrespect intended to either of those men, but they aren’t headliners. That likely means the entire card would have been canceled.
The very next UFC pay-per-view, UFC 184, had two title fights scheduled. One of them fell through due to injury, but it still had Ronda Rousey on the card. And I think the UFC learned something there, because UFC 185, 186 and 187 and 189 all have two title fights. If one of those title fights is pulled due to injury, well, there’s still another one capable of headlining the card.
I don’t know how long it can sustain this practice. It can’t run two title fights every single month for an extended period of time, because it’ll eventually run out of healthy champions who are ready to make title defenses.
But for right now, I like it. For a time, the UFC was edging dangerously close to boxing territory with one marquee fight anchoring a card, preceded by a bunch of filler. By stacking its pay-per-view cards, the promotion guarantees interest even if the dreaded injury bug strikes. That means we get sublime cards like UFC 187 to look forward to.
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