The UFC doesn’t always put together great cards. For whatever reason, though, for a good long while, these events that lacked star power somehow consistently delivered non-stop action.
This event lacked star power, and while it had some nice finishes, the only important fights (the co-main and main events) both flopped mightily. This left fans grumpy, disappointed and bitter…with pretty good cause.
So what did fans new to the sport learn from all that? Was there anything to learn? Find out right here!
The Ladies Can Throw Down
Right or wrong, the WNBA is defined by the way it doesn’t measure up to the NBA. It’s sad, it’s a bit unfair, but it’s a fact.
In fighting, the women by-and-large lack the technical prowess and athleticism of their male counterparts at this infantile stage of the sport. That said, when they fight, they tend to turn heads, regardless of the shallow talent pool.
Sheila Gaff and Amanda Nunes both came out swinging. Gaff demonstrated outstanding strength, essentially escaping Nunes‘ mount position by standing up. Nunes demonstrated raw ferocity on par with that of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
This made for an exciting, albeit brief, brawl that ended with a devastating TKO for Nunes.
Being Exciting Does Not Equal Being Good
Tom “Kong” Watson became an overnight sensation for his exciting knockout of Stanislav Nedkov, which saw the two fighters do their best to imitate Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots in the Octagon. Thales Leites achieved fame by having world-class fighting skills.
For whatever reason, this fight wound up on the main card and demonstrated that a “Just Bleed” style of fighting does not always cut it. Leites, again and again, took down Watson and kept him there like a wet carpet thrown over a fat kid.
Leites came away with a slam-dunk decision victory. Watson walked out of the cage with a swollen face.
Lots of Finishes Can Mess with a Card
Almost everyone loves a good knockout. The same goes for a crafty submission.
The small segment of the population that doesn’t? They probably work in the programming booth for the UFC.
The preliminary card featured four first-round finishes. The main card added another, alongside another stoppage early in the second round. That left the UFC scrambling to put something together to fill up the TV time blocks on FX and PPV.
The result was a massive amount of movie trailers and promotional videos for upcoming events and almost every preliminary card fight getting replayed at some point during the broadcast.
An ugly situation with no good solution, honestly.
Tailor Back Expectations
Jose Aldo vs. Chan-Sung Jung was supposed to be exciting as hell. It wasn’t.
The same goes for Benson Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar 2, Rashad Evans vs. Quinton Jackson, Gray Maynard vs. Clay Guida, etc.
You get the point. Oftentimes, when a fight seems certain to be awesome, it winds up being an utter flop. Jung vs. Aldo fit that bill perfectly as the man billed as the most exciting fighter in MMA was content standing in place, eating jabs while the most fearsome champion not named Jon Jones huffed and puffed and blew.
Even veteran MMA fans fall prey to the trap of buying into this hype. We should have learned by now…but we haven’t.
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