The UFC has proven to be a perfect breeding ground for the weird and wonderful both inside and outside of the Octagon since its inception 25 years ago. However, some events, in particular, have gone above and beyond the call of duty and proven to be magnets for madness. In this article, we’ll look back […]
The UFC has proven to be a perfect breeding ground for the weird and wonderful both inside and outside of the Octagon since its inception 25 years ago.
However, some events, in particular, have gone above and beyond the call of duty and proven to be magnets for madness.
In this article, we’ll look back in chronological order at the 10 strangest shows in UFC history. Check them out:
UFC 1
Lead commentator Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace set the tone for the UFC’s first-ever event in 1993 when he unintentionally burped and mistakenly called the promotion, ‘The Ultimate Fighting Challenge’ during his opening monologue.
In the opening fight, Gerard Gordeau gave 400-pound plus sumo wrestler Teila Tuli some free dental work when he kicked him flush in the face, sending one tooth flying into the crowd and leaving his foot cut badly enough that it would later hospitalize him for several days due to a serious infection.
The 6′ 4″, 265-pound Kevin Rosier had looked athletic in his audition photos, but showed up on fight week at a portly 300 pounds, fresh from having had root canal surgery and unashamedly eating pizza and swigging Heineken while working out at a local gym.
Nonetheless, Rosier won his opening round fight, then Art Jimmerson bizarrely fought Royce Gracie wearing a single boxing glove and proceeded to tap out following a takedown before the BJJ expert even had a chance to lock up a submission.
During the final, Gordeau bit Gracie on the ear, claiming later that he wanted to give the Brazilian something to remember him by, and in response, Gracie intentionally held onto the fight-ending choke for several seconds longer than he should have.
With tonight’s (Sat., February 10, 2018) UFC 221 from the Perth Arena in Perth, Australia, being billed as one of the worst UFC pay-per-views of all-time, we thought it relevant to look back at the other terrible PPV events the promotion has put on through the years. Not every card can be a blockbuster, and every […]
With tonight’s (Sat., February 10, 2018) UFC 221 from the Perth Arena in Perth, Australia, being billed as one of the worst UFC pay-per-views of all-time, we thought it relevant to look back at the other terrible PPV events the promotion has put on through the years.
Not every card can be a blockbuster, and every now and then, the UFC offers up a supremely subpar pay-per-view, one where you feel like you wasted $60 (now $65, unfortunately) as well as your precious time.
While the UFC has gotten a bit better in stacking their cards and bracing for replacements, they’re still at the mercy of injuries and failed drug tests. Regardless, the UFC doesn’t help itself with so many watered-down cards, which lends them no time to promote each event, and lack of preparation in the event of a curveball.
And some are just downright bad. Let’s take a look at the 10 worst PPVs in UFC history.
Photo by Kyle Terada for USA TODAY Sports
10. UFC 177
TJ Dillashaw’s first run as bantamweight champion was marred by a weaker talent pool and injury replacements.
UFC 177 is a perfect example of that. Dillashaw took on the completely unheralded but surprisingly competent Joe Soto, who was filling in for an injured Renan Barao after the formerly dominant champion hit his head in the bathtub cutting weight.
Even worse, the card lost a rematch between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson. So basically the entire card was gutted like a fish, ending up a fraction of what it could have been.
The UFC owes more than just a tip of the cap to men like Joe Soto, who more often than not, step up to the plate when another scheduled fight card begins to self-destruct.
Without Soto, UFC 177 would have been the next instance of a fight card gone up …
The UFC owes more than just a tip of the cap to men like Joe Soto, who more often than not, step up to the plate when another scheduled fight card begins to self-destruct.
Without Soto, UFC 177 would have been the next instance of a fight card gone up in flames. T.J. Dillashaw was left opponent-less after former bantamweight champion RenanBarao fainted just before weigh-ins. Soto fought in the main event after being originally slated for the first fight of the night. The 27-year-old lost, in what was a competitive fight, and received crumbs compared to the champion.
Soto received a modest $20,000 for filling in to fight Dillashaw. To most people, that is a check worth signing. But Soto, who originally was training for a three-round fight with Anthony Birchak, had to alter his game plan towards a completely different fighter.
The California native hadn’t fought in the UFC before, let alone headline an event in his opponent’s backyard. Soto never went into championship rounds, and still managed to take the center of the octagon in Sacramento despite that. He could have turned down such an opportunity against a former training partner, but he decided to be the UFC’s knight in shining armor, and his stock rose because of it.
While we may never know if UFC President Dana White gave Soto a discretionary bonus, he did garner support from fellow fighters.
In a similar situation, current middleweight champion Chris Weidman accepted a fight with Demian Maia on just 11-days’ notice back in January 2012. Weidman was forced to cut 32 pounds in 10 days but it paid off, literally, as he outworked Maia for a hard-fought unanimous decision. Long Island’s own was given $22,000 to show, plus an additional $22,000 for the victory, according to mma-manifesto.com.
Furthermore, light heavyweight Patrick Cummins took a fight on short notice with All-American wrestler Daniel Cormier in February this year. Cummins was paid only $8,000 after a first-round drubbing at the hands of Cormier, who pocketed $160,000 for the knockout.
Somebody needs to advocate on behalf of the little guy. Soto and Weidman, who both went from undercard fighters to televised competitors, deserve more for their troubles. In 2013, 70 percent of post-fight bonuses were awarded to fighters in the main or co-main events. Soto didn’t receive a bonus for giving Dillashaw everything he could handle for nearly 25 minutes. Neither did Weidman, who brought the former middleweight contender to a halt.
Granted, if Soto was to put together a winning streak, he would improve his chances of having his salary raised and also get a win bonus. In the meantime, he is shackled to the undercard, where visibility is limited and sponsorship money is hard to come by. Most of the time, the money one makes from sponsors, is more than he or she would make in base salary.
Just as a company would when plugging a commercial, an MMA brand like Training Mask strategically places their advertisements on fighter trunks. Training Mask was featured on the crotch of Soto’s trunks in his title fight with Dillashaw.
“Sometimes guys come to us because their sponsors got kicked out of the UFC or because they took a fight last minute and don’t have any other sponsors,” Training Mask CEO Casey Danfordtold Ben Fowlkes in 2011. “On the last-minute deals, it’s not like we’re giving them top dollar, because they’re coming to us at the last minute.”
With the majority of bonus money going to the men and women on the main card, who are already paid more handsomely than their preliminary brethren, cries for a more sufficient and balanced system of payment have never been louder.
Fighter salary has always been a controversial topic. Martyrs like the Diaz brothers, Rampage Jackson and Jon Fitch have been campaigning for more sufficient pay in recent years. Both Diaz brothers successfully barred themselves from competing before receiving lucrative bouts. Jackson, who was never on good terms with White, claims that the UFC taxes sponsors.
Fitch had an unceremonious divorce from the UFC, which saw White and the former welterweight contender spew venom at each other concerning, among other matters, money. The UFC is worth north of $1 billion so how can a fighter, grinding at the start of a fight card, still see $8,000 in pay? Give me a break. Even pound-for-pound champions have voiced their displeasure with the UFC’s pay scale.
Complaints continued to mount when Nova Uniao teammates, Jose Aldo and RenanBarao, both spoke earlier this year about their salary. According to Aldo, lower weight classes are neglected and are given the same salary as “a beginner.” Both the Brazilian and, even more recently, flyweight contender Ian McCall have said that they aren’t as marketable or are compensated as fairly as their heavier peers.
For all intents and purposes, let’s take a look at the lighter weight classes more closely. In 2014, thus far, 38 events have been held. Of those 38, nine had 145-pound or lower main event bouts. Aldo and Barao each fought in two title fights this year, making a grand total of $530,000 and $96,000 respectively. Both teammates possessed winning streaks dating back years, and their title reigns only started a year apart from each other, so why such a discrepancy in salary?
It’s hard to see why someone like Aldo would complain about salary when he’s hanging just south of Anderson Silva and Jon Jones territory.
Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson rules the 125-pound kingdom but, according to McCall, has the personality of a “coffee mug.” Despite his less-than-stellar marketability, Johnson earned $362,000 in two flyweight title defenses. Contrary to his nemesis McCall, Johnson is paid quite sufficiently. Back in June, at UFC 174, he made more money than welterweight contenders Rory MacDonald and TyronWoodley combined.
With fighters big and small coming out of the woodwork, White is going to have to quell the uprising. He seemed to be on the verge of an idea that would level the playing field for all fighters—big and small, weight class to weight class, champion or non-champion—in June 2013. In order to support the fighters on the undercard, who fight paycheck to paycheck, White proposed eliminating all forms of post-fight bonuses to help redistribute the wealth. How about a little democracy, from the UFC President?
However, that proposed idea dissolved real fast when, according to White, he received “A lot of feedback from the fighters, and fighters want the finish bonuses and discretionary bonuses to stay the same.”
It’s on a fighter to do what he or she can to improve their stock and elevate their name. They can either use their hands, elbows or feet. Some prefer to take the road less traveled by using the microphone. But the most reliable way appears to be fighting, and fighting often. Some fighters are adept at both fighting and winning, like Donald Cerrone.
Cerrone has fought eight times over the last two years, collecting four post-fight bonuses, while achieving a 6-2 record. The Cowboy’s in-your-face, scrappy style of fighting is a big draw for White’s pockets. Over his last three fights, Cerrone’s salary—say that five times fast—has fluctuated around the $150,000 range.
The UFC is just like any other professional sport organization, meaning when you’re on the winning track, you’re their golden child; ConorMcGregor anyone? Or let’s say you were a once highly coveted fighter, like Jake Shields, who is on the wrong side of 30 and whose production has declined. White can cut a check just as fast as he can send you packing.
It’s White’s way or the highway. It’s his choice to tax sponsors and it’s Joe Silva’s choice on where fighters fight. Exciting fighters, like McGregor and Cerrone, may get more backing and preferential treatment but that’s because they understand the game that’s being played. They fight their tails off and provide the fans in attendance with highlight-reel wins.
Fighting on a UFC undercard can resemble being stuck in purgatory. Each fighter controls their own fate when they step in the octagon. They’ve mobilized a collective voice outside of it but that hasn’t worked. Each fighter had a choice of fighting with incentives over a better base salary; they chose the former. All that’s left to do is win.
All salary figures are courtesy of mma-manifesto, mmafighting and cagepotato.
In a year that has seen nine pay-per-view headliners slip through the UFC’s fingers, Cain Velasquez’s injury and subsequent removal from UFC 180 might the biggest blow of them all (I hear a nasty tumble down a flight of stairs is to blame for all this). The TUF curse has now gone international, folks, and while I’m not prepared to start nailing the UFC’s coffin shut, I will say that the champ’s most recent injury has cast an ominous shadow over the UFC’s first trip to Mexico.
Then again, the UFC was able to book a hell of a replacement opponent for Fabricio Werdum in Mark Hunt, and an interim title fight between the two is probably the best thing us fans could ask for, all things considered. Late replacement main events are always a mixed bag, but before we start rioting, let’s all take a deep breath and try to remember a few last-minute headliners that actually worked out…
The Good
UFC 128: Shogun vs. Jones
(This and all photos hereafter via Getty.)
That’s right, the event that marked the beginning of the end for light heavyweights with title aspirations was never meant to happen.
Having just ended the Machida Era™ at UFC 113 in stunning fashion, Mauricio Rua was actually scheduled to face Rashad Evans at UFC 128 until a knee injury forced the latter out of the contest. Rua, who had just had his own knee repaired following the Machida fight, was then matched up against a resurgent and likeable at the time contender named Jon Jones, who had unleashed an And-1 mixtape of asskicking on Ryan Bader just two events prior.
Although it was Rua who held the tremendous experience edge, it was Jones who would dominate the fight from start to finish. Flying knees, oblique kicks, and likely an eye poke or five from the challenger had Rua in defense mode until a particularly vicious knee put him away in the third round. Despite being called up to the biggest fight of his life on a month’s notice, Jones emerged a champion and sent a chilling message to the rest of the light heavyweight division.
That message: “Hey pussy, are you still there? None of you will ever defeat me.”
In a year that has seen nine pay-per-view headliners slip through the UFC’s fingers, Cain Velasquez’s injury and subsequent removal from UFC 180 might the biggest blow of them all (I hear a nasty tumble down a flight of stairs is to blame for all this). The TUF curse has now gone international, folks, and while I’m not prepared to start nailing the UFC’s coffin shut, I will say that the champ’s most recent injury has cast an ominous shadow over the UFC’s first trip to Mexico.
Then again, the UFC was able to book a hell of a replacement opponent for Fabricio Werdum in Mark Hunt, and an interim title fight between the two is probably the best thing us fans could ask for, all things considered. Late replacement main events are always a mixed bag, but before we start rioting, let’s all take a deep breath and try to remember a few last-minute headliners that actually worked out…
The Good
UFC 128: Shogun vs. Jones
(This and all photos hereafter via Getty.)
That’s right, the event that marked the beginning of the end for light heavyweights with title aspirations was never meant to happen.
Having just ended the Machida Era™ at UFC 113 in stunning fashion, Mauricio Rua was actually scheduled to face Rashad Evans at UFC 128 until a knee injury forced the latter out of the contest. Rua, who had just had his own knee repaired following the Machida fight, was then matched up against a resurgent and likeable at the time contender named Jon Jones, who had unleashed an And-1 mixtape of asskicking on Ryan Bader just two events prior.
Although it was Rua who held the tremendous experience edge, it was Jones who would dominate the fight from start to finish. Flying knees, oblique kicks, and likely an eye poke or five from the challenger had Rua in defense mode until a particularly vicious knee put him away in the third round. Despite being called up to the biggest fight of his life on a month’s notice, Jones emerged a champion and sent a chilling message to the rest of the light heavyweight division.
That message: “Hey pussy, are you still there? None of you will ever defeat me.”
UFC 152: Jones vs. Belfort
Every fan remembers where they were the day Greg Jackson killed MMA. Me, I was out on my lanai, sipping on a mango mojito and discussing the DOW with a few fellow aristocrats, when suddenly, my phone was aburst with talks from the Twittersphere of Dan Henderson tearing his ACL.
“This…cannot be,” I said under my breath (as not to alert my esteemed colleagues of my MMA fandom and risk losing their respect forevermore).
But alas, it had been, and Henderson’s injury was only the beginning. Shortly after the news of Henderson’s injury broke, the stateside hoodlum Chael Phinneus Sonnen stepped up and offered to fight Jones on 24 hours notice in his infinite bravery. After a quick consultation with master Jackson, Jones declined the fight, leading to the cancellation of the event and a firm tongue-lashing from his employer.
But still, the UFC was in spin mode. They needed their light heavyweight title fight to come to fruition and they needed it forthwith. They offered short-notice rematch opportunities to Mauricio Rua and Lyoto Machida, but were somehow denied on both occasions. That left only one brave soldier for the job: Vitor Belfort (pronounced like Stephen Colbert).
And indeed, Belfort put on a hell of a show at UFC 152, pardon my French — nearly securing an armbar victory early in the first round. But because Jon Jones is truly more machine than man, he overcame the early storm and submitted his foe with an Americana in the fourth.
From tragedy, the UFC was able to generate a small victory, 450,000 pay-per-view-buys, and $1.9 million dollars in live gate cash. It doesn’t get much more triumphant than that.
UFC 173: Barao vs. Dillashaw
UFC 173 was originally meant to house a middleweight title fight between Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort, until that damned TRT ban forced “The Phenom” to take a temporary leave from MMA. Weidman was then matched up against Lyoto Machida, and for a brief second there, UFC 177 ticketholders were able to breath a sigh of relief, the fools.
But then, as champions of the modern era so often do, Weidman went down with an injury (likely while rescuing a blind man from a fire), pushing his fight against Machida back to UFC 175 in July. Once again without a true main event, the UFC sought to pair bantamweight champion/PPV juggernaut (lol!) Renan Barao against top contender Raphael Assuncao. But theennnnn, it was revealed that Assuncao was still nursing a rib injury and would be unable to fight.
So what do you do in this situation? You throw TJ Dillashaw – who was scheduled to fight Takeya Mizugaki that night anyway – against Barao, have Goldie and Rogan yell about what a beast this fresh-faced Aryan youth actually is, and yadda yadda chalk this thing up as a loss. Just like that, you’ve got yourself UFC 177: F*ck It.
Barao came in as a ridiculous 10-1 favorite over Dillashaw, and most of us expected the fight to be over within a round, for Urijah Faber was the king of the Alpha Males and even he was smoked by Barao in their previous encounter. But oh, how we were wrong.
For five straight rounds, Dillashaw absolutely tooled Barao, utilizing a Cruz-esque offensive attack to keep a literal step ahead of the champ before finishing him with a head kick in the fifth. Just like that, the Barao Era™ had ended. While UFC 173 may not have been a financial success, its main event was one of the most thrilling in recent memory, and a reminder of just how great and unexpected our oft troubling sport can be.
Of course, more often than not, late replacement main events fall into two other categories, “Bad” and “Ugly”, so let’s gather our pitchforks and torches and look at a few prime examples…
(“I’m not mad at you, TJ, I’m just disappointed.”)
Let’s be honest, UFC 177 was all but doomed to be a pay-per-view failure before it even got out of the gate. The only fight with even a trace of heat on it was the main event, an all-too-soon rematch between Renan Barao and TJ Dillashaw, which lost one of its players the day before the event was scheduled to take place. Toss in the fact that the card was reduced to just 8 fights after Henry Cejudo went and Henry Cejuodo’d and you’ve got yourselves the makings of a real stinkeroo right there.
And while it’s true that UFC 177’s PPV figures are supremely underwhelming — MMAFighting’s Dave Meltzer pinpoints the number around 125,000 buys — the card really performed better than it had any right to. Despite losing its main event at the last minute, UFC 177 still outperformed UFC 174, which final estimations pinned between 95,000 to 115,000 buys. In any case, UFC 177 marks just the third time in the modern era that a UFC pay-per-view has scored below 200,000 buys, along with 174 and UFC 163: Aldo vs. Korean Zombie, which netted just 180,000 buys.
The concerning issue here is that the amount of exposure given to the lighter weight classes through FOX events has had little impact on the pay-per-view numbers generated by its most reliable stars — specifically, Demetrious Johnson, who has headlined three UFC on FOX events but has yet to see any increase in his PPV sales despite his success. As Meltzer explained…
(“I’m not mad at you, TJ, I’m just disappointed.”)
Let’s be honest, UFC 177 was all but doomed to be a pay-per-view failure before it even got out of the gate. The only fight with even a trace of heat on it was the main event, an all-too-soon rematch between Renan Barao and TJ Dillashaw, which lost one of its players the day before the event was scheduled to take place. Toss in the fact that the card was reduced to just 8 fights after Henry Cejudo went and Henry Cejuodo’d and you’ve got yourselves the makings of a real stinkeroo right there.
And while it’s true that UFC 177′s PPV figures are supremely underwhelming – MMAFighting’s Dave Meltzer pinpoints the number around 125,000 buys — the card really performed better than it had any right to. Despite losing its main event at the last minute, UFC 177 still outperformed UFC 174, which final estimations pinned between 95,000 to 115,000 buys. In any case, UFC 177 marks just the third time in the modern era that a UFC pay-per-view has scored below 200,000 buys, along with 174 and UFC 163: Aldo vs. Korean Zombie, which netted just 180,000 buys.
The concerning issue here is that the amount of exposure given to the lighter weight classes through FOX events has had little impact on the pay-per-view numbers generated by its most reliable stars — specifically, Demetrious Johnson, who has headlined three UFC on FOX events but has yet to see any increase in his PPV sales despite his success. As Meltzer explained:
Johnson headlined three of the four FOX events in 2013, doing 4.22 million viewers against John Dodson (although a major part of that show’s success was Rampage Jackson fighting for the first time in years on a free television show), 2.38 million against John Moraga and 2.8 million against Joseph Benavidez. That’s three main events, as well as three FOX preview specials with him as the featured player. It was also three wins.
Nobody should have benefited more from FOX exposure in the past year. But to the general public, none of that meant a whole lot. At the end of the day, it was not a fight that the masses wanted to pay to see.
On Saturday night after UFC 175, Dana White talked about how UFC business is changing to being a worldwide promotion, and that people are going to not be watching every show and he’s accepting of that. He said that the Johnson vs. Bagautinov fight did exactly what they projected and they were not unhappy with the number, saying that the featherweight division is new, praising Johnson as champion and saying he would have no qualms about headlining another pay-per-view show with him.
So basically, the story remains much the same for “Mighty Mouse”, one of the most technically brilliant yet financially underwhelming fighters alive, as well as the lighter weight classes in general (UFC 173, which was a much more stacked card by any standards, just barely broke the 200k mark). We hate to say that Michael Bisping was right, but it sure is starting to seem that way. In other words, TJ Dillashaw needs to start dressing in custom-tailored suits and insulting every fighter he comes across if he ever wants to be considered a star. Let’s hope his fight with Dominick Cruz is able to inject some much-needed life back into the division.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship, just like any other major sports promotion, is susceptible to injury-plagued moments. Just like a team in the NFL or NBA can have its season hopes ruined by one misstep, an entire MMA event can be blown up due to one…
The Ultimate Fighting Championship, just like any other major sports promotion, is susceptible to injury-plagued moments. Just like a team in the NFL or NBA can have its season hopes ruined by one misstep, an entire MMA event can be blown up due to one painful moment.
Mixed martial arts is a violent sport—a sport in which the athletes must train hard in order to be ready for high-level competition. Unfortunately, the UFC cannot do more than it is to protect its champions from sudden injury. Yet, it can do more to protect its cards from falling apart when it occurs.
Injuries within mixed martial arts are going to happen. When they do, the results are going to be catastrophic at times and “minor” in others. The moments that have struck UFC 177 and UFC 178 will ring out as two examples etched in the fight community’s mind.
If the UFC expects these fighters to come in and compete as world-class athletes, then hard training is a must. This hard training will lead to accidental injuries that will keep big-name athletes from upcoming events. The UFC can respond by having a match-making system in place that would help prevent cards from being drastically weakened if major players are forced to back out.
As the UFC moves forward with having all pay-per-view events headlined by title fights, the undercard should also feature title contenders from the same weight class. What this strategy would do is allow the UFC to shift its cards around in the moment of an injury or other change. UFC 158 can be pointed to as an example of how this card structure would work.
Georges St-Pierre was set to defend his title against Nick Diaz, who had been pulled from a previous title shot at UFC 137 due to missing media requirements (via MMA Fighting). If the UFC was forced to do so again, it could have filled his spot with either Johny Hendricks or Carlos Condit, who were in the co-main event. The UFC also booked Jake Ellenberger against Nate Marquardt, both of whom could have stepped in to face other men if needed and would have kept the welterweight division moving forward that night.
Keeping key fighters active within the same time span or on the same cards would help stop injuries from ruining event expectations. This would ensure that specific fighters are training in preparation for the moment in which their number is called.
UFC 146 is another example of a card that was shaken up due to a fighter being taken off the card. When Alistair Overeem was removed because he failed his pre-fight drug test, all of the heavyweight bouts were moved around (via MMAjunkie). Frank Mir was originally supposed to face Cain Velasquez, but instead he was bumped into the main event spot against Junior dos Santos.
Ben Fowlkes of MMA Fighting reported that Mir volunteered his services once it was official that Overeem was pulled from the card. He volunteered to do so at the right moment, and the fact that he was preparing to compete already could have helped the UFC select him to take the spot. Had the company not had any other heavyweight bouts in place, the promotion would have had a much harder time finding a replacement.
Injuries are going to happen in mixed martial arts no matter what the UFC or any other promotion tries to do. However, creating a card development system that books multiple contenders on the same event will help ease the pain of replacements when needed. The UFC will never be able to prevent injuries, but being prepared to face them is its next best option.
The UFC owes more than just a tip of the cap to men like Joe Soto, who more often than not, step up to the plate when another scheduled fight card begins to self-destruct.
