UFC 207 is all about Ronda’s return
Sport does itself no favours by focusing on ex-champion to exclusion of everyone else
On the eve of New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas, the UFC will roll out its final fight card of 2016 — a star-studded affair featuring a bantamweight title fight between bitter rivals Dominick Cruz and Cody Garbrandt, former heavyweight champions Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez renewing hostilities, T.J. Dillashaw and John Lineker throwing smoke at one another and Jessica Andrade and Angela Hill battling to determine who is next in line to get punched in the face by Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
The main event for the Dec. 30 event at the T-Mobile Arena matches reigning women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, who won the title in the same arena five months earlier to close out UFC 200, defending her title against Ronda Rousey. You remember her, right? Former champion? Massive star? Unstoppable bad ass who beat Sara McMann, Alexis Davis, Cat Zingano and Bethe Correia in a combined 130 seconds before getting knocked into a yearlong sabbatical by Holly Holm last November in Australia?
Yeah, she’s back, and if the three-minute extended trailer released by TMZ Sports on Wednesday is any indication, UFC 207 will mark her triumphant return to the top of the division and give her a chance to prove all those pesky critics that questioned her coming out of her first professional loss wrong.
The powerful ad features a brooding, pissed-off Rousey turning off the television while ESPN loudmouth Stephen A. Smith yaps about her (good call) before showing her preparing for her fight with Nunes while hammering home the message that “The Prodigal Daughter” is coming home on Dec. 30, a date she circles on her calendar in the clip.
It ends, as every UFC trailer does, with a bumper showing the main event participants and listing the particulars, with the words “SHE’S BACK” standing out in the centre of the screen.
In case it wasn’t abundantly clear, UFC 207 is all about Rousey’s return; nothing else matters.
On one hand, I understand completely — she’s one of the company’s biggest stars, and when she will return to action has been one of the most discussed topics in the sport since she lost the title to Holm late last year. Just as it wouldn’t make sense for the trailer for the next Mission: Impossible movie (coming in 2018) to feature everyone but Tom Cruise, not focusing on Rousey in the buildup to this event would be a mistake.
But on the other hand, Rousey has said she’ll be walking away from the Octagon for good pretty soon, and there is a very real possibility that Nunes strides into the cage, punches Rousey in the mouth and retains the title, potentially hastening the former champion’s departure from the sport.
Regardless of what transpires in the aftermath of the main event, all the other fighters on the pay-perview portion of the card are going to be counted on to help carry events in 2017 and beyond, and making this event exclusively about Rousey doesn’t do the UFC any favours when that time comes.
Just look at this weekend’s event in Toronto — Max Holloway is on a nine-fight winning streak and is one of the most consistently entertaining fighters in the sport. But outside of the hardcore set, very few people really know anything about him because he’s never really been given his own moment in the sun.
And now when he’s called upon to headline a surprisingly deep payper-view event, fans are dismissive because the UFC has never given them a reason to invest the Hawaiian featherweight standout.
It’s going to be the same next year when Cruz or Garbrandt are stationed atop an event opposite the Dillashaw-Lineker winner or Nunes retains her title and becomes the new face of the women’s bantamweight division.
Those possibilities have to be accounted for and addressed in the lead-up to every major fight card, otherwise you end up with two stars and a handful of talented, championship-calibre athletes only the most ardent fans are keen on paying to see. But hey — Ronda’s back! Spencer Kyte covers MMA for The Province and hosts the Keyboard Kimura Podcast. Follow him (@ spencerkyte) and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.