Is UFC 214 card just too stacked?
Lesser-known fighters may have been better off headlining a television event
With three title fights and a host of additional exhilarating matchups, is it possible that Saturday’s UFC pay-perview event is too stacked?
Whenever the UFC puts together a monster card like the one slated to take place Saturday at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., it makes me wonder if stacking the deck this way is worth it in the long run?
UFC 214 boasts the deepest lineup of the year and is the department store version of last year’s designer label event at Madison Square Garden in New York City — it looks similar to UFC 205, but the names aren’t quite as big as they were for the first event in The Big Apple.
Over the years, the UFC has posited that fighting on a card of this magnitude offers the lesser-known names stepping into the octagon the opportunity to compete in front of the largest number of fans possible and doing so will translate into greater recognition and increased popularity, but I tend to disagree.
Cody Garbrandt’s surge in recognition and popularity came after he knocked out Thomas Almeida in the main event of a Fight Night event last May in Las Vegas, not following his unanimous decision win over Henry Briones at UFC 189.
Despite competing on the main card at both UFC 194 and UFC 199, Max Holloway didn’t experience a real spike in attention from the fans and the media until he headlined UFC 206 in Toronto and dusted Anthony Pettis to claim the interim featherweight title.
As much as I’m excited about the outstanding collection of fights scheduled for the televised portion of Saturday’s preliminary card, I feel the combatants in three of the four contests would benefit far more from getting to headline a Fight Night event or being showcased on Fox than manning their current positions on this weekend’s prelims.
Jason Knight has developed a cult following over the last year thanks to a four-fight winning streak and his Diaz-esque approach in the cage. Rather than have his matchup with former title challenger and perennial contender Ricardo Lamas stationed below Saturday’s main card fights, why not give the top 15 featherweights a larger platform and see if Knight can keep rolling and become an unexpected draw going forward?
The same goes for the clash between Brian Ortega and Renato Moicano, a pair of unbeaten featherweights in their late 20s who have already earned a place in the top 10. This would have been a perfect fight to headline the October Fight Night event expected to take place in Sao Paulo and given the talented tandem a chance to be the stars of the show heading into such a crucial fight for the division.
Instead, very few people are paying attention to this fight and the winner is destined to remain relatively unknown beyond the hardcore set, making it difficult to promote them when they’re called to face a more established contender next time out.
Even the catchweight bout between former bantamweight champ Renan Barao and post-hype sleeper Aljamain Sterling would have been better served being stationed on the main card of last weekend’s UFC on Fox event from Long Island than landing on this weekend’s televised prelims. Whoever emerges victorious will be in the thick of the chase in the deep and talented 135-pound division, but getting minimal attention now makes it hard to convince fans about the importance of their next fights when they comes around.
The ironic part is that the organization already saw how effective this approach can be when Kevin Lee used his main event assignment opposite Michael Chiesa in Nashville as an opportunity to become everyone’s newest favourite lightweight.
Without the headlining opportunity, there is no fracas between the two at the May press event in Dallas and his controversial, but still dominant win over Chiesa doesn’t garner as much attention as it did. Now people are talking about Lee facing lightweight standouts like Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov for an interim title when just three months ago they were moaning about him being in the main event of a Fight Night show.
This weekend’s card is dope and I’m not complaining about getting eight straight outstanding, meaningful fights to close out the event given some of the shows we’ve sat through this year.
But in terms of optimum use of talent and building names for the future, stacking the deck at UFC 214 or any time feels like a great shortterm play when taking a more longrange approach might produce better overall returns.
E. Spencer Kyte covers MMA for The Sun and The Province. Follow him on social media: @spencerkyte.