The action in the Octagon has never been better
Fans should stop complaining and enjoy some great fights, E. Spencer Kyte writes.
Two years ago, Holly Holm shocked the world by knocking out Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia. Since that fateful evening, Rousey has returned, been beaten in even more convincing fashion by Amanda Nunes and seemingly abandoned the sport that made her a megastar in favour of a potential run in the WWE.
Holm, meanwhile, lost the title in her next outing, a high-risk, high-reward bout with Miesha Tate. She then dropped her next two fights before getting back into the win column with a knockout of Bethe Correia in June.
Just over a year ago, Conor McGregor stopped Eddie Alvarez in the second round of their UFC 205 main event clash to become the UFC lightweight champion, making him the first fighter in the company’s history to simultaneously hold titles in two weight classes. In the 375 days since, the only time he’s been in the cage was last weekend when he went bonkers at a Bellator MMA event in Dublin.
Yet two weeks ago Saturday, the UFC delivered the best event in the company’s history — an action-packed affair back at Madison Square Garden that featured three titles changing hands, a couple of promising prospects taking another step forward in their development and a reminder that, even though the biggest names to grace the Octagon in the last several years are nowhere to be found, the action inside the cage continues to be as consistently entertaining and compelling as it’s been in years.
What’s interesting — at least to me — is that we can’t seem to see the forest for the trees.
Greater focus is given to the UFC’s television ratings and pay-per-view buy rates than to chronicling the journeys of promising upstarts. Social media beefs and general gossip garner more coverage than most non-PPV fight cards.
For me, it’s pretty simple: as much as this year would have been better with McGregor and Rousey, the UFC roster is deeper and more talented than it has been in some time. And the action inside the Octagon has never been better.