I think if they branded/advertised these APEX cards as somewhat of up and comers with a decent main/co-main and had them at say where the Merab v Yan fight was (I think it was the palms?) then it would be different story. But they don't. They want us to care about them as much as a fight night that's got a bunch of well known fights and is in front of 15k people.
I don’t necessarily think anyone is wrong here I just love watching MMA and have friends that compete so I am prob bias.
Really crazy to think about the road Yair had on the way to a unified title shot. Gets pummeled by Frankie Edgar, then fired for declining too many fights, rehired, pulls out of two Zabit fights, and loses all his steam. Then, he comes back and has a barn burner with Zombie getting the latest KO in UFC history, and if not for that elbow at 4:59, would’ve lost that big comeback fight. The hype train is back on and runs smack dead into a seconds-lasting main event no contest with Stephens of all people. He makes that fight up with the rematch being FOTN. But, he goes and loses to Holloway like most. -6 months suspension for cheating/doping- However; Max has gotten multiple shots, Zabit is gone, Frankie is gone, so he faces the other two top contenders once he’s back, one of which blows his shoulder out in the beginning of the match so easy W. The Emmett fight was actually impressive though and secured the title shot. I’m not saying he’s not worthy, but maybe Volk and Max beating up everybody kinda made it easy in the slim pickings.
Those prelims are on ABC though so they're making sure to put some bigger names and some guaranteed bangers on that four-fight mini-card. It's not the craziest idea to throw a guy like Figgy on there for the opening fight since it's a special occasion.
I actually think Lawler is the name I’ve seen longest on fight cards personally. Insane that guy is still in the UFC.
Almeida is going to be a massive problem for heavyweights. HW is not that deep at all and this dude is just strangling everyone they give him.
Like DC said, the really great grapplers like Cain, Werdum, himself, etc. are out of that division. Stipe and Jon are really good wrestlers as well but they might be gone soon anyway (never know about Stipe though). But basically everyone else are strikers so he’s just going to keep doing this.
The one thing that makes no sense to me is why 291 is in SLC. The elevation makes for some awful fights and it’s not like it’s an mma hot bed. They just had a PPV last year. There’s so many other cities that would make much more sense.
This dude (Sharaputdin Magomedov) continues to show he’s a giant piece of garbage He signed to the UFC at the end of last year. And is somehow, getting a top 10 MW in his debut in October (Brunson)