The UFC are attempting to put out fires with baby wipes.
Whenever the UFC books a main event, you need to ask yourself two questions – does this fight really need to happen and do I, the consumer, actually want to watch it?
Some examples of bouts that need to happen are title fights, title eliminators and fights with title implications. Match-ups booked because of fan demand don’t necessarily need to happen, but if they don’t disrupt the order of a division, it’s a win-win. A prime example of the latter would be 2015’s headliner between Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz, which was admittedly marred in the aftermath by positive drug tests.
However, with the UFC putting on an unsustainable amount of cards every year relative to their depth of talent, we’re getting a worrying amount of unnecessary fights that not even the fans want to see. Recently, we were forced to endure an entire card’s worth in Sydney, headlined by Fabricio Werdum vs Marcin Tybura.
That card added absolutely nothing to the general landscape of MMA. No new contenders emerged, no truths were revealed, you could remove that card from the year and it would have zero impact on the MMA world.
UFC Belem is looking dangerously close to following in Sydney’s footsteps as its headliner was confirmed on Thursday. In the main event, Lyoto Machida (22-8) will take on Eryk Anders (10-0). The former UFC champion will be hoping to get back to winning ways after suffering three consecutive stoppage losses.
“The Dragon” recently returned from a two-year USADA suspension and was brutally knocked unconscious by Derek Brunson in Sao Paulo.
Just like that, Derek Brunson sleeps the legendary Lyoto Machida 😱
That left hand is made of steel 👊 pic.twitter.com/PkAWKF73Qd
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) October 29, 2017
If Anders wins, he will have beaten up a 39-year-old on a three-fight skid. Although Machida is a big name, so is Rashad Evans and neither Dan Kelly nor Sam Alvey got much of a boost from beating him.
If Machida wins, he will get a nice win on home soil, but one that doesn’t matter a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.
To make matters worse, the word is Machida didn’t even want to be the star of the show. MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz is reporting that the UFC supposedly needed to convince him to take the fight.
I heard that Machida didn't want to fight in Belem on less than 8 weeks' notice, especially after being KO'd by Brunson, but the UFC desperately needed a main event for Belem and somehow convinced him.
— Guilherme Cruz (@guicruzzz) December 14, 2017
That’s how badly they needed a main event for an already lacklustre card.
