UFC 177: Worst Pay Per View Ever?
by Dr. Octagon, J.D.
I’ve been covering the UFC for what feels like a long time now, and it’s starting to feel like a chore.
Whenever I complain about watching UFC for a living, people give me a hard time. But as these cards get thinner and there is less and less talent on each card, it makes you wonder how they still think they can charge the same amount of money for a Pay Per View. Now, I’m a highly-compensated MMA blogger, but for people who are not in on the payroll of the munificent Mr. Nagesh, just following this sport is becoming a pricey proposition.
People on the internet have argued that UFC 177 is the worst card ever. These people must not have woken up at the crack of dawn to watch any of the Asian cards on Fightpass. That said, those cards are part of a ten-dollar-per-month offering for which only the truly hardcore need apply. So UFC 177 isn’t the worst card ever, not by any stretch of the imagination, and to say so is hyperbolic, but it very well might be the worst Pay Per View on paper in recent memory.
That’s not to say that the fights will be bad, many fights that have looked horrible on paper have turned out great, and some fights that have looked like they would be action-packed slugfests have turned out horribly. The closest thing to this terrible card that I can think of is UFC 149. Let’s compare:[[MORE]]
UFC 149 also featured Renan Barao, but against Urijah Faber. So you had the champ against the undisputed most popular small fighter of all time, fighting each other for the first time.
UFC 177 features T.J. Dillashaw in a rematch against Renan Barao after completely demolishing Barao in a one-sided beatdown. I’m not going to say that I’m completely uninterested in this matchup, but it wasn’t like the last fight was close at all. Also, the UFC hasn’t done much to promote the fight, they haven’t even bothered to stage a fight at a press conference yet. It’s like no one gives a fuck.
In UFC 149, the co-main was Tim Boetsch against Hector Lombard. Two guys famous for savage violence. I was super pumped for the matchup. It turned out to be a terrible fight where neither fighter engaged.
For UFC 177, you’ve got Tony Ferguson against Danny Castillo. I like Tony Ferguson. Danny Castillo has a ton of fights in the UFC. They’re both competent fighters, but neither even scratches the UFC’s own top 15 rankings. Sure the lightweight division is stacked, but these two aren’t fit to headline a free card. So there you have it, your co-main event. Two lightweights who are decent, but are nowhere near fighting for the title.
The UFC has nine divisions with sixteen ranked fighters in each. That means there are 144 ranked fighters they could have put in the co-main event of this Pay Per View, for which they’re charging sixty-some odd dollars, and we get this fight between two mediocre lightweights instead.
UFC 149’s third fight was Shawn Jordan against Cheick Kongo. Not the greatest fight ever, but what looked like a decent heavyweight fight on paper.
UFC 177’s third fight is Shayna Baszler against Bethe Correia. In my opinion, neither fighter has any business being on a Pay Per View, and not because they’re women. I’m a big supporter of women’s MMA, but I’d be blind if I said the women boast the same level of talent as in the mens’ division. The women’s MMA scene is still in its infancy and it’s probably going to be a while before there are a lot of female mixed martial artists with a wide array of talents. Until that time, they should keep these women off the Pay Per View, other than the top five fighters in the division (plus Cyborg).
Baszler has lost two of her last three fights and also got destroyed pretty quickly in the TUF house by eventual winner Julianna Pena. Bethe Correia has two fights in the UFC, one a split decision win over the now-retired Julie Kedzie, and a unanimous decision against the former-model (allegedly) Jessamyn Duke. Of course Duke is a terrible fighter with absolutely no defense and, like Baszler, is most likely only still in the UFC because she trains with Ronda Rousey. This is the sort of fight that Fightpass was invented for.
UFC 149’s fourth fight down the card was James Head against Brian Ebersole. Not a good fight, but better than the Ramsey Nijem against Carlos Diego Ferreira fight we’re getting at UFC 177. What, you’ve never heard of Carlos Diego Ferreira? He’s fought once in the UFC and has no Wikipedia page. He’s undefeated, he might be pretty good, but again, we’re getting a fight featuring two dudes who aren’t that great and have no shot of fighting for a title, even if they win their next four fights in a row.
The first fight at UFC 149 was Matt Riddle against Chris Clements. Not a great fight, but Matt Riddle was pretty good and would have had a pretty nice win streak in the UFC if he didn’t piss pure THC twice in three fights.
The first fight at UFC 177 is Yancy Medeiros against Damon Jackson. Medeiros is coming off a quick guillotine loss to Jim Miller. Before that he TKOed Yves Edwards before failing a drug test for reefer (look at the parallel there). Damon Jackson is a late replacement, so we can’t really give them that hard of a time for this matchmaking (though the prior fighter, Justin Edwards, wasn’t really good either).
So my conclusion is that UFC 177 is way worse than UFC 149, which is the worst Pay Per View, on paper, that I can remember. If you can think of a worse card, please write in: editor@stiffjab.net
This is what happens when the UFC puts on two separate, free cards on the same day, as they did last Saturday, and another free card the week before. This Pay Per View could have used a few of those fights. If they sprinkled in some Ross Pearson against Gray Maynard, or Benson Henderson against Dos Anjos instead of fucking Shayna Baszler, this could turn from a card that insults potential buyers to a show that I’d probably buy if I was bombed and had nothing to do Saturday night.
UFC 177 is the result of the UFC staging too many shows with too few good fighters. Find your coverage elsewhere. I’m not paying for this shit.