I'm not talking about who won the fights because UFC has become so much more than that these days. Not only do you need to win in order to get future paydays or big fights, but you need to impress the audience with an exciting match as well.
I watched 2 of the 3 sets of events for UFC 300, which IMO was one of the biggest lineups they have ever had. Here is what I think the real standout winners and losers were.
src
There was a ton if great fights on this card as far as it appeared on paper, but not all of them were amazing. Some of them were downright boring and very few of them ended the way that everyone thought they were going to.
Let's start with the biggest loser UFC has to offer right now or perhaps ever.
Big Time Loser: Aljamain Sterling
I've disliked this guy ever since he took the belt from Petr Yan by DQ where he appeared to have faked not being able to continue after an illegal knee to the head. No doubt this was a terrible mistake on the part of Yan but most fans felt the same way that I did. Sterling could have continued but instead he went for a DQ victory. He did actually defend the belt against Yan later but as is usually the case with Aljamain, it was a boring grappling and running away contest that had the crowd booing him.
src
There were a few glowing moments for Sterling in this bout but he is one of those guys that will take his opponent down to the ground and then do next to nothing while he is there. I don't know what he is hoping for there but to a fan like me, this appears to be someone that is trying to win on points and will only go for a submission or KO if it is either an accident or a sure thing. There were 13 takedown attempts on the part of Aljamain and 8 of them were successful. On only one of those takedowns did he do any real damage to Kattar. Some might say "but his ground game is where his strength is!" and you would be correct. But I have a hard time applauding a guy that just grabs onto your leg and lies down on top of you and does no damage at all.
The boos started raining down from the crowd as early as round 1 and by the time round 3 came around UFC had actually altered the audio of the broadcast to drown out the boos of the crowd. UFC fans hate this guy because his fights are basically guaranteed to be boring as hell. He won the fight by unanimous decision because the judges had no choice. Kattar was never able to formulate any offense because Sterling would take him to the ground over and over again and then do NOTHING while he was down there. 30-27 unanimous decision but in the eyes of the public Sterling is still a loser and nobody wants to see this guy fight. This was yet another chance for him to do something interesting but he failed miserably.
Something I had never heard before happened in that fight when the fans counted down the final 10 seconds loud as hell in the 3rd round because they just wanted it to be over. On social media there was a ton of hate headed Sterling's way with many suggesting that he should be fined for his pathetic performance. Sterling refused to do a post-fight interview or press conference.
There were no other real losers on this card as far as I can remember. Sterling once again overshadows everyone in the realm of boring as shit and nobody remembers any other lackluster performances because of him.
Biggest Winner: Max Holloway
Man was I ever wrong about Max Holloway going into his bout versus Justin Gaetje for the stupid BMF belt.
src
I feel bad about the things I said about Holloway going into this fight as I basically called him "washed up" and that the UFC was going to be forever downgrading him and using him as a stepping stone for upcoming talent. This was based mostly on les than awesome performances in the past and the fact that UFC had already relegated him to Fight Nights. He was the underdog going into this thing but man oh man did he ever prove me and all the other naysayers wrong.
He was clearly winning on the scorecards going into the 5th round but despite the fact that he could have let off the gas and cruised to a decision victory, he did exactly the opposite. Gaetje was swinging for the fences but Max kept the pressure on. In the last 15 seconds or so Max made a gesture to Gaetje that he wanted to have a last minute brawl for them all and they entered a slugfest for the ages which ended in Max catching Justin on the temple sending him to dreamland and a faceplant on the mat.
This was a brilliant end to an absolutely brilliant fight that I got completely wrong in my predictions.
For this amazing performance Max was awarded a $300,000 fight of the night bonus in addition to his winning purse. It was feared that Max would retire if he lost this fight but how can someone retire after a victory like that. This would put Max back in the championship picture in a lot of people's minds against Topuria especially since I don't believe the two of them have ever faced one another before.
I will eat my words when I am wrong and I was DEAD WRONG about Holloway in this situation. That guy appears to be far from done and he impressed the hell out of everyone the other night. The place I was in went absolutely nuts when he scored a KO at 4:59 in the 5th round. He was already going to win by decision but he went out in absolute style.
I will never underestimate him again!
$300K bonus is a decent enough incentive to perform nd think this will help get more interest flowing. Lets hope things improve and boring fighters are pushed to the side even though it could be a problem if they keep winning.
yeah, this is a big problem with some fighters but the way that UFC keeps this in check is to reduce the purses for fighters that are there just for the W and not to provide good entertainment. For some though, they spent so much time on mastering one particular martial art that they are now incapable of getting good at anything else.
That is a problem because fighters need multiple skills in all fighting formats and will be found out even by a mister boring who specializes in ground work.