Episode 20: The Ultimate UFC Fight Card Unveiled

Intro there is no fight card that was better this one was the ultimate for real [Music] guys welcome to episode 20 let's have a conversation today's conversation is informed by a post I saw on the UFC um UFC's YouTube page couple of days ago they asked a question about the greatest Fight Card which was the greatest fight card and that really got me thinking right what is the greatest UFC fight card I What is the greatest UFC Fight Car of all time? have ever seen in my entire life and I've been watching MMA for a pretty long time time what is the greatest Fight Card of the UFC what is the greatest show the UFC has ever put out and coming up UFC 300 this year it makes this conversation all the more relevant when you consider how much Buzz UFC 300 had some have even called it the greatest UFC fight card of all time but is it though is UFC 300 the greatest fight card of all times H let's let's go down the rabbit's hole um there have been there's a strong argument to be made that there are other cards in the past that may or may not be Previous Fight Cards that may be the best ever better than USC 300 uh we have UFC 100 it's a pretty good card UFC 200 that was also bad as well uh UFC 229 I think we'll also add that to the list uh ESC 300 and UFC 217 would be a very strong uh addition to the list as well of all these fight cards we know UFC 229 khabib namam medov versus Connor McGregor I think that is arguably the biggest pay-per-view card with the most intense and authentic rivalry in the history of the UFC it all The Origin of UFC 229 started with the incident at the bus actually no I take that back it all started with the incident with kabib and his team running up on Aram lobov oh you know what I might take that back let's take it further back UFC 229 started with actually technically speaking if you think about it UFC 229 started with artam lobov coming online and giving an interview where he mentions Habib namago Med's name in certain issues that incident led to Habib and his crew confronting atam in the in the whole Lobby that you know he was seeing at some point and Conor McGregor saw that got pretty angry got a couple of goons got on a plane from Ireland flew to the US to cause chaos and flew right back to Ireland if I believe big mess that was the that was the origin of UFC 229 and we all saw that that inent transcended into very terrible statements very very um a very toxic pre-fight Nar uh uh pre-fight narrative pre-fight shenanigans that were probably the most out of this world when you talk about Free Speech Conor McGregor was given the freehand and free speech to say anything he wanted about kabib no mago's parents and family and religion and Country and the list goes on and on so that's two UFC 229 it ended up being the highest selling UFC pay-per-view and I believe it did more than 2.4 million pay-per-views you can't argue about that you really really can't there's also a strong uh um strong argument to be made for UFC 300 with everything that happened the buildup to the fights the the the back and forth the delays in fight announcements from Dana White the what ifs the variables who's going to fight who's who isn't going to fight we were all Glu to our screen waiting for the official announcement and then we find out it's Alex Pereira versus Jamal Hill and to be quite honest a lot of us thought that it would be Conor McGregor versus Michael Chandler and then you add the addition of the BMF belt to UFC 300 and it was it was it was a beauty to see one of the most viral Knockouts came out actually two viral Knockouts came out from that fight card so these are strong numbers these are strong arguments same thing could be said for the merits of UFC 100 UFC 200 and all however I want to push all that to the side I am clearing the path to make my My Choice for best fight card in UFC History argument for UFC 27 as the greatest UFC fight card in the history of mix martial arts yep that is my pick UFC 217 and unfortunately a lot of people are sleeping on UFC 217 I don't know if it's because UFC 2177 was such a long time ago you know by by by by recency bias yes I would say it's a very long time ago 2017 was um was about what was that uh 7 years ago right where where you we my math sucks let's let's let's not go into the the matth of it all but yeah it was about that that far back right A lot of people don't remember the greatness that we witnessed on the night of UFC 217 it was a glorious night it was fantastic mixed martial arts Legend George sent prier The premise of UFC 217 arguably one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time period AC cross weight divisions one of the greatest to ever do it GSP came out of retirement to fight the reigning middleweight champion at the Time Michael the count bisbing and Michael bisbing had just won the belt from Luke rockold and I think he they had defended it against Dan Anderson in their second fight so bisbing was on the tier was a dominant champion and it was a chance for him to prove himself as one of the greatest by eliminating one of the greatest to ever do it in just s Pierre now GSP in my personal opinion really had no real motivation for me in coming back out of retirement to fight I felt at the time that GSP was just one of those people who you know you know what you guys know how when Fighters retire especially if they retire in good health and they're young they retire and then have this little formal syndrome the fear of missing out so I felt like GSP wanted to come back to just relieve the moment re rehash the feeling of the crowd the attention that he gets the adrenaline rush from from fighting that's what I thought GSP wanted to do so at the time I didn't think that fight made any sense to me because there were other contenders that Michael bis had in the middleweight division who could have fought for the belt now that was the main event for UFC 217 but here's what else makes UFC 217 very very very special UFC 7 217 had two more title fights other than the main event so there was a bantamweight Championship on the line with Cody garbrandt who was a champion at the time versus TJ Dillashaw who was the contender right TJ had been on a tier to reclaim his belt after losing that belt to I believe he lost it to Dominic Cruz I'm not sure I can't remember I think it was Dominic Cruz but TJ was was you know back for his belt then in the same night we had the title fight between strawweight Champion female champion Yan young Jak CHF and tog Rose Nunes Yano had been on a very very very very dominant Reign very long rain and a very very very impressive run as Champion with multiple title defenses probably I think she had the longest I believe at the time he was the longest uh title defense of a female champion at the time probably that record might still hold up today I'm going to have to check my stats Guys these were all all the fights we had all the championship fights we had on the same card three Championship that's six three championship fights now I'm sure a lot of you who remember would say well it's not the first fight card to have three championship fights um on the line and you're right if Other Fight Cards with 3 Championship Title Fights history serves me well I believe UFC 33 you UFC 205 and UFC 214 all had three championship fights on the line in the same Fight Card each one of them had that however the one thing that made UFC 217 really stand out is what separates it from the rest of the fight cards as a whole and the rest of the fight cards that that um put up three championship fights in the same night let me run a few stats from UFC Statistic in favour of UFC 217 217 um on that night there was um five I believe five per uh five bonuses were given out on the night of UFC 217 um three performance bonuses on the main event and I believe there were two performance of the night bonuses from the prelims that's between was between um the fight with with um OSP I believe and Ricardo Lamas I believe that fight had a bonus of the the night so essentially there were five bonuses of the night uh five bonuses with performance of the night that may not sound like a big deal but when last did you see a UFC event with five performance of the night bonuses granted UFC 300 just had uh the highest performance of the night bonuses awarded and highest highest I meant highest in Pay highest in financial number 300K and Max Max hallway took two bonuses that night fight of the night and I believe performance of the night Max got 600k guys was well worth it let's not argue about that right so UFC 217 had it had five performance of the night bonuses you still don't think that's spectacular okay then let's let's talk about numbers let's talk about more numbers UFC 217 had over 1 million pay-per-view buys guys those are [ __ ] good numbers those are fantastic numbers by 20124 standards and by 2017 standards regardless of inflation or what the UFC Pay-Per-View price was at the time it wasn't 85 Dollar Plus taxes that it is today it was much less then but it was still fairly decent I think it was 65 plus taxes at the time not sure might have been right and on the on another thing more numbers for you guys on the fight card I believe they had um it was um damn it probably maybe 10 I believe it was 10 finishes on the prelims and Main card 10 stoppages on the prelims and Main card with only two decisions on the that entire card coming by decision wins only two most of it were stoppages I'm saving the best for last as if you don't already know for those of you who are real MMA fans with very good memories not suffering from the recency bias you understand where I'm heading with this right now this is the ultimate this is the ultimate reason why UFC 217 was the greatest ever fight card I have ever seen leading up to the fight you had three Champions and three very clear contenders there were no issues with the people who were supposed to fight the Champions we didn't have any is you were like okay you know what those are fights we want to see three of them you had the champion Cody garbrandt of the bantamweight division you had Yanna y JF the strawweight champion and then you had middleweight champion Michael bisbing what is the common denominator Similarities between the Champions at UFC 217 with these three Champions they could talk some trash they could talk a lot of [ __ ] all of them there you'll be hard pressed to find a better trash talker than Michael bisbing I believe in the UFC one of the greatest trash talker in the history of the UFC is Michael bisbing he's right there up there behind cha sunnon and Conor McGregor in fact I think shill is the first and the best Connor is second and Michael bisbing is a very strong third as a trash talker I'm trying to I'm trying to think off the top of my head who else I could put on that list but probably I'll do another video with the best trash actually you know what I will do another video with the best trash Talkers in UFC history my personal favorite but back to UFC 217 and the trash talking abilities of the Champions who were putting their belts on the line to defend on that night these guys talked a lot of [ __ ] they engaged in a lot of mental Warfare with their opponents if you know GSP and you watch gsp's um history of fight for those of you who can remember you ever noticed GSP wasn't really a trash talker he's very professional he wants to get the job done in a professional manner he was very competitive but also very respectful to his opponent GSP never really he never really trash talked right the second person who was a trash talker was Cody garbrandt on that night because he was so Cody was such a confident confident champion yeah had just come off completely obliterating Dominic Cruz was not even a problem wasn't even it wasn't even close Cody garbrandt completely humiliated Dominic Cruz in their fight and Dominic Cruz at the time was a very hard puzzle to solve in the banway division and Cody made him look like an amateur so Cody was coming there with that young young youngling youngster uh energy riding off a high a dominant performance of a former Champion that nobody could decipher at the time and then there was now an extra level of Bad Blood between Cody garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw because at the time TJ Dillashaw had left cod's camp cod's training camp and um team which was Team Alpha and Team Alpha Mill is the that's the um uh MMA team training team put together or set up by um UAH Faber The California Kid the California boy UAH Faber former champion of the bwood division yah favor had that team and Cody um Cody grabr was a member of the team and TJ Dillashaw was a member of the team who at the time left the team with Dwayne lric his head coach and they started doing their own training on their own so words were said things were misinterpreted and then there was that beef you know in the background so it was a case of Team Alpha Mill versus team ludrick as represented by the champion Cody garbrandt and the contender TJ Dillers showw on the other side and I can tell you for free when it came to trash talking Cody went in on TJ dealers I've never seen a more impressive Cod gbrand trash talking it was it was it was good it was enjoyable to watch the trash talking went a bit further also in the women's division with Yanna Yan JF talking down on to Rose nunis and at the time you guys know Rose Rose is always very composed Rose doesn't Trash Talk Rose is very professional if anybody trash talks it should be Pat Berry but Rose is the you know the direct opposite of Pat Barry in terms of trash talking she's very calm very respectful very professional and always wants to just get in there show and display her martial arts hopefully get the W and leave I think TG Rose is actually um uh um allergic to fame if I can put it that way she just doesn't like Fame so you're not going to see talk girl trash talking it's not just her thing and I think that quiet disposition encouraged Yanna to continue to trash talk her to continue to be in her face to come up in the press conference and and I think it was the weigh-ins I believe right the weighin or the face off believe Yanna literally put a hand on on to Rose's face coming there and acting like I'm the Boogie lady boogie woman bow down bow down to the queen bow down who remembers that bow down out the real queen Dana but bow down bow down on your knees because Lord who remembers you guys remember that you know what I'm saying bow down to the queen such confidence we were all hyped for that for those fights all hype and this was the same card that also had Steven Wonderboy Thompson versus H masv now granted Masa wasn't as big at the time but it was big enough where it's like I want to see those fights M at the time was that that fight was on the main the main card right wasn't a prelim fight and amongst and many others now the most remarkable thing about UFC 217 was that every single champion on that fight card lost their All Champions at UFC 217 lost their belts belt to the contenders all via stoppage and all via stoppage in three rounds or less first person up Yanna J Jak Yanna versus to Rose rose takes out in under two minutes new Champion strawweight division for the for for women next up co-main event Banton Weight Championship TJ dhaw versus Cody garbrandt TJ takes Cody out I believe in the second round by TKO face down ass up in spectacular fashion and I would even lie that was a fight that won me over to TJ Dillashaw side as a fighter not as a cheater don't get me wrong I do not support cheating and the PED performance I'm going to put that out there but in terms of fight IQ and fight style I like delicious fight style I'm just saying yes he cheated but the fight IQ is still there and performance enhancing drugs do not help your fight IQ next up George sent Pier versus Michael bisbing with all the trash talking there GSP fights bisbing the first second and third route and in the third route is's able to get a RAR naked choke on Michael bisbing now if you ever wanted to know whether or not Michael bisbing is a badass other than the fact that Michael bisbing fought several times with one eye if you ever wanted to know that Michael bisbing was a badass watch the last round between himself versus Joe S Pierre and JSP got a RAR naked choke on bisbing and bisbing would not tap out remarkable Michael bisbing literally slept and died on his shield he refused to tap out until J we put him to sleep until the referee literally came to save him my man refused to he refused to bow out that way gangster gangster Behavior with all these things and all these facts and all these intricacies and variables I've stated how can you tell me UFC 2177 is not the greatest card of all time the the the most valid argument against this would probably be UFC Why UFC 229 will never be better than UFC 217 229 cuz UFC 229 Conor versus khabib it did more numbers in terms of pay-per-view sales UFC 217 did about a million pay-per-view vies and UFC 29 uh 229 did about 2.4 million pay-per-view buys right you can't compare those two numbers that's 140% um under 140% increase in in difference but UFC 229 can be compared in other aspects to UFC 217 well for one the prelims and the main card on UFC 229 um it had less stoppages way less than USC 217 as hyped up as uh that that was it also had less performance of the night bonuses than UFC 217 the champion retained his belt but we all know what happened at the end of the end of the fight when khabib won corner and all hell broke loose the chaos people jumping over the stage k jumping over the octagon into the crowd to [ __ ] up Dylan danis DC and team AKA stepping in Ali abdulaziz going in there as well khabib's teammates jumping over the fence to punch con it was complete chaos Dana White had to go in to the ring or the Octagon rather to calm kabib down and for the biggest Pay-Per-View event in UFC history the fact that we did not see a ceremonial standard wraparound or belt wearing ceremony and that fight will always be a travesty it will always be a stain on the reputation of that fight card I honestly believe that fight card and the events that happened after the events that happened before leading up to the fight card of UFC 229 and immediately after kib's Victory those events in my personal opinion are some of the worst ever representation of our beloved Sports mixed martial arts terrible all of them it's it's just absolute nonsense that happened on that night so when you think about it from that perspective what else does UFC 229 have on UFC 2117 there weren't more title fights on the line it was more toxic more vital more disrespect between the fighters less bonuses less stoppages and I can argue I can make the same argument for UFC 100 UFC 200 UFC 300 as well none of them have the same arguable variable like UFC 217 and all the things that made UFC 217 that special and for those of you who haven't seen UFC 217 you might want to take your time and go back and watch it again watch the entire Fight Card even if you don't want to watch the entire Fight Card including the prelims please watch the main card was something to behold and that ladies and gentlemen is my reason and my choice for why UFC 217 is the greatest ever UFC fight card as of today maybe in the future something else might come up maybe I don't know right it probably didn't have as many viral moments as say UFC 300 and Max hollow's KO of Justin gatei but you have to understand something social media in 2017 was very different than social media in 2024 I'm just saying and if you guys feel different or you have a difference of opinion please you know you know how you guys know me I always say share your opinions and engage and let me know what you think give me compelling arguments as to why everything I've said in this video to support USC 217 is wrong if you've been here this long I thank you for listening please like share subscribe and engage Mr TDC will be with you guys on another episode or another uh presentation of Quick Clips depending on what the news is there wasn't really much great news happening this week yeah there wasn't much going on right but I'm glad we could have had this conversation you guys take care and I'll see you on the next one TDC out peace