Was 180 the best UFC card of the year?
The hardcore fanbase was not impressed with UFC 180 after Cain Velasquez was hurt, but it ended up being one of the best cards of the year to date.
UFC 180 was scheduled in Mexico City with Mexican American Cain Velasquez in the main event, defending his baddest man del planeta title. Then three weeks before the fight, Cain got hurt and was out. And on the same night, the new Bellator under Scott Coker put on a compelling card, for free. World Series of Fighting did too.
These images of actual UGers capture the attitude towards the PPV last week.
Then a weird thing happened – the fights were great.
The crowd helped. Brazil held the undisputed title for most passionate UFC fans, until Conor McGregor fought in Ireland, and changed the weather, creating an actual beer storm. Now add the 21,000 Mexican fight fans at the sold out Arena Ciudad de México to the list.
The first fight on the main card was exciting, and ended in the first, with UGer Hector Urbina coming back to beat UGer Edgar Garcia with a guillotine. Second and third fights also ended in the first, with Ricardo Lamas making a solid case for a rematch with featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
Combat sports are different from other sports, in that what matters is not so much the passage of time as those moments that stop time, making you gasp “holy f@$%ing $#!^.” And that is what the card offered. After three fights the main card was more than half way over, and there had been only 11 minutess and 46 seconds of fight time, and it was good.
The fourth PPV fight established Kelvin Gastelum as a contender in the welterweight division. Few expected him to dominate Jake Ellenberger in striking, and in wrestling, and also in submissions so thoroughly that it looked like the BJJ purple belt Ellenberger didn’t know how to defend a choke.
Gastelum won TUF 17 overcoming the terrifying TUF beast Uriah Hall. Hall had sent multiple fighters to the hospital, including Adam Cella by kicking him so hard in the head he said his foot hurt for a week, and he thought he had killed him. And that was at 185.
Gastelum dropped to 170, and remains undefeated. But according to both looks and nutrition guru Mike Dolce, Kelvin could be fighting at 155. Imagine that.
In the first round of the main event, it appeared that the greatest Rocky moment in the history of MMA was unfolding, as time and again a calm Mark Hunt knocked Fabricio Werdum to the floor. Then in the second, Werdum lifted off the floor and landed a perfect flying knee on Hunt’s chin, capping what could be the greatest UFC card of the year so far.
If it wasn’t your favorite, what was?