Amidst a
backdrop of widespread condemnation, the UFC rolled into London this weekend
with, on the face of it, arguably its weakest card for many a year.
Following
an explosive end to 2016 at UFC 207, this is an issue that the promotion has
been battling for the whole first quarter of this year, but has only really
come to a head in London. It’s no secret that the UFC struggles to build
stacked cards in Europe, though why is anyone’s guess.
But the
company seemingly hit a new low with its 2017 offering in the English capital
when, after reportedly being unable to find a suitable opponent for Swedish
slugger Alexander Gustafsson, it decided to bump its co-main of Jimi
Manuwa/Corey Alexander to the headline bout. Not particularly inspiring,
especially when you consider that the main event in the marquee London card
last year was the ‘Fight of the Year’ contender between Michael Bisping and
Anderson Silva.
If, like
myself, you had bought a ticket before the card was even fully announced, you
may have been forgiven for feeling a little disappointed. Looking down, it was
hard to see where the draw would come, from the underwhelming co-main match-up
between Gunnar Nelson and Alan Jouban, to the inevitably dull heavyweight
collision of Tim Johnson and Daniel Omielanczuk. While British MMA pioneer Brad
Pickett’s final fight added a little nostalgia value, the majority of the
offering was nothing more than rising stars, covering Arnold Allen, Marc
Diakiese, Brett Johns and Leon Edwards.
But if the
fans thought they were struggling for value for money already, they hadn’t seen
nothing yet. Just hours before the event itself, not one but two bouts were
forcibly scrapped due to medical reasons, leaving the already slim card thinner
than the two Octagon girls. With weight-cutting already under severe scrutiny,
the struggles of Ian Entwistle and Tom Breese to cope with the pressures placed on
their bodies will only further serve to shine a light on the issue. Indeed,
immediately following the news, Entwistle announced his retirement from MMA,
highlighting just how difficult this process is.
Perhaps
surprisingly, the prelims started encouragingly. Lina Lansberg, fresh off her
mauling at the hands of Cris Cyborg, got a narrow, and widely disputed, split
decision win over Lucie Pudilova, while Scott Askham and Brad Scott put on, in
my eyes at least, the fight of the night in a back and forth encounter. This was
then punctuated by my highlight of the night – a thirty second KO of Teemu
Packalen by rising lightweight prospect Marc Diakiese, including a cartwheel
kick, a spinning wheel kick and then a huge overhand right, leaving the Finn
jelly-legged and out cold on the mat. On this performance, there is no doubt
that the Doncaster-born fighter can make good on his promise to the O2 Arena to
go all the way to the top, though I’m sure he’ll have tougher competition than
this.
However, if
those in attendance felt that was to set the scene for the evening, we were
very much mistaken. While the Edwards/Luque fight was entertaining in its
technical and tactical battle, the goodwill built up by the early prelims was
quickly eradicated by the heavyweight contest. I don’t care how glorious Tim
Johnson’s handlebar moustache is, he puts on a boring fight!
At the risk
of ripping off a famous Fatboy Slim song, the full 15 minutes were a case of
punch, charge, recover, repeat, largely enabled by the lumbering Omielanczuk.
The worrying thing is that both of these guys started proceedings inside the
top 15 of the division, highlighting once again how in need of heavyweight
talent the UFC is.
While Joe
Duffy’s energetic dismantling of Reza Madadi and Arnold Allen’s scramble-fest
against Makwan Amirkhani instilled a bit of life back into proceedings, it was
very obvious that we had seen five consecutive, and rather dull, decisions as
we entered the business end of the evening.
As a proud
Northerner, I’m perhaps slightly biased, but I can honestly say that I was
surprised by the abject lack of atmosphere in the O2 Arena before and during
the Brad Pickett fight. Considering that this is supposed to be the final fight
in the career of a legend of the London MMA scene, I had expected a raucous
environment akin to the one I witnessed for Michael Bisping in his hometown
title defence against Dan Henderson at UFC 204. Alas, the most excited the
crowd got during the 14 minute fight was when a brawl broke out in the front
rows of the seated section – over what I don’t know!
Nevertheless,
it was sad to see ‘One Punch’ go out the way he did. While he argued an early
stoppage, he was certainly badly hurt by Marlon Vera’s head kick, and the
argument was there that he was not intelligently defending himself for the
second hammer-fist. An emotional farewell speech later, Pickett fittingly left
his iconic pork pie hat in the centre of the Octagon, bowing out with a
respectable 25-14 record at the very highest level.
The crowd
did wake up a little during the co-main, however, gamely joining in on the now
famous Icelandic slow clap. Outside of Demian Maia, is there a more impressive
jiu-jitsu practitioner than Iceland’s Gunnar Nelson? He absolutely bullied a
game fighter in Alan Jouban, beating him to the punch and dominating him on the
ground, before finishing the former model with a brutal guillotine choke. While
this match-up was admittedly poor, surely Nelson has to be looking at a top
five contender next time out – Lawler, Cerrone or Condit?
And if the
co-main was one-sided, I’m not quite sure how to characterise the headliner. On
paper an interesting match-up between a deadly striker in Jimi Manuwa and a
respected wrestler in Corey Anderson, it could not have been much more of a
mismatch. Having failed on a couple of takedown attempts and taken a brutal
hook to the body, Anderson was left flat out on the floor by a huge left hand
by the Brit at just three minutes, in a walk-off KO that Mark Hunt would have
been proud of.
Certainly,
Manuwa is living up to his reputation as one of the scariest knockout artists
in the division (second behind Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson if you believe Joe
Rogan), but has he done enough to secure a fight against the winner of Daniel
Cormier and Rumble? If you’re going on legitimacy of contendership, absolutely,
however there is the looming prospect of a Jon Jones return, and as we have
seen from Georges St Pierre’s comeback, the new owners of the UFC value a
returning star at a little more than a number one contender. And calling out
David Haye? What is it with MMA fighters and boxers these days?
Overall,
UFC Fight Night London had its moments of quality, but these were often too
fleeting and punctuated what was largely an underwhelming card. Not as good as
last year, and certainly nowhere near UFC 204. It’s a shame, because the UK
market for MMA is huge at the minute, with the Manchester event selling out in
under six minutes, and there is a considerable opportunity for the UFC to
expand. Bellator has looked to get into this with a comparatively stacked card
in May, and with the current free agency debate, the UFC needs to demonstrate
its strength in depth.
Put simply,
the promotion needs to stop exposing just the same small roster of fighters for
the European events. I’m not even going to look, but I’d be surprised if you
could find an event in the region in the past few years that does not include
one of these fighters in the main card: Andrei Arlovski, Michael Bisping,
Gegard Mousasi, Stefan Struve, Jimi Manuwa, Alexander Gustafsson. I get that
home fighters want to fight at their own events, and that’s fine, but make more
events! Tickets are clearly selling, so the promotion needs to stop
short-changing its loyal European fan-base and find a better balance between
demand and supply.
The Octagon
returns to Glasgow later this year, so there is hope, but I shan’t hold my
breath.
