Since the “in your face” burst of Ultimate Fighting Championship following the first season of the Ultimate Fighter launched the organization into mainstream status, the UFC has traditionally allocated certain weekends for major fight cards each year.
You can almost always count on the fact that Super Bowl, New Years, and Memorial Day weekends will play host to a major fight card. Obviously some cards have been better than others but for the most part each card has lived up to the hype that it was given.
This weekend in an all heavyweight main card as UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos will defend for the first time since winning the belt from Cain Velasquez in November of last year. Former champion Frank Mir will look to obtain the gold that once sat around his waist.
But is that star-studded heavyweight lineup the best the UFC has presented their fans with over the years? You be the judge.
Last year, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Matt “the Hammer” Hamill headlined the holiday weekends. It was not the most entertaining fight to date but nonetheless the UFC scheduled the fight for one of their biggest weekends believing that Rampage would be a big draw.
Rampage fought two other times at the unofficial start of summer, once defeating UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell to be crowned the UFC’s light heavyweight champion in 2007, and then in 2010 he dropped a unanimous decision loss to Rashad Evans.
Both were big money makers for the UFC so it only made sense to send Jackson up for a third headlining event against Hamill. Evans lost his light heavyweight title to Lyoto Machida on May 23, 2009, never having the chance to successfully defend his title after winning it from Forrest Griffin the year before. At UFC 84 “Ill Will” future hall of famer the B.J. Penn defeated Sean Sherk, retaining his lightweight strap. For more info about the bout check out US Combat Sport’s glove review.
Could any fight have been bigger than to pair the two legends against one another, when the first UFC champion in history came out of retirement to take on arguably the best welterweight champion of all time in Matt Hughes? Royce Gracie was responsible for putting the UFC and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on the map in the United States and he put it all on the line but Hughes made short work of Gracie ending the fight in the first round.
So, which was the biggest or best fight card to date? Will tomorrow night’s UFC 146 take the cake or was there another one that stood out in your mind?