UFC on Fox 15: Machida vs. Rockhold was the best fight card of 2015 so far. It did not have any titles on the line, and none of the fights had two competitors with a long history of animosity towards each other.
What the fight card had was close, competitive fights on paper. Nobody knew who would win between Machida and Rockhold, Swanson and Holloway or Herrig and VanZant.
The best way that a fight promoter can draw fans of the sport into watching a fight is to make sure that the event answers questions. Before the event even started, there were plenty of questions. Who would get the next shot at the UFC Middleweight Championship? Is Paige VanZant all hype? Will it be Eddie Bravo or Brendan Shaub who win the OSP/Cummins bet? Can Cub Swanson rebound after an embarrassing loss to Frankie Edgar?
By the time Friday rolled around and the fighters weighed in, I was already sold on the event. Message boards and internet forums were already battling back and forth between whether or not VanZant would get crushed or were trying to pick out the little things that would give Machida or Rockhold an edge.
Fans do not want to see a one-sided beat-down. A fight can have all of the hype in the world between two rivals, i.e. Jones vs. Sonnen, but if the fight is not a close one of paper, than there’s not much appeal. Casual fans will be drawn to the fight, but a good fight card isn’t graded on how many people saw it.
A good fight card should be based on how well the fights were able to draw discussion about the actual fight. No one was disputing ways that Nick Diaz could beat Anderson Silva, even though it was a highly anticipated fight. It was considered a “fun fight”, but we all knew it wouldn’t be a good, competitive fight.
When I say competitive, I’m not just talking about the actual fight itself. I’m also talking about the implications that the fight will have on both fighters’ careers. The Diaz/Silva fight wouldn’t have impacted either fighter negatively or positively in the rankings. Machida/Rockhold, Swanson/Holloway, Herrig/VanZant, Miller/Dariush and OSP/Cummins were all fights that would have a big impact on the current UFC rankings.
Now that UFC on Fox 15 has concluded, we have seen that this fight card may have been one that we will look back on in a couple of years as a turning point in the sport.
Dariush showed himself to be one of the best up-and-coming prospects in the lightweight division. OSP established himself as a true threat at 205. VanZant’s stock has grown exponentially after putting a beat down on Herrig, and we could have witnessed the next big UFC star make her break-out performance.
Holloway has now catapulted himself into the Top 5 at featherweight with a spectacular performance against Swanson. Luke Rockhold looks like he will be the next man to challenge for the middleweight title after Weidman and Belfort square off, and his performance against Machida could have him going into the fight as the favorite.
The fact that we got to see five UFC fighters make the biggest leap in their MMA career in one night is just a testament to how good the UFC on Fox 15 card was. There was little to no bad blood, no world tours and no weigh-in scuffles.
The only thing that would have made the fight card an A+ would have been if Romero had stayed on the card and fought Jacare. The most disappointing fight of the night was the Jacare/Camozzi fight. Every fight that night had been a competitive battle against two closely ranked fighters. This fight was one that fans should forget about as it was not competitive and had no effect on the rankings.
Besides the Jacare/Camozi fight, April 18th, 2015 was a night full of competitive and memorable MMA fights that left fans and media salivating for more. Here hopes that the UFC will put on more competitive cards in the future with fights that matter to both the fans and the sport.
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