One year removed from a record-breaking event at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium, the UFC returns to the sporting capital of the world this Sunday with one of the weakest fight cards this year.
It would be naive to think the Nevada-based promotion would bring a star-studded cast of fighters to Melbourne for a small-time event designed for U.S cable television.
However, the card served up for consumers on Sunday is not even worthy of the three letters, U-F-C. It better resembles a bulked-up version of a regional event.
In the UFC’s defence, the promotion did have an appetising main event penciled in for Sunday’s card, with Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza versus Luke Rockhold – a rematch of a controversial championship bout contested in the now-defunct Strikeforce promotion.
An injury from Rockhold spoiled those plans, and in its place, a middleweight fight between Sydney born-and-bred slugger Robert Whittaker and fellow contender Derek Brunson has been elevated to the main event slot.
For Whittaker, it represents a major milestone: his first UFC main event. The 25-year-old is yet to taste defeat since bulking up to join the 185-pound division and a win over eighth-ranked American Brunson would put him in line for a fight against one of the cream-of-the-crop title challengers.
That’s a fight with real consequences in its division, but the same cannot be said for the rest of the bouts that litter this card.
The co-feature is a bona fide tune-up fight for Melbourne-born blue-chipper Jake Matthews, who is fresh off a devastating first-round loss to fellow hot-shot prospect Kevin Lee this year.
That fight, Matthews’ first under the bright lights of the Las Vegas strip, was the Epping-based fighter’s second-straight challenge against an elite American up-and-comer, but the UFC matchmaking team is smartly giving Matthews a rebound fight – a challenge that he should hit out of the park.
The 22-year-old is facing Andrew Holbrook, a 30-year-old submission fighter who holds a 1-1 record in the UFC. The American’s lone Octagon victory was considered one of the worst judging ripoffs of 2015 (100 percent of media polled by MMA Decisions scored the fight for his opponent, Ramsey Nijem, with over a third arguing that Nijem won all three rounds).
The rest of the card is paper thin, with a few high spots sprinkled in between, but little that would interest the UFC’s core audience in the United States.
The UFC debut of New South Wales-based action fighter Alex Volkanovski is sure to stir up some excitement among the fans Down Under. Long considered the best-unsigned Aussie fighter, Volkanovski is on a ten fight unbeaten streak – with nine of those wins coming via stoppage.
The 145-pound ‘Hulk’ has drawn Japan’s Yusuke Kasuya, a 27-year-old chasing his first UFC win.
The return of four-time Olympic judoka Dan Kelly is also featured on this card. The 39-year-old, who coached the Aussie judokas at the Rio Games, looks to keep his improbable run in the middleweight division alive when he faces tough-as-nails journeyman Chris Camozzi.
The remainder of the card is padded out with fights that will almost certainly deliver action – Dan Hooker versus Jason Knight, Damien Brown versus Jon Tuck, Seo Hee Ham versus Danielle Taylor, and so on – but the promise of exciting fights alone doesn’t fill arenas, especially when tickets are still selling for as high as $800 a seat.
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