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It was love at first sight between Australians and the UFC. It’s coming up to 13 years since the first live event on our shores, all the way back in February 2010, and back then, the event sold out in near-record time.
We bought more merch than anyone had before, we sold an overspill event just to watch it on TV and, to say the least, exceeded the wildest of expectations set by Dana White et al at UFC HQ.
Oh, and that was for an event that took place at 2 in the afternoon in the middle of summer in Sydney with no Australian headliners. When they came back a year later, we obliterated the sales record.
This Sunday, we get the biggest event in the history of MMA in Australia: UFC 284 comes to Perth and with it, there will be the homecoming of Alexander Volkanovski, probably the best fighter to come from our shores.
It’s not just a procession, however: it’s his biggest fight to date. The UFC Featherweight champ and pound-for-pound number one takes on Islam Makhachev, Lightweight kingpin and second overall in the weight list. It’s enough to make the mouth water.
With that in mind, we thought this would be a great time to revisit the best that the UFC has brought to Australia, starting with that first afternoon in Sydney in 2010.
It’s hard to look part the first time, because if Aussies had been in doubt about what the sport was all about, they got an immediate introduction. Two of the big dogs – well, one big dog, one Big Nog – went to war with Cain Velasquez and Antonio Nogueira taking to the Octagon in the heavyweight division for the main event.
It was fast, furious and brutal: Nog was flattened by a serious of Cain’s punches, with ref Herb Dean calling off inside the first round. The schedulers didn’t mess around that afternoon, either: Michael Bisping, then one of the major draws, was defeated by Wanderlei Silva on the co-main, and way down the card was living legend Mirko Cro Cop, who stopped Sydney’s own Croatian, Anthony Perosh.
Melbourne’s Dockland Stadium wasn’t the first of its size to host the UFC – there had been similara events in Canada and Sweden – but it was certainly the biggest.
The headline act was one of the all-time great upsets in franchise history: Ronda Rousey, the literal face of the sport and, undefeated in the Octagon. She hadn’t so much as needed the judges prior to visiting Victoria.
Enter Holly Holm. She had been a world champion in boxing – contrasting to Rousey’s background in judo – and promptly showed off her superior striking. After handing the champ a round defeat in the first – arguably the first round Rousey had ever lost – she finished it in the second with a stunning head kick followed by a barrage of punches that saw the ref stop the contest.
There have been some great fights in the UFC, and right up there with all of them comes Mark Hunt v Antonio Silva. It was a classic of what separates the UFC from other combat sports: two blokes who might not be the top in any one martial arts discipline – in this case, boxing – being forced into an environment where all disciplines are available and using them to the best of their abilities.
Hunt, noted for his punching power, landed several straight on the button of Silva, but the Brazilian kept on coming and eventually gained the upper hand in the fight, before the local favourite wrested it back. In the end, a deserved draw was called with both men covered in blood. Brutal and entertaining – they should put that on the poster for the UFC.
Sometimes a card has a bit of everything. Aussie UFC fans want to see their own shine – just like this weekend with Volkanovski back on home turf – but half of the fun is the chance to see the absolute best of the best on our shores.
UFC 221, the promotion’s first visit to Perth, brought all of that and more. Of the homers, we got a classic Tai Tuivasa knockout, with Cyril Asker sent sprawling inside the first round. We got Tyson Pedro doing Tyson Pedro things with a kimura win. We even got Alexander Volkanovski hidden on the undercard, and that Adesanya bloke too.
Above all, though, we got Yoel Romero v Luke Rockhold. Both fighters were in their primes: the American had already been the champion at Middleweight, while Romero lost the title on the scales by not making weight.
Though he didn’t get the gold to take back to Cuba, he gave the fans something to remember him by with one of the most spectacular knockouts of the year, sending his opponent to the canvas with a hook before catching him flush in a seated position. The ref couldn’t get there in time to prevent the second blow, but had long since seen enough.
One of the joys of live MMA is the chance to see the technicalities of it all close up, the backs and forth of physical chess. The Whittaker v Brunson event, held at the Rod Laver Arena, had more rallies than the Australian Open.
Tyson Pedro v Khalil Rountree on the undercard had all of that in the first three minutes: the Aussie was sat on his backside by a straight punch after just 50 seconds of the first, but immediately bounced back up to take him opponent down. Within another minute, he had Rountree down and another minute after that, the fight was his thanks to a superb triangle choke.
The main event wasn’t bad either: Robert Whittaker stunned Derek Brunson with a head kick and finished it with punches inside the first to announce himself as a real threat in the Middleweight division.
Speaking of announcing themselves, there was a little known bloke on the undercard that night in Melbourne, too. One Alexander Volkanovski made his UFC debut against Japanese Yusuke Kasuya. Wonder what happened to him afterwards?