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The UFC prides itself on being the world’s biggest MMA promotion. In 2021, we’ve seen some genuinely huge events already, headlined by fighters like Conor McGregor, Israel Adesanya and Francis Ngannou. However, that isn’t always the case.
The UFC does put on some amazing headliners but, at times, the promotion also chooses to main event their shows with some much weaker fights.
A number of things can be blamed for this – from the UFC spreading itself too thinly by putting on too many shows, to injuries forcing sudden changes. However, it’s safe to say that for UFC fans, there are few things worse than a weak UFC main event.
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With this in mind, here are five UFC main events that were hugely underwhelming.
#5 Islam Makhachev vs. Thiago Moises – UFC Vegas 31
When the UFC recently announced that their next visit to the APEX Centre in Las Vegas would be headlined by a lightweight clash between Islam Makhachev and Thiago Moises, most fans raised their eyebrows.
Neither Makhachev nor Moises has ever headlined a UFC show before. To be fair, that’s obviously not an issue, as the UFC needs to push new headliners at times. But if we’re honest, the matchmaking here is bizarre at best.
Makhachev is undoubtedly one of the best prospects in the UFC’s lightweight division now. He appears to be the promotion’s best chance of replacing Khabib Nurmagomedov as their big Russian star.
But why is he fighting Moises? The Brazilian is on a good three-fight win streak and is ranked at #14 in the division, but the way that Makhachev blew through Drew Dober at UFC 259 suggested it’s time for the Russian to take a step up in competition.
Could the UFC really have not convinced Rafael Dos Anjos, Dan Hooker or Beneil Dariush – all of whom are ranked above Makhachev – to fight the Russian? Is Moises really the best they can do?
This fight might turn out to be hugely entertaining, but right now it feels massively underwhelming considering what could’ve been put together for Makhachev’s next octagon appearance.
#4 Louis Smolka vs. Paddy Holohan – UFC Fight Night 76
When the UFC returned to Dublin in October 2015, they planned to do so with the main event of Dustin Poirier vs. Joseph Duffy.
Sure, that fight was a step down from 2014’s Conor McGregor-headlined visit to Dublin, but it still sounded like a cool fight between a rising Irish star and one of the best fighters in the UFC lightweight division.
Unfortunately, Duffy was forced out three days before the event after sustaining a concussion. Poirier then decided he wasn’t in the mood to fight late-notice replacement Norman Parke, and withdrew too.
That left the UFC scrambling badly. And while the card was already a relatively weak one, they were forced to headline with flyweights Louis Smolka and Paddy Holohan.
Even as an injury replacement, to say the fight was an underwhelming main event would be an understatement. Neither man was considered a UFC title contender. The best you could say was that at least both were on winning runs.
In the end, Smolka won a relatively entertaining fight with a rear naked choke in the second round, leaving the Irish fans deflated after seeing hometown fighter Holohan lose.
And thanks to this underwhelming main event, they probably felt more than a little unfulfilled, too.
#3 Yair Rodriguez vs. Alex Caceres – UFC Fight Night 92
The UFC was initially set to put on an event in Salt Lake City, Utah way back in August 2010. However, the promotion was forced to move the event to San Diego on late notice due to low ticket sales – explained by Utah’s heavily religious population not wanting to attend a show on a Sunday.
But when the UFC finally decided to head to the city in 2016 – on a Saturday this time – it felt like they remembered the slight from 2010, and decided to headline it with a truly underwhelming fight.
The fight in question was a featherweight bout between Yair Rodriguez and Alex Caceres, a head-scratcher of a main event if there ever was one.
At the time, Rodriguez was considered one of the hottest prospects in the UFC’s 145lbs division. However, he’d had just four fights in the promotion and hardly seemed ready for a main event slot.
Caceres, meanwhile, was largely considered a journeyman at best and had a UFC record of 7-6-1. Realistically, Bruce Leeroy wasn’t close to being in title contention.
Sure, the fight made sense from a perspective of putting two fighters with entertaining styles against one another, but as a main event, it was a real head-scratcher – even if it turned out to be a fun clash to watch.
#2 Anthony Smith vs. Devin Clark – UFC Vegas 15
Like the main event fight between Paddy Holohan and Louis Smolka, this fight only ended up as a UFC headliner when the initially planned fight fell apart.
In this case, Anthony Smith vs. Devin Clark was upgraded when Curtis Blaydes vs. Derrick Lewis was canceled after Blaydes tested positive for COVID-19.
However, the fact that Smith vs. Clark was the best fight the UFC could then find to move into the main event slot was very telling of how weak UFC Vegas 15 was in the first place.
In fact, things could’ve been even worse. Smith – a fighter who had at least headlined four UFC shows previously – wasn’t originally booked to fight Clark, and only stepped in to replace Shamil Gamzatov a month before the event.
But this was still one of the weakest-sounding main events in UFC history. Smith hadn’t won a fight since June 2019 and was on a two-fight losing streak, while Clark was unranked and had a UFC record of just 6-4.
In the end, Smith won the fight with a first round triangle choke. It was clear that had there been a crowd in attendance, they would’ve been disappointed overall that this was the headlining act.
It was an indicator that following the COVID-19 pandemic, the UFC had perhaps pushed itself too hard in putting on a show each weekend.
#1 Cub Swanson vs. Artem Lobov – UFC Fight Night 108
UFC Fight Night 108’s main event was a true head-scratcher. Despite featuring solid fights like John Dodson vs. Eddie Wineland and Mike Perry vs. Jake Ellenberger, the UFC chose to headline with a featherweight clash between Cub Swanson and Artem Lobov.
It certainly wasn’t rare for Swanson to headline a UFC show. He’d been involved in multiple main events, was ranked in the top ten at featherweight and was coming off a ‘fight of the year’ candidate with Doo Ho Choi.
But quite how Lobov found himself headlining a UFC show was anyone’s guess. He was just 2-2 in the UFC and 13-12-1 overall. In fact, most fans suggested the only reason he was in the UFC in the first place was because he was a training partner of Conor McGregor.
To say that nobody was giving him a shot at beating Swanson would be an understatement, which in turn made this one of the most underwhelming UFC main events in the history of the promotion.
And sure enough, while Lobov went the distance, he was comfortably beaten by Swanson after being outclassed. Two more losses followed, and with that, the Ireland-based Russian found himself out of the UFC altogether.
