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The UFC is the top MMA promotion in the world for a reason. Fight fans tune in to watch the greatest mixed martial artists across the globe test their mettle in matchups that are both thrilling and intriguing. When Rory MacDonald challenged the then reigning UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler for divisional supremacy, it was a fight that captured the imaginations of spectators everywhere.
The bout stood the test of time and has since come to be regarded as one of the greatest fights in UFC history. Unfortunately, not every matchup features such a heart-racing clash of skill and determination. Sometimes, fighters shy away from firefights for a multitude of reasons. They might be prioritizing their health or trying to ensure a safe path up the rankings by simply outpointing their foes.
Whatever their reasoning, those fights have never endeared the participants to the fans. While hardcore observers grasp at straws and claim that certain matchups are technical, casual spectators drown low-volume fights in a chorus of boos. With that being said, we have listed five of the most boring matchups in UFC history.
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#5. UFC 209: Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson 2
In the closing months of 2016, Tyron Woodley was still the UFC welterweight champion. With no title defense to his name, 'The Chosen One' hoped to defend the divisional throne against none other than Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson. Coming off seven consecutive victories, Thompson could not be denied his well-deserved title fight. With over 20,000 fans in attendance, 'Wonderboy' pushed Woodley to his limit.
Alas, he exited UFC 205 without a world championship. Thompson only managed to force a draw from his foe in their first meeting. Woodley retained his title and Thompson's only reward for his efforts was a Fight of the Night honor.
Months later at UFC 209, 'Wonderboy' was on a quest for redemption. Despite their previous encounter being scored a draw, Thompson fought with even less urgency than before. Woodley retreated in a straight line, hoping to draw Thompson into chasing him, while creating enough time, space and leverage to land a counter-right hand. Thompson rarely obliged him, largely maintaining a long range that Woodley hardly ever crossed. The fight featured very few strikes and only two takedowns. Woodley's knockdown in the last round was the only spark of excitement in a low-volume bout that few people will ever revisit.
#4. UFC 248: Israel Adesanya vs. Yoel Romero
There's been a recent trend with Israel Adesanya's performances ever since his capture of the UFC middleweight title. The former kickboxer has grown into a decidedly safer fighter, less eager to lead. He often stands at range and uses his myriad of feints to either freeze or draw his foes inside. In particular, Adesanya uses hip feints after landing thunderous low kicks, hoping to dupe his opponents into trying to counter him over the top.
However, when his foes bite on his hip feints and counter what they mistake as a committed low kick, they instead find Adesanya pulling back at the waist, twisting and turning his torso into devastating counter-hooks that stun his foes as they overextend. In simpler terms, 'The Last Stylebender' counters his opponent's counters by giving them false reads. Against opponents who are willing to march forward and engage him, the approach works to great effect.
Against a low-volume counter-puncher like Yoel Romero, it proved uneventful. Romero spends most of his bouts not doing much, convincing his foes that he is slow and timid. Once an opponent is duped by this false rhythm and attempts to fully engage him, Romero erupts, revealing his terrifying explosiveness and speed to knock them unconscious. So, when both Romero and Adesanya clashed at UFC 248, it was a disaster waiting to happen.
Both men are counter-fighters who rely on opponents engaging with them aggressively. So, the entire bout consisted of nothing but ineffective feints and low kicks, largely from the Nigerian. Across five rounds, Adesanya landed only 48 strikes to Romero's 40, while Romero failed on all three of his non-commital takedown attempts. While Adesanya won via uninamous decision, he did so simply through low kicks, infuriating the fans in attendance with a timid performance.
#3. Anderson Silva vs. Demian Maia, UFC 112
The matchup between then reigning middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Brazilian jiu-jitsu standout Demian Maia was as bizarre as it was uneventful. Maia had stepped in to replace Vitor Belfort, who suffered a shoulder injury. At the time, Maia was 11-1, but lacked a win streak to earn himself a title fight as he had but 1 win since his knockout loss to Dan Miller. Anderson Silva, confident and intermittently cocky, felt his new foe posed no threat to his reign.
However, a verbal jab from Maia prior to the scheduled bout infuriated his fellow Brazilian. Poking fun at Silva's alias, 'The Spider', Maia claimed that he'd use his Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills to take one of Silva's eight legs home with him. Furious, the former middleweight champion sought to make Maia pay for this perceived disrespect. Come fight night, a fight as weird as it was disinteresting transpired.
Silva dominated the first 3 rounds, denying his foe any takedowns while effortlessly outstriking him. As the bout continued, 'The Spider' stopped engaging. Instead, Silva taunted Maia by dancing around the octagon, slapping the mat to mock his foe's Brazilian jiu-jitsu roots. With Maia unable to drag Silva to the mat and Silva himself unwilling to engage, the bout became nothing but a series of taunts and insults.
Fans were furious with 'The Spider'. By the fourth round, Dana White openly expressed his ire by handing Silva's manager the middleweight title and instructing him to wrap it around Silva's waist before leaving cageside. White has not done anything similar since, nor has he ever done this before. Furthermore, after the end of the bout, he swore to cut Silva on the spot if the Brazilian ever repeated those shenanigans.
#2. UFC 274: Carla Esparza vs. Rose Namajunas 2
Rose Namajunas is one of the most skilled yet simultaneously inconsistent fighters on the UFC roster. Her 11-5 record is a false indicator of her quality as a fighter. However, the former strawweight champion often gets in her own way. At UFC 274, Namajunas was fresh off of defending her recaptured title and hoped to extend her run of successful title defenses to two in a rematch against another former champion in Carla Esparza.
Their first outing was a straightforward victory for Esparza, who used her wrestling skills to take Namajunas to the ground and defeat her with a rear-naked choke. However, across five rounds, 'Thug Rose' did not fight like someone on a quest for vengeance. Esparza attempted 11 takedowns, only managing to successfully drag her foe to the ground twice. However, Namajunas popped right back to her feet each time.
'Thug Rose' did nothing to capitalize on her opponent's inability to outwrestle her, landing only 38 strikes. By contrast, Esparza landed 30. Fearful of being outstruck, 'The Cookie Monster' did not pursue Namajunas. Meanwhile, despite her anti-wrestling success, Namajunas chose to spend her time circling the outside as she denied Esparza any moment of engagement.
Neither woman engaged the other and fans deafened the arena with boos as the low-volume affair concluded with a split-decision win for Carla Esparza in a bout that was as difficult to score as it was to watch.
#1. Derrick Lewis vs. Francis Ngannou, UFC 226
Future heavyweight kingpin Francis Ngannou remains a relative newcomer in MMA. While he avenged his first loss to Stipe Miocic by defeating the former champion at UFC 260, he did so after a long journey of rebuilding himself. For after his initial loss to Miocic, Ngannou was made to realize that while he possessed the punching power to knock out anyone, he needed to sharpen his other skills first.
The cockiness with which he had approached his first bout with Miocic was reduced to ashes. In its wake, 'The Predator' became uncharacteristically timid. Specifically, he was terrified of being as exhausted as he was in his first fight with Miocic. So when he was booked to lock horns with Derrick Lewis at UFC 226, he stunned spectators by refusing to engage. Prior to the bout, fans and pundits alike were convinced the matchup would end in a knockout.
Ngannou and Lewis were, and still are, the most powerful punchers in UFC history. Lewis, however, is a counter-puncher with very few tools to draw his opponents towards his counters. Feints were plentiful, but the number of strikes landed was abysmal. Ngannou landed only 11 strikes, while Lewis managed 20, with only one of those blows landing on his foe's head.
The matchup was so uneventful that it ranks in the top three UFC fights with the lowest combined number of strikes. Derrick Lewis ultimately won the bout via unanimous decision, but neither man held their heads high after one of the most widely panned performances in the promotion's history.
