5 most boring fights in UFC history

#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.

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#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.