5 times a guaranteed UFC slugfest failed to live up to the hype

#2. Israel Adesanya vs. Yoel Romero – UFC 248

UFC fans were hugely disappointed in the fight between Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero

When the UFC decided to book Israel Adesanya’s first UFC middleweight title defense against Yoel Romero at UFC 248 in early 2020, fans were excited, despite Romero actually coming off a loss at the time.

The excitement was understandable, of course. Adesanya looked like the most exciting fighter in the UFC and was coming off his title win over Robert Whittaker, while Romero had been in countless classic fights in his seven years with the UFC. Even his loss to Paulo Costa was a tremendous battle.

However, Romero – admittedly always an eccentric fighter – clearly wasn’t interested in trading with a striker as skilled as ‘The Last Stylebender’. Unfortunately, in turn, Adesanya didn’t want to risk wading in with strikes against a fighter as powerful as his Cuban foe.

Instead, the two middleweights traded low kicks, glancing punches and taunts for basically all five rounds, with the bizarre fight going the distance with just 88 strikes landed in total.

Adesanya was eventually awarded a unanimous decision win, and somehow escaped with his reputation intact, probably because fans forgot about the fight so quickly due to the COVID-19 pandemic that followed.

Still the champ. 🏆🇳🇬 @Stylebender stays sharp to get the job done! #UFC248 pic.twitter.com/6r8k73zcVf

— UFC (@ufc) March 8, 2020

Romero, on the other hand, would never fight in the UFC again, as he was surprisingly cut from his contract later in 2020 and ended up joining Bellator.

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#1. Derrick Lewis vs. Francis Ngannou – UFC 226

Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis were remarkably gunshy when they fought in 2018

UFC fans hoping that Derrick Lewis beats Ciryl Gane at UFC 265 this weekend in order to set up a fight with UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou would do well to remember this disappointing clash from 2018.

Lewis, who is the most prolific knockout artist in UFC heavyweight history with 12 stoppages to his name, was expected to produce fireworks alongside ‘The Predator’ when they met at UFC 226. The chances of both men leaving the octagon conscious seemed minimal.

However, ‘The Black Beast’ smartly decided to play the counter game, rightly wary of Ngannou’s power. The only problem was that Ngannou simply didn’t seem willing to play ball at all.

Coming off the first loss of his MMA career at the hands of Stipe Miocic, the Cameroon native seemed completely gunshy, and wasn’t willing to engage with Lewis at all.

Instead, the heavyweights put on a staring contest with the odd glancing blow, something that turned out to be enough to win Lewis a disappointing decision.

Joe Rogan on Ngannou vs. Lewis:"We might be looking at the most boring heavyweight decision of all time."

— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) July 8, 2018

The fight overall was dire, though, and the reputations of both men took a major dent. Thankfully, both men had enough future knockouts in their arsenal to rebuild.