5 times that the UFC gave their fans pay-per-view-level events for free

#4. UFC on Fox: Benson Henderson vs. Nate Diaz

Nate Diaz's only shot at UFC gold was shown for free on Fox in 2012

After three years of events on the ESPN network, albeit with a COVID-19 sized caveat, it’s probably fair to suggest that the UFC’s free-TV cards on Fox were stronger than the ones currently being produced by the promotion.

One of the strongest events the UFC produced for Fox came in December 2012. The main card saw just four fights scheduled, but they were among the most intriguing that the promotion had put together that entire year.

The main event saw Benson Henderson successfully defend his UFC lightweight title against Nate Diaz in a five-round thriller. The clash surprisingly enough still remains Diaz’s only attempt at claiming UFC gold.

The best fight of the night, meanwhile, came between light heavyweights ‘Shogun’ Rua and Alexander Gustafsson. The back-and-forth fight was eventually edged by the Swede, who moved up to the elite level in style thanks to his victory.

The final two fights were more one-sided, albeit no less entertaining. In the opener, Matt Brown delivered a truly brutal knockout to take out veteran Mike Swick, while Rory MacDonald beat down former UFC welterweight champion B.J. Penn in what was a seminal fight for him.

Overall, this was easily a pay-per-view-level card, with the top four fights being worthy of any of the UFC’s biggest events of 2012.

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#3. UFC 70: Nations Collide

Gabriel Gonzaga infamously knocked out Mirko Cro Cop in the main event of UFC 70

Prior to April 2007 and ignoring the promotion’s ‘Dark Ages’ during the cable ban, all of the UFC’s numbered events had traditionally been shown on pay-per-view. That all changed when the UFC returned to the UK for the first time in five years with UFC 70: Nations Collide.

Not wishing to make fans pay for a tape-delayed pay-per-view, the UFC instead decided to show the event for free in the US on Spike TV. However, despite making this decision, the promotion still loaded the card up like it was any other major event.

UFC 70 featured some of the promotion’s biggest stars at the time, with names like Mirko Cro Cop, Andrei Arlovski, Michael Bisping and Cheick Kongo all in action.

Former Pride FC star and future UFC heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum also made his debut in Manchester. The show was also initially pegged to feature a huge fight at 205 pounds between Forrest Griffin and Lyoto Machida before Griffin withdrew citing an injury.

In the end, the event drew over 15,000 fans to the MEN Arena and was a huge hit on Spike TV, with 3.5 million viewers tuning in to see Cro Cop suffer a major upset defeat to Gabriel Gonzaga in the show’s main event.

Following it, the UFC would air a number of its UK shows on Spike TV, but none were quite as stacked as UFC 70 was.