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#2. UFC Fight Night 14: Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin
When clothing company Affliction decided to throw their hat into the world of MMA promoting in 2008, they immediately became the biggest threat to the UFC’s market domination.
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Signing a number of high-level fighters such as Fedor Emelianenko, Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski, Affliction announced that their first event would take place on July 19, 2008. In response, the UFC announced that they would produce their own event on the same night, airing it for free on Spike TV.
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Naturally, the UFC couldn’t risk coming out second-best in this war. So, despite their show being a free-TV one, they brought out plenty of big guns for what would become UFC Fight Night 14.
In the main event, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, then considered the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet, stepped up to 205 pounds for the first time to knock out James Irvin in another highlight-reel moment.
Elsewhere on the card, future UFC champions Frankie Edgar and Cain Velasquez both picked up victories, while Anthony Johnson and Brandon Vera were also in action.
Overall, the event delivered plenty of action. It also delivered in terms of television ratings, too, drawing 3.8 million viewers at its peak. The UFC’s intentions may not have been noble here, but the fans still benefitted hugely.
#1: UFC on Fox: Rafael dos Anjos vs. Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone II
As mentioned earlier, the UFC aired a number of pay-per-view-level events on the Fox network during their years with the broadcaster. Arguably the strongest of those shows came in December 2015.
The promotion gave away a title fight in the main event, as Rafael dos Anjos successfully defended his UFC lightweight crown against Donald Cerrone, finishing ‘Cowboy’ violently in the first round. Overall, the depth of this event was insane.
The co-main event saw heavyweight rivals Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos finally face off after a lengthy wait, with Overeem winning by knockout.
Meanwhile, Nate Diaz made his first UFC appearance in a year, defeating Michael Johnson in an entertaining bout that opened the door for his clashes with Conor McGregor in 2016.
The rest of the card was equally stacked, with no fewer than four future UFC champions in action. Charles Oliveira, Valentina Shevchenko, Kamaru Usman and Francis Ngannou all won key fights.
Essentially, this was a ridiculously deep card by anyone’s standards and was far superior to many of the pay-per-views that the UFC produced in 2015. Six years later, it remains the gold standard for the UFC giving a pay-per-view-level event away for free.
