5 UFC title fights that failed to inspire the interest of the fans

#2. Andrei Arlovski vs. Justin Eilers – UFC 53

The UFC struggled to find a viable opponent for Andrei Arlovski during his run as heavyweight champion

Back in 2005, it’s probably fair to say that the UFC’s heavyweight division wasn’t in as healthy shape as it is today. With reigning champion Frank Mir sidelined due to injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident, the year began with Andrei Arlovski claiming an interim title by defeating Tim Sylvia.

With Arlovski now positioned as the promotion’s top heavyweight and Mir nowhere near making a comeback, talk immediately moved onto who would be the first challenger to ‘The Pitbull’.

Initially, it looked like the promotion had found a perfect foe for their new kingpin in the form of Ricco Rodriguez. Not only was ‘Ricco Suave’ a former UFC heavyweight champion in his own right, but he was also on a four-fight win streak and held a victory over Arlovski from earlier in his career.

It looked like a classic piece of booking from the promotion. Despite supposedly producing adverts for the fight at UFC 53, it fell through when Rodriguez failed to come to financial terms.

That left Dana White and company scrambling. In a bizarre move, they decided to go with Justin Eilers as Arlovski’s first challenger instead.

The fight made no sense, largely because Eilers was coming off a knockout loss to Paul Buentello, who was himself booked on the undercard of the show in a different fight.

The interest levels around UFC 53 duly plummeted thanks to this weak headline bout. While ‘The Pitbull’ looked great in a first round win over his challenger, it came as no surprise when the show drew the lowest pay-per-view figures of the year.

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#1. Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites – UFC 97

Nobody thought Thales Leites stood a chance against Anderson Silva, which meant a huge lack of fan interest in the bout

By the start of 2009, Anderson Silva was not just recognized as the UFC’s best middleweight, he was also widely seen as the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet, too. Not only had he defended his middleweight title successfully on two occasions in 2008, he’d also stepped up to 205lbs to knock out James Irvin.

However, the one thing holding him back from really reaching superstardom was the fact that he’d basically beaten all of the worthy and interesting contenders in the 185lbs division.

That made things tricky for the UFC, who, somehow, still had to find viable challengers for ‘The Spider’. Unfortunately, the opponent they chose for him in his first bout of 2009 simply didn’t inspire the fans at all.

Sure, Thales Leites was clearly a talented fighter, and he was riding a strong winning streak of five victories – but the only big win there was a tight decision against Nate Marquardt, who Silva had destroyed years prior.

When the UFC announced the Brazilian as Silva’s challenger, it was very hard to make the fans care. Joe Rogan even attempted to play Leites up as arguably the most dangerous grappler in the promotion.

Sure enough, when Silva eased his way past the challenger in one of the worst title bouts in the promotion’s history, it was hard to disagree with the fans who didn’t want to see the fight in the first place.

It’s arguable that Silva’s later title defense against Demian Maia represented the worst of his octagon tenure. However, it’s also hard to deny that, in terms of fan interest, it didn’t get any lower than this for ‘The Spider’.