5 weakest UFC pay-per-view cards of all time

#5 UFC 177: Dillashaw vs. Soto - 08/30/2014

UFC 177's card was wrecked by injuries and late changes

2014 was a weak year overall for the UFC, but UFC 177 - labelled as a ‘haunted card’ by Joe Rogan due to the sheer amount of late changes – was definitely the worst offender of them all. A total of 6 fights had to be changed or scrapped due to various reasons, including the originally planned co-main event of Demetrious Johnson vs. Chris Cariaso, which was moved to provide UFC 178 with a headliner.

The main event of TJ Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao ended up being changed when Barao collapsed on the day of the weigh-in, and so we ended up with a headliner between Dillashaw and promotional debutant Joe Soto, and the co-main event featured Tony Ferguson – prior to his rise to fame – against Danny Castillo; it was Castillo’s first main card appearance and only Ferguson’s third.

Of the other three pay-per-view bouts, Bethe Correia was making her first main card appearance while Shayna Baszler was making her UFC debut, and while Ramsey Nijem and Yancy Medeiros were relatively known fighters, Diego Ferreira – who faced Nijem – had never been televised before while Medeiros’ foe Damon Jackson was another UFC debutant.

Overall, despite the fact that the show over-delivered in terms of action – only Ferguson/Castillo went the distance and it was a fantastic fight – to expect fans to pay $44.99 for a show this low on name value was simply criminal. UFC 177 stands as a sour reminder of what can happen when injuries and other issues simply wreck a UFC card.