Best and Worst from UFC: Ultimate Fighter 28 Finale

#3 Worst: Las Vegas crowds don’t care any more

Las Vegas is the home of the UFC, but smaller shows like last night's should move elsewhere

Everyone knows that the UFC’s “home” is Las Vegas and thus the ‘entertainment capital of the world’ gets the most UFC shows every year. That’s all well and good when it comes to the big shows – the Vegas crowd were rabid for October’s Nurmagomedov/McGregor fight for instance – but when it comes to smaller shows like last night’s, they simply don’t seem to care.

Fights like Antonina Shevchenko vs. Ji Yeon Kim and Darren Stewart vs. Edmen Shahbazyan were perfectly acceptable bouts, but the lack of crowd enthusiasm made them feel like two of 2018’s most dull, which just wasn’t fair really. The crowd also appeared extremely small and didn’t really get truly loud at any stage.

My suggestion – assuming the new ESPN deal keeps TUF running – is for the UFC to take these Finale shows on the road. Smaller states like New Hampshire, Delaware and Rhode Island still haven’t seen a live UFC show, and the promotion hasn’t been back to places like Iowa or Alabama since the Zuffa takeover in 2001. Why not take these shows there? The likelihood is that the UFC would get a decent crowd and most certainly a more enthusiastic one than the poor one we saw last night.