The 5 worst UFC shows of the decade (2010-2019)

#4 UFC 149: Faber vs. Barao (2012)

Hector Lombard's UFC debut at UFC 149 turned into a damp squib

July 2012’s UFC 149 misses the top three in this countdown purely on the basis that the opening fight – an energetic Welterweight tilt between future WWE star Matt Riddle and Chris Clements – was a perfectly acceptable fight that was a lot of fun to watch. Outside of that, though? This show basically stunk.

It was an injury-hit card from the start, as the initially planned main event between Jose Aldo and Erik Koch was scrapped and replaced by a fight between Urijah Faber and Renan Barao for the Interim Bantamweight title, but the fans also lost Michael Bisping vs. Tim Boetsch, Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Thiago Alves and Thiago Silva vs. Mauricio Rua.

In their place, we were treated to snore-fests between Brian Ebersole and James Head, and Shawn Jordan and Cheick Kongo – two fights that were thoroughly forgettable. The co-main event was somehow even worse, as former Bellator champ and major signing Hector Lombard completely flopped and put on a poor showing in a dull loss to Boetsch.

The main event wasn’t horrible, as Barao used his pinpoint striking to pick Faber apart en route to a unanimous decision, but by that point the crowd in Calgary, Alberta had given up and were more than willing to boo anything. This was the worst show of 2012 and ended with UFC President Dana White giving a post-fight press conference apology to the fans in attendance.