The best and worst from UFC 223

#1 Worst: McGregor’s rampage ruined the card

Conor McGregor's rampage ruined UFC 223

Sure, UFC 223 suffered a lot on paper when it lost its Nurmagomedov/Ferguson main event, but a card of Nurmagomedov/Holloway, Rose Namajunas/Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Calvin Kattar/Renato Moicano, Anthony Pettis/Michael Chiesa and Paul Felder/Al Iaquinta still sounded like probably the strongest UFC PPV of 2018 on paper at least. In the end though what we got was largely middling.

Sure, Zabit Magomedsharipov vs. Kyle Bochniak turned out to be fantastic, but the other addition to the main card – Joe Lauzon vs. Chris Gruetzemacher – didn’t offer a lot and the prelim card was pretty weak too. And there’s only one man to blame for that, of course – Conor McGregor.

McGregor’s ludicrous rampage not only cost us three fights on this card (Chiesa/Pettis, Brandon Moreno/Ray Borg and Artem Lobov/Alex Caceres) but more to the point, the former two of those fights were going to be contested by top ten ranked fighters, meaning the card had far more gravitas for everyone watching.

Even if you ignore the other implications that McGregor’s behaviour may have had on his own career, the future of the UFC in New York, and obviously the careers of Chiesa and Borg, the fact that this card was downgraded massively by his assault on the UFC’s bus was very frustrating, and made it a memorable event largely for the wrong reasons.