The best and worst from UFC 227

#1 Worst: The UFC’s card choices

JJ Aldrich vs. Polyana Viana simply didn't deserve a PPV main card slot

While it probably won’t sell massively in terms of a PPV buyrate, UFC 227’s top two fights were arguably as good on paper as any others in 2018. The problem with this show came with the rest of the card. When you’re charging as much as the UFC charges for a PPV and the main event doesn’t feature a crossover star like Jon Jones or Conor McGregor, you probably need to stack the show far heavier than the promotion did here.

Sure, Cub Swanson vs. Renato Moicano was a good fight, but fans simply shouldn’t be expected to pay to see stuff like Thiago Santos vs. Kevin Holland (which was decent) and JJ Aldrich vs. Polyana Viana (which was downright awful). Realistically, the undercard of this show was not only worse than the undercard of last weekend’s Fox show, but also arguably worse than the undercard from 07/14’s Fight Night 133.

Worse still, there was a very good fight – both on paper and in execution – on the prelims here between two ranked Bantamweights in Pedro Munhoz and Brett Johns. Why this wasn’t on the main card is beyond me, especially as the Fox deal is ending soon and the UFC shouldn’t be looking to stack the FS1 prelims anymore.

Of all the frustrating things about the UFC in 2018, the poor choices for card placement might be the dirt worst.