UFC Fight Night: Maia vs Usman: The best and worst

#3 Worst: The UFC’s weird choices for bout order

Why the UFC didn't showcase Gabriel Benitez is a mystery

Last December’s Fight Night 123 saw Gabriel Benitez defeat Jason Knight – a semi-pushed fighter by the UFC brass – in pretty one-sided fashion, and the fight was entertaining too. So you’d have expected ‘Moggly’ to be showcased in his next fight.

Instead, last night saw him matched with the inexperienced Humberto Bandenay, who’d had just one UFC fight prior to this, almost a year ago, and was clearly a step down the ladder from Knight. And to add insult to injury, the fight was scheduled on the Fox Sports 2 prelim card.

Sure, it was an entertaining fight, but only because Benitez simply destroyed Bandenay in just 39 seconds. The question though is why did the UFC book Benitez like this after showcasing him heavily just six months ago?

The promotion is in dire need of stars right now and while I’m not suggesting Benitez could become the next Conor McGregor, paying more attention to which fighters are being showcased in the premium slots on their cards wouldn’t do any harm. After his last performance, Benitez deserved a better opponent here – and he deserved a better slot on the card, too.