UFC 217: Bisping vs. St. Pierre
Date: November 4, 2017
Location: New York, NY
Who leaves a sport for four years, returns, and immediately becomes champion? No one Georges St. Pierre, that’s who. GSP’s swan song in 2017 solidified his claim as the Greatest of All Time for many, as the Canadian returned from a lengthy hiatus to submit Michael Bisping and claim welterweight gold.
He then rode off into the sunset, dropping the belt just weeks later, no fuss no muss. The UFC hasn’t really handled GSP or his legacy well in recent years, with Dana White throwing him under the bus more than once. However, he remains one of the true legends of the sport. UFC 217 was simply a reminder.
Oh, and a stacked card as well. Rose Namajunas dethroned Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and T.J. Dillashaw beat Cody Garbrandt, meaning titles changed hands an unprecedented three times in a single night.
Bellator 212/213
Date: December 14/15, 2018
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
While the UFC somehow struggled to make it to Hawaii throughout the 2010s, Bellator MMA beat them to the punch in 2018. The Ultimate Fighting Championship had names like Penn and Holloway, but it was Bellator bringing women’s flyweight Ilima-Lei Macfarlane home on a weekend featuring back-to-back cards that reinserted the island state into the MMA landscape.
A second set of back-to-back Bellator events in Honolulu went down this year, in what looks to have become an annual tradition. A welcome one at that. It also helps that Macfarlane is the real deal.
Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey
Date: March 3, 2012
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Ronda Rousey was just four fights into her MMA career when she headlined her first Strikeforce card in 2012. Going up against Miesha Tate, Rousey would capture the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight championship, setting off a rivalry with Tate that would last years, and see them rematch in the UFC in the following year. It was the first Tate fight that really propelled Rousey to star status, allowing her to eventually convince Dana White to allow women into the UFC.
Miesha Tate trying to tough her way through Rousey’s arm-bar also became a lasting image from the bout. And while the event featured future contenders like Jacare Souza and Alexis Davis, it’s Rousey vs. Tate that mattered most.
UFC 229: Khabib vs. McGregor
Date: October 6, 2018
Location: Las Vegas, NV
The grudge match of the decade finally came to a head in 2018 when Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov faced off inside the octagon at UFC 229. By that point, McGregor was clearly inside the lightweight champ’s head. ‘Mystic Mac’ could never have predicted what followed, however. Khabib submitted the former champ in the fourth round, then scaled the octagon wall to attack McGregor’s corner. A near-riot ensued, both fighters were suspended, as well as a number of Nurmagomedov’s accomplices.
The entire melee was set up by Nurmagomedov and his entourage accosting McGregor teammate Artem Lobov ahead of UFC 223 in Brooklyn earlier in the year. Which was followed by McGregor attacking a bus housing Khabib just days out from the event. The bad blood between the two will likely never be settled, but the chaos means we often forget about the other big performances at UFC 229 — like Tony Ferguson dismantling Anthony Pettis, and Derrick Lewis’ late-fight KO of Alexander Volkov (“My balls was hot” not withstanding).
UFC 205: Alvarez vs. McGregor
Date: November 12, 2016
Location: New York, NY
The legalization of MMA in New York was a political nightmare for much of the 2010s, one that involved the Culinary Workers Union, who have long opposed former UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, whose Station Casinos in Las Vegas were non-union. The union made it their business to keep MMA out of New York City, lobbying heavily against its legalization.
The ban fell after former New York Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver was arrested in 2015 and later convicted on corruption charges, including money laundering, bribery, and extortion. Silver had long been the biggest obstacle to MMA in New York, seemingly kowtowing to the union’s wish to keep MMA out of the state.
With the doors opened, the UFC put on its biggest spectacle to date with UFC 205 in November 2016. Three title fights adorned the card: Jedrzejczyk vs. Kowalkiewicz, Woodley vs. Thompson, and of course, McGregor vs. Alvarez.
McGregor, of course, was the night’s big winner. It seems like a different age now. And it’s hard to believe four years have already passed since Conor McGregor became the UFC’s first simultaneous double-champion. Forget everything that came after: McGregor’s rise through the ranks of the UFC’s featherweight division, and eventual move up to lightweight to challenge Eddie Alvarez, was magical. UFC 205 was the crown jewel in a fun time for MMA.
