The lack of star power is troubling
Forget what Dana White and the diehard UFC fanboys tell you: the promotion has a star making problem.
The UFC for years has struggled to build stars, with many of their biggest either doing it themselves, or crossing over from elsewhere. Ronda Rousey came from Strikeforce, and had to convince White to let women fight in the UFC. Brock Lesnar was a WWE star and champion and even tried out for the NFL (coming awfully close despite having no football background, enough to get offered a contract in Europe, which he declined) prior to jumping to the UFC. Conor McGregor? You can argue he built his own brand, though at least the UFC were smart enough to host a global promotional tour prior to his fight with Jose Aldo.
When’s the last time they even bothered to try anything even somewhat special like that, instead of hosting the same tired press conference over and over and over?
There was not a single ranked fighter in action at UFC 330 outside of the main and co-main event. And out of the undercard fighters who were in action, probably the most notable was Edson Barboza, who retired off a loss in a fight he didn’t need to be booked into in the first place. UFC matchmakers reliably feed their old to their young, but given Esteban Ribovics is already somewhat established, this fight seemed even more unnecessary than usual.
Outside of that, Neil Magny was buried on the early prelims, and Vicente Luque lost to Tresean Gore, despite knocking in his teeth.
Honestly, the UFC 330 undercard, prelims and main card prior to the top two fights, look like a solid Fight Night event from prior to the pandemic. If this was a one-off, it would barely be worth mentioning, but it’s not. The influx of fighters from the Contender Series each year has created a massive amount of “churn” in the roster, mainly fighters coming and going. Few stick around long enough to build up a name. Soon, there won’t be any Barbozas, Magnys, or Luques, and certainly no Jim Millers. Just bodies marching to a cage that are almost entirely swappable, unless the UFC starts giving fans more reason to care. When 46 of 50 winners earn UFC contracts on the Contender Series, that’s no longer special, no longer a reason to care.
Twister sighting
Charles Johnson hit a Scottish twister on Eduardo Chapolin at UFC 330, in a very cool finish. One that earned him a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus, not surprisingly.
Johnson is in this weird spot: he’s got wins over seriously good competition, and he’s very clearly extremely talented. But he’s also 35 and fighting at flyweight, which is not a good age/weight class combination. He did get a late start by modern standards, turning pro in 2016, got to the UFC in 2022, and had the misfortune of debuting against Muhammad Mokaev. Yet he has a win over current champ Josh Van, a win against the superbly talented prospect Lone’er Kavanagh, and both in and out of the UFC has fought some of the best.
His inconsistency (he’s 2-2 in 2026) is almost maddening, because it feels like there’s a really good title fight in Charles Johnson, if he ever got the opportunity.
