UFC 200 is the greatest card in the history of mixed martial arts.
Full stop.
Nothing else even comes close. UFC 100, a triple bill centered around the sport’s two biggest stars in title fights and the violent conclusion of a rivalry (or was it?), is the best the promotion has done until now, and it doesn’t even hold a candle.
No one knows whether UFC 200 will break the pay-per-view record 100 set (1,600,000 buys), but on paper, the two aren’t competitive at all—don’t forget, Shannon Gugerty jerked the curtain that night, while a guaranteed barn-burner in Jim Miller vs. Takanori Gomi will do the honors on Saturday. Other giant events such as UFC 116, UFC 189 and UFC 196 are also remembered fondly, but they were nothing close to what the UFC will offer on Saturday.
And the whole thing essentially happened in spite of itself.
As much as the MMA world is thrilled for what awaits in Las Vegas, it’s important to remember the clumsiness and good fortune that supported the construction of UFC 200. There would be no Ronda Rousey, a highly criticized, cash-grabbing rematch was headlining, a weird co-main event for an interim title that doesn’t need to exist was set and the other fights made people shrug in indifference.
It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as the promises from UFC brass suggested it would be. There were even people out there who felt UFC 198 and UFC 199 offered more for the hardcore fan, and they might have been able to support that claim had they pointed to the intriguing title fights, anticipated debuts and general violence offered at those events.
But then, just as the sport antsily uttered “meh” at the UFC 200 card, things, technically speaking, went bonkers.
One half of the dubious main event was jettisoned for protesting his media schedule, and the other half went on vacation.
The prelims slowly, often quietly, became fleshed out with stars, superstars and former champions, creating depth and an event that is easily as good as anything Fox Sports 1 has received from the UFC since they went into business together.
Oh, and that weird Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar co-main event that didn’t need to exist? It was bumped down the card by a returning Brock Lesnar, who closed the door on MMA only a few months ago before holding his wrestling bosses hostage, demanding they free him for one more turn in the world of unstaged fisticuffs. They did. So here comes good ol’ Brock, lumbering out of the Canadian wilderness to take his place against Mark Hunt in a must-see co-main event.
Hey America, he's ours now! ?? pic.twitter.com/CLgwIWlZW9
— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) July 6, 2016
Even in the face of the most chaotic turn of events in the USADA era, which saw Jon Jones lifted from the main event only minutes before starting his weight cut, his would-be opponent, Daniel Cormier, found himself scheduled to fight Anderson Silva completely out of nowhere in a contest that’s arguably more intriguing, even if it lacks competitive merit.
The UFC lost the best fighter to ever strap on gloves during fight week and replaced him with the fighter who held the mantle for a decade before him—on 48 hours’ notice. That is an outrageous piece of good fortune.
It’s all symptomatic of the UFC failing upward in the biggest fashion it ever has heading into its 200th marquee event. Sometimes, things just kind of work out, and this time they did for the promotion.
It didn’t need Rousey’s starpower, Conor McGregor’s salesmanship, random title fights of questionable merit or Jones to show up clean and fight his biggest rival because things kept falling into place.
What the UFC has, born in parts from necessity and good fortune, is the best card it has ever built. It has something for everyone; chaos, carnage, competition and champions will all be on display for the low, low price of $60.
If this is what failure looks like, it would be nice to see the UFC fail more often.
Follow me on Twitter: @matthewjryder.
