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This weekend marks a rarity of sorts, as there is no UFC show on the horizon for fans to look forward to. However, that doesn’t mean there’s no way to watch some action inside the octagon.
Thanks to the Fight Pass service, fans are able to watch any UFC event that they wish. Naturally, there are plenty of classics in the archives.
While every fan remembers big events like McGregor vs. Diaz well, there are numerous other shows that also stand as classics, but have somehow become unfairly overlooked over the years.
With this considered, then, here are five classic forgotten events that fans ought to revisit.
#5. UFC 178: Johnson vs. Cariaso
Had UFC 178 retained its original main event of Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier, then it’d probably be far better remembered than it is today.
However, despite replacing that huge fight with a much lesser, one-sided flyweight title bout between Demetrious Johnson and Chris Cariaso, the show is undoubtedly amongst the best the promotion has ever produced.
The best-remembered fight on the show, of course, saw Conor McGregor knock out Dustin Poirier in a fight that really pushed him into featherweight title contention. The Irishman proved he could back up every bit of his trash talk.
However, this show was far more than just McGregor vs. Poirier. It also featured three of the better fights of 2014, if not the decade. They were back-and-forth wars between Yoel Romero and Tim Kennedy, Cat Zingano and Amanda Nunes, and Donald Cerrone and Eddie Alvarez.
The first fight on that list also saw one of the wildest and most controversial finishes in the promotion’s history. Romero seemingly took too much rest time between rounds before coming from behind to finish Kennedy, an incident that quickly became known as ‘Stoolgate’.
Elsewhere on the card, former bantamweight kingpin Dominick Cruz returned from over three years on the shelf. He stopped Takeya Mizugaki in a truly remarkable performance.
Overall, modern fans might look back at this event as a one-fight card – the one fight being McGregor vs. Poirier. However, that’s really not the case, making this one a must-see for anyone who missed it the first time around.
#4. UFC 51: Super Saturday
Back in early 2005, the UFC was on the cusp of mainstream acceptance thanks to the Ultimate Fighter reality show that was airing on Spike TV at the time.
While the promotion’s pay-per-view buyrate record would be broken that April by a show headlined by Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell, it’s actually arguable that the final show before TUF really exploded in popularity was slightly superior.
UFC 51 featured a main event between former light heavyweight champions Tito Ortiz and Vitor Belfort. It instantly became a classic.
The two men went toe-to-toe for three rounds, with multiple twists and turns. After a titanic struggle, ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ came out on top via split decision.
However, that wasn’t the only amazing fight on this card. The show also featured two title bouts. Evan Tanner came from behind to defeat David Terrell for the middleweight crown and Andrei Arlovski stunned everyone by dropping and submitting Tim Sylvia in under a minute to claim the interim heavyweight title.
Add in another pair of hard-hitting fights between heavyweights Paul Buentello and Justin Eilers and middleweights Pete Sell and Phil Baroni, and you’ve got a genuinely brilliant show overall.
Many fans have likely not seen this one due to it coming prior to the blockbuster events that pushed the promotion into the big time. However, if that’s the case, it’s well worth checking out some 17 years later.
#3. UFC 49: Unfinished Business
Over the years, we’ve seen a great number of shows that didn’t look all that loaded on paper, but turned out to produce a bunch of classic wars when it came down to fight time.
August 2004’s UFC 49 is almost certainly amongst those shows. Everyone wanted to see the main event, a light heavyweight title bout that saw former champion Randy Couture beat down Vitor Belfort to reclaim the gold. However, the rest of the card didn’t look like much.
In reality, the event ended up producing knockout after knockout after knockout, with a number of them being amongst the most memorable of not just 2004, but in the promotion's history overall.
The first fight saw Yves Edwards knock out Josh Thomson with a wild flying kick that still makes the promotion’s opening highlight reel to this day. David Terrell, Chuck Liddell and Justin Eilers also picked up huge KO’s of Matt Lindland, Vernon White and Mike Kyle, respectively.
Liddell’s war with White, a crazy fight that saw multiple knockdowns and both men eating huge shots, was probably the best of the night. However, the grapple-fest between welterweight prospects Karo Parisyan and Nick Diaz wasn’t far behind either.
Overall, this show has largely been forgotten as it came prior to the promotion’s TUF boom. Nevertheless, for its sheer number of knockouts alone, it remains an absolute classic that’s well worth checking out.
#2. UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber
In terms of show quality, 2011 may well be the best year in UFC history. However, while the promotion’s big return to Brazil, as well as the clashes between Alistair Overeem and Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones and Mauricio Rua, are fondly looked back upon, UFC 132 seems to have been somehow forgotten.
In reality, this event remains amongst the very best that the promotion has ever produced. The run from the final two preliminary bouts through to the main event was particularly outstanding.
That run of fights saw brutal knockouts from Melvin Guillard, Rafael dos Anjos and Carlos Condit. 'The Natural Born Killer' took out Dong Hyun Kim with a flying knee in what remains probably the best finish of his career.
From there, legendary former light-heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz picked up his first win in the octagon in five years by upsetting Ryan Bader in one of 2011’s most emotionally charged moments. Chris Leben then managed to knock out former PRIDE champ Wanderlei Silva in a wild brawl.
The main event, meanwhile, was a genuine Fight of the Year contender between the world’s top two bantamweights. Dominick Cruz managed to survive two knockdowns from bitter rival Urijah Faber to edge out a decision.
This event might not have been a major success on pay-per-view – it reportedly drew just 350k buys – but it should definitely be remembered as an all-time classic and is well worth revisiting.
#1. UFC 84: Ill Will
While it doesn’t stand up as one of the best-selling events of all time – reportedly drawing around 475k buys on pay-per-view – in terms of fight quality, UFC 84 may well be the highest peak that the promotion has ever reached.
The show went down in May 2008, during the peak years of the UFC’s TUF boom. Not only did it feature a number of that era’s biggest stars, but it also saw the debuts of a handful of fighters who would go onto achieve greatness in the octagon later on.
Future interim heavyweight champ Shane Carwin exploded onto the scene with a brutal knockout. Meanwhile, Rousimar Palhares, Dong Hyun Kim and Yoshiyuki Yoshida also finished their opponents in flashy fashion.
More to the point, of the 11 fights on the card, just two went the distance, with the others ending in highlight reel fashion. Of those two, one saw Lyoto Machida make himself into a star by defeating the legendary Tito Ortiz, albeit after avoiding a last-gasp triangle choke from ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’.
The show’s subtitle – ‘Ill Will’ – referred to the feud over the lightweight title between champion B.J. Penn and former champ Sean Sherk, who had been stripped following a positive drug test. Penn promised to punish ‘The Muscle Shark’ for his indiscretion. He duly did so by taking him out with a third-round TKO.
However, the most memorable moment of the event saw Wanderlei Silva channel his old PRIDE self to take out Keith Jardine in one of the most vicious finishes in the promotion's history.
Overall, this show may well have been missed by modern fans introduced to the promotion by stars like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey, but it remains incredible 16 years on.
