5 reasons why UFC 300 could be underwhelming

While fans are still waiting for the first event of 2024, UFC 300 is just over four months away, scheduled to take place on April 13.

On the face of it, UFC 300 should be the biggest MMA event of the year. But could this highly anticipated card actually turn out to be underwhelming?

As much as Dana White and company will hope that isn’t the case, it could well turn out that way.

Here are five reasons why UFC 300 could be underwhelming.

#5. UFC 300 isn’t taking place during International Fight Week

Ever since its inauguration back in 2009, the UFC’s biggest event of the year has acted as the centerpiece of the promotion’s international fight week.

Traditionally, this week takes place in July, and in the past, the promotion was able to manipulate its schedule to ensure that both UFC 100 and 200 were able to take place at this spot on the calendar.

UFC 300, however, is scheduled to take place on April 13. Given the hype around the event, fans might’ve expected International Fight Week to be moved to fall in line with it, but instead, it will remain in the summer.

In some ways, this shouldn’t matter or affect the quality of the card that the matchmakers can put together. However, it’s also hard to deny that International Fight Week definitely adds a shine to any event, with its additional cards, expos, and so forth.

Dana White and company may assume that UFC 300 will be considered a big enough deal without these additions around it, but equally, it wouldn’t be surprising to see this mega-event outshone by whatever the promotion ends up producing in July, either.

#4. The UFC has spread itself thin with the ESPN+ deal

UFC 299 is a major event set to take place just weeks before UFC 300 [Image Credit: UFC]

Despite the UFC still pushing its biggest pay-per-view events – and often being highly successful with them – true supercards feel rarer than ever these days.

Longtime MMA fans would point directly to a simple reason for this. That reason is that due to the promotion’s deal with ESPN needing so many events, the UFC is spread too thinly, watering down the quality of cards.

The counterargument to this, of course, is that it’s impossible to predict the quality of an event before it happens, and an event with no big names can often produce amazing fights regardless.

In terms of whether an event feels underwhelming coming in, though, that argument holds no water.

Fans want to see the biggest stars and biggest fights. The fact that there are multiple events, including a big pay-per-view just weeks before, around UFC 300 may mean it’s harder to stack a card than it was even in 2016.

#3. The UFC doesn’t feel quite as hot as it did for UFC 100 or 200

Both UFC 100 and 200 are fondly looked back upon as two of the biggest and best events in MMA history, and Dana White would like to hope that UFC 300 will reach those same heights.

However, the unfortunate truth is that while the promotion appeared to still be on the rise in 2009 and was probably at the peak of its power in 2016, things aren’t quite the same in 2024.

Sure, the promotion is still hugely profitable, largely thanks to its big-money deal with ESPN, but overall, it doesn’t feel as hot with casual fans as it did back then.

Like any sport, MMA is both cyclical and star-driven, and right now, despite the best efforts of White and company, no fighter on the current roster can match the appeal of Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey, or peak Conor McGregor.

Sure, you could make an argument that the top fighters currently competing – the likes of Leon Edwards, Sean O’Malley and Alexander Volkanovski – are better than their predecessors.

However, they definitely lack some star power in comparison. To add to this, MMA is now an established sport and less of a novelty than it was 15 years ago, meaning the levels of attention afforded to it have largely leveled out too.

With this in mind, it’s hard to envision the upcoming event reaching quite the same heights as those two aforementioned ones, meaning it could underwhelm.

#2. There are no past superstars to bring back

Even though its headline bout was changed no fewer than three times – from Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz to Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier and finally to Miesha Tate vs. Amanda Nunes – UFC 200’s big selling point was never its headliner anyway.

The event’s big attraction was, of course, the return of former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, who’d spent the previous four years ruling over WWE.

Unfortunately, while the promotion was able to call upon the drawing power of a huge returning star in 2016, that isn’t the case now.

The return of McGregor would undoubtedly represent the biggest possible coup for Dana White and company, but it looks more and more like that will instead happen in the summer.

Other former stars like Lesnar, Ronda Rousey, Georges St-Pierre and Khabib Nurmagomedov have very little chance of returning too, meaning the promotion is largely out of options.

With no past star to bring back, it’s unlikely that any lapsed fans will be piqued by April’s event, meaning it could easily become an underwhelming one.

#1. The UFC’s biggest stars won’t be around to headline

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Perhaps the biggest reason why UFC 300 is likely to be an underwhelming event is the absence of any of the promotion’s biggest stars.

This wasn’t the case for UFC 100 or 200. The former event not only featured Brock Lesnar as its headliner but also saw Georges St-Pierre, Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson competing, while the latter featured Lesnar, as well as the likes of Daniel Cormier, Cain Velasquez and Anderson Silva.

At one stage, it looked like the most logical step for April’s event would’ve been for it to feature Conor McGregor, the promotion’s biggest star.

However, with ‘The Notorious’ looking set for a summer return, that idea appears to be dead in the water.

What of the stars who sit just below the Irishman, though? Israel Adesanya has stated that he’s going to take an extended period of leave, Alexander Volkanovski and Sean O’Malley are both competing earlier in the year, Jon Jones is injured and Islam Makhachev is unavailable.

All of this means that the most likely headliners for the event include the likes of Leon Edwards, Alex Pereira and Alexa Grasso – all fine fighters in their own right, but not huge stars.

Despite the hype surrounding it, then, UFC 300 is simply unlikely to reach the heights that Dana White would like it to if it doesn’t feature the promotion’s biggest names.