5 times when a co-main event outshone the headliner in recent UFC history

#4. Nate Diaz vs. Leon Edwards – UFC 263

Nate Diaz once again stole the spotlight when he fought Leon Edwards at UFC 263

UFC 263 saw a main event of Israel Adesanya vs. Marvin Vettori for the middleweight title. While that fight wasn’t bad at all, it definitely didn’t turn out to be the bout that everyone was discussing the day after the show.

That honor belonged to one of the event’s two co-headliners, the welterweight clash between Leon Edwards and Nate Diaz.

Naturally, fans were more interested in that fight than either of the two title bouts on offer (Adesanya vs. Vettori and a flyweight title clash between Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno) from the off, primarily because of Diaz’s star power.

However, had the Stockton-based fighter simply folded under the pressure that Edwards was likely to bring, as many expected, then the fight may well have been lost in the shuffle of the big event.

That wasn’t the case, though. Edwards did dominate the fight for the most part – until Diaz landed a big shot in the fifth round that suddenly had ‘Rocky’ on the verge of going out.

Everyone watching was astonished. While Diaz couldn’t finish him and lost a decision, his name was once again the one on the lips of the fans, ensuring that he’d once again hogged the spotlight despite it not really being offered to him.

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#3. Petr Yan vs. Cory Sandhagen – UFC 267

Petr Yan's wild fight with Cory Sandhagen outshone everything at UFC 267

UFC 267 was undoubtedly one of 2021’s best events, as it featured breakout performances from both Khamzat Chimaev and Islam Makhachev amongst some truly fantastic action top-to-bottom.

However, while Glover Teixeira’s upset win over Jan Blachowicz in the night’s headline bout was definitely noteworthy, the fight itself was largely overshadowed by one of the year’s better clashes in the co-main event.

That fight saw Petr Yan and Cory Sandhagen do battle for the interim bantamweight title. While the existence of the title was questionable in the first place, the two fighters certainly went to war like something huge was on the line.

‘No Mercy’ and ‘The Sandman’ put on a phenomenal showing, with non-stop action from start to finish. Remarkably, the two men threw a total of 729 strikes across the five rounds of the fight. While Sandhagen actually landed more (172 to 158), it was Yan who came away with the win.

That victory primarily came due to a big third round for ‘No Mercy’, who decked Sandhagen with a spinning backfist and came close to putting him away. ‘The Sandman’ was able to survive, though, and this classic match ended up going the distance.

Overall, it was going to be hard for any fight to follow this one, and while Teixeira vs. Blachowicz was good, it still felt like it’d been outshone when all was said and done.