Before UFC 229: A look at 7 of the biggest UFC shows of all time

#6: UFC 200: Tate vs. Nunes – 07/09/2016 – Las Vegas, Nevada

Even the return of Brock Lesnar couldn't stop UFC 200 from being disappointing

Why was it a big show?

After the success of UFC 100 in 2009, it was clearly a smart move for the promotion to turn UFC 200 into a big deal too. The show was initially to be headlined by a rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz – which would go on to set the UFC’s new buyrate record two months later – but when McGregor refused to attend key media dates, the main event was changed to a rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier with the Light-Heavyweight title at stake.

A month prior to the show though, the UFC pulled out its real trump card – Brock Lesnar was back from WWE and would take on Heavyweight contender Mark Hunt in a move that shocked the entire MMA world. And to help matters even further, two more title fights were booked – a Featherweight title match between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar, and a Women’s Bantamweight title fight between Miesha Tate and Amanda Nunes.

Essentially, this looked like arguably the most loaded card in UFC history, even without McGregor.

What happened?

A disaster, in a word. Three days before the show, Jones was pulled from the card due to a doping violation, leaving it without a main event. Nunes vs. Tate was eventually moved into the spot while Cormier ended up fighting an older, unprepared Anderson Silva on less than a day’s notice. The show still had Lesnar but without a huge main event it immediately lost its lustre somewhat.

And in execution, the show was surprisingly one of the worst of 2016. It was bookended by two exciting fights – Nunes’ win over Tate in the main event and Cain Velasquez’s TKO of Travis Browne in the opener – but the three fights between – Aldo/Edgar, Cormier/Silva and Lesnar/Hunt – were dull outings that hardly inspired the crowd. For the fans that watched, it would be hard to consider the show anything but a disappointment.

In box office terms too, UFC 200 ended up underwhelming somewhat. Around 1.1m buys made it a clear success, but it still couldn’t outdraw any of the three McGregor-headlined shows of 2016, and it didn’t come close to the greatness of UFC 100 7 years prior. In the end, it was simply forgettable – something that would’ve sounded blasphemous going into the show.

Success rating: ***