The best and worst from UFC 237: Namajunas vs. Andrade

#1 Worst: It’s not 2010 anymore

BJ Penn came out on the wrong end of a loss yet again

2010 was a pretty great year for a load of reasons, but for the UFC, it was probably the last time that they had a set of champions who were practically all major superstars, drawing cards and fantastic fighters in their own rights.

But we’re almost a decade removed from that year now and while Brock Lesnar and Georges St-Pierre have hung up their gloves, BJ Penn and Anderson Silva are still stepping into the Octagon and to be quite frank, it’s becoming sad to watch.

It’s one thing for ageing fighters to begin to slow down on their way out of their prime and lose more fights – as Jose Aldo did to Alexander Volkanovski on this show – but Penn in particular is so far out of his prime now that it’s not even funny.

He’s now lost 7 fights in a row – a UFC record – and last night’s sad loss to Clay Guida, a man who he’d have destroyed in his prime, was perhaps the lowest point yet.

As for Silva, he actually looked pretty decent against Israel Adesanya in February, but against a more aggressive Jared Cannonier last night he seemingly had nothing, preferring to juke and jive rather than attack his opponent, and when his knee was apparently blown out by a Cannonier leg kick it came as no real surprise.

I get that these guys should be allowed to fight for as long as they want, but should the UFC really be showcasing them at this stage? I’m not so sure. You can’t even argue that Penn in particular draws any fans to the UFC now as he was buried deep on the preliminary card last night.

Surely enough has to be enough now, and the UFC need to stop this Bellator-esque booking of legends who are miles past their sell-by date.