Another Successful Night In Combat Sports

Following postponements and cancellations as well as a lot of uncertainty when we may see combat sports return, the UFC has managed to pull off what many may have considered unthinkable just a month ago by holding three different events within the span of a week – and all three were held to great success. This has been great news for other businesses too – ESPN who represent the UFC events don’t release their figures for pay-per view figures but it is expected that all three events had high viewership, especially as one had been for two title fights – bookmakers had also stated these events had been the most bet on events in their recent history as many turn away from using casinos not on gamstop to place some bets and instead return to using their favourite betting service. 

UFC 249

The first of the events held was for UFC 249 and the title fights between Ferguson v Gaethje and Cejudo v Cruz – the main event went as many expected as Ferguson and Gaethje would spend the nearly full twenty five minutes as an all out brawl before being stopped by the referee giving Gaethje his first taste of UFC gold and setting him up for a fight against the current champ in Khabib. The second title fight had been between triple champ Henry Cejudo fight Dominick Cruz who had come off a three year layoff – Cejudo was able to win the fight in convincing fashion and in a shock to many announced his retirement from the sport – whether or not this is a permanent retirement is yet to be seen as in his post fight interview he did state that UFC boss Dana White knows the figure that would bring him back, but if it is a permanent retirement then he has just vacated two titles.

UFC Fight Night

The next event was held on Thursday and saw the headline fight between Anthony Smith and Glover Teixeira – the night had been filled with some great fights however the main card faced a little controversy. Anthony Smith took quite a lot of punishment during the fight, at one point telling his team that his teeth were falling out – this has led to many questioning if there needs to be something else in place to stop a fight that may be clear to be over but for whatever reason the referee doesn’t end and the coach doesn’t throw in the towel – this may also have been the case in the previous event headliner as Ferguson had also taken a lot of damage but would fight past the point of injury.

UFC Fight Night 176

And the most recent event that took place this weekend saw the headline fight between Overeem and Harris – another night of great fights across the card with a great headline fight to end it as Overeem always puts on a great performance and did so once again to win the fight – unlike both previous events of the week there had been no fighter that took seemingly more damage than they should have, and although some big fights, this was the one event of the week without any big controversy.

(Image from thesun)

There’s a little break schedule to come as the next event will take place on the first weekend of June which will see Amanda Nunes fight once again – the rest of the card is still to be determined, but this last week has been anything to go by, it’ll be another great event.