It’s easy to know everything when you’re cheeky, but when you are from– you are a fool, you know better. UFC 332 didn’t look like an unimaginative dud by any stretch, as it appeared at the top of the card with impostor syndrome. Wang Cong and Natalia Silva didn’t fit the bill as natural headliners for the event, which made it difficult for the former perts to see beyond the duct tape.
This sentiment was expressed in many ways in the lead-up to this weekend’s fight in Salt Lake City, with half a million guarantees that the bulk-rated competitors were under way to find.
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In fact, those names have been rolled out like a red carpet to the New Age.
Payton Talbott. Robert Soldic. marked for Gautier. Damianus Philippinus Anthony Wint. Jacobus Faber
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and boom!
Four of them finished in the first round (Talbott, Pines, Wint and Smith all delivered). One of them, taking the term from Nate Diaz, got . got in the first round (hold your chin, young Gautier). The other one, from the ball of one crossover, needed 15 minutes to do the job, but looked super heavy in the event against the man called Khaos (congratulations UFC, Roberto!).
They were so serious in the parade that after the fights, which is not in the hype game where the traditional tables are judged, Dana White broke into a bag of proverbs to damn the jokers.
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“If you really had to dig deep and look at our papers, maybe four or five in the 25 years that you’ve had, ‘sucked,'” White said at the UFC 332 press conference after the fight. “The only thing that really stood out all the time, off the top of my head, was UFC 33, that business almost fell through. That’s a big thing for me, I’ll never forget it as long as I live.”
Payton Talbott wrestled in the UFC 332 showcase against Deiveson Figueiredo.
(Alex Goodlett via Getty Images)
Before anyone could shout “UFC 177” or “UFC 177” or “UFC Fight Night: Ladd vs. Dumont,” Dana went down to the brass tacks.
“One of the biggest problems, and we face this issue on certain cards, is that the so-called experts of the game know nothing about fighting.
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“We do like 44 cards a year, right? Forty-four fights a year, so we have the Contender Series and everything else that we do. So not every card is going to be for you. Not every card is going to go; ‘O’ wow, this is one, see it. Who gives *** There will be 43 more, so you feel this way, or 42, or 40. We are the best at what we do. It cannot be denied. This is what it is.
Then came the stone-eyed finisher.
“We’re the best at what we do,” Dana said. “And all the so-called experts have no idea about the battle business.”
Of course, both can be true. UFC 332 was a heartbreaker that delivered too much, and with 11 knockouts there were plenty of “holy ***” moments that Dana wants to sell, but it also lacked a little in getting the ingredients pumping. Wang was coming off a nondescript victory over Tracy Cortez in the lead-up to UFC 329, and Silva beat Rose Nama-JUNE-iss without a ton of hubbub back in January, the Paramount+ era kicked off.
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Throwing them into the open event for a numbered card (which we’re still attaching to pay cards in terms of quality) felt a little left field, especially since women’s roller queen Valentina Shevchenko is nowhere to be found in Utah. If someone had been told to fight an itchy empty title, they should have been told something much worse than “as they say” something. They were supposed to be called shells.
Anyway, if the UFC had promoted perspective as the main reason to tune in for UFC 332, maybe there wouldn’t have been such a big outcry from those intimates, especially since we’re in a transitional period of how we watch events in the pay-per-view era. A little marketing innovation could go a long way, but as John Kavanagh likes to say, “win or learn.”
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It’s true that UFC 332 went against cool expectations. I’ve seen quite a few people stand by their originals, saying that UFC 332 stands out from the crowd. You can understand that complaint, since we don’t know what was done by Robert Soldio or James Smith, except that it was shown well in the moment of the show.
Others have pointed to the highest rate of discomfort, comparing it to regional MMA (where mismatches are plentiful) and the Contender Series (where mismatches turn into fun and gradually turn into serendipities). It’s also worth it if you’re a Negative Nancy who hates anything funny.
To be optimistic, I see UFC 332 entering tomorrow’s event. If people weren’t clamoring to see Talbott fight Sean O’Malley, they are now. Talbot stole the show in Salt Lake, knocking off former champion Deiveson Figueiredo in the co-main event, before calling out Andrea Garfi- … sorry “Suga” Sean O’Malley. Talbot has star qualities that are a beautiful feature. He should not be punished for opening acts for Silva-Wang.
In order to pursue the developer? Let’s just say Shevchenko missed. Silva signaled to Wang, and half the arena was empty before the scorecards came back. That battle was decided not much differently than he could, and yet there was no need to fix it. That delivered the rest of the paper in a big way, which was also somewhat predictable.
Most people thought it could go that way.
Even for people who use quotes, they become like “so-called experts”.