The Blog

 Introduction UFC 240: Holloway vs. Edgar — July 27, 2019, Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Max Holloway made his third UFC Featherweight Championship defence against Frankie Edgar in what most observers predicted would be a gruelling five-round chess match. Holloway delivered a dominant unanimous decision win — 50-45, 49-46, 48-47 on the judges' scorecards — systematically picking apart Edgar across all five rounds. Edgar, one of the most durable fighters in UFC history who had never be

 Introduction UFC 239: Jones vs. Santos — July 6, 2019, T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas. A card so stacked it produced three title fights, the fastest KO in UFC history at the time, and one of the most debated scorecards in LHW championship history. Jon Jones retained the UFC Light Heavyweight title by split decision over Thiago Santos in the most physically demanding fight of his career — a five-round war in which Santos fought on a surgically-reconstructed knee and still came within a judge's scorec

 Introduction UFC 238: Cejudo vs. Moraes — June 8, 2019, United Center, Chicago, Illinois. Henry Cejudo, the reigning UFC Flyweight Champion who had ended Demetrious Johnson's record-setting reign at UFC 227, moved up to bantamweight to fight for the vacant BW title after T.J. Dillashaw was stripped following a positive EPO test. Cejudo stopped Marlon Moraes by TKO at 4:51 of round three to become the UFC's second simultaneous FW+BW champion. Valentina Shevchenko made her first UFC Women's Flywe

 Introduction UFC 237: Namajunas vs. Andrade — May 11, 2019, Jeunesse Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rose Namajunas arrived as the UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion, riding a run that had begun when she knocked out Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 217 and continued with a successful title defence. In Rio, before a partisan Brazilian crowd, Jessica Andrade ended that run with one of the most violent and visually arresting finishes in women’s MMA history: after losing the opening round, she hoisted Rose o

 Introduction UFC 236: Holloway vs. Poirier 2 — April 13, 2019, State Farm Arena, Atlanta, Georgia. A card carrying two interim title fights, both of which delivered five-round wars that were instantly placed among the finest title fights of the decade. Khabib Nurmagomedov was serving his nine-month suspension following the post-fight brawl at UFC 229, creating a vacancy that Max Holloway and Dustin Poirier were asked to fill. Robert Whittaker was still recovering from his emergency surgery, his

 Introduction UFC 235: Jones vs. Smith — March 2, 2019, T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas. One of the most loaded single cards of early 2019, delivering two title fights, one of the most controversial finishes in recent UFC history, and a changing of the welterweight guard that the division had been waiting years for. Jon Jones made his first UFC Light Heavyweight title defence since reclaiming the belt at UFC 232, defeating Anthony Smith by unanimous decision across five dominant rounds. Kamaru Usman e

 Introduction UFC 234 will be remembered as one of the most dramatic days in UFC history for reasons that had nothing to do with anything that happened inside the cage. February 9, 2019, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia. Robert Whittaker was scheduled to make his second defence of the UFC Middleweight Championship against rising contender Kelvin Gastelum. Then, on fight morning, Whittaker collapsed in his hotel room with an abdominal hernia and a twisted bowel that required emergency surger

 Introduction UFC 232: Jones vs. Gustafsson 2 — December 29, 2018, The Forum, Inglewood, California. Jon Jones returned to the Octagon after his second USADA-related suspension and knocked out Alexander Gustafsson in round three to claim the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Amanda Nunes stunned the combat sports world in the co-main by stopping Cris Cyborg by TKO at 0:51 of round one, becoming the first fighter in UFC women’s history to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously.

 Introduction UFC 231: Holloway vs. Ortega — December 8, 2018, Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Ontario. Max Holloway defended the UFC Featherweight Championship against Brian Ortega in one of the division’s most dramatic title fights — a contest that saw Ortega absorb enormous punishment across four rounds, hurt Holloway briefly with his dangerous submission game, and ultimately be stopped by TKO (doctor stoppage) at 5:00 of round four when the cageside physician would not let him come out for round

 Introduction UFC 230: Cormier vs. Lewis — November 3, 2018, Madison Square Garden, New York City. Daniel Cormier made his first UFC Heavyweight Championship defence, submitting Derrick Lewis with a rear-naked choke at 2:14 of round two in a fight whose paper credentials had been openly questioned but which Cormier dispatched with technical precision. Cormier had won the HW title at UFC 226 by stunning first-round KO. Lewis arrived on the back of his own spectacular form — his comeback KO of Vol

 Introduction UFC 229: Khabib vs. McGregor — October 6, 2018, T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas. 20,034 fans. Gate: $17.2 million. PPV: ~2.4 million buys, the highest in UFC history at the time, surpassing the previous record by nearly one million. Khabib Nurmagomedov submitted Conor McGregor with a neck crank at 3:03 of round four, retaining the Lightweight title in the most commercially significant MMA event ever staged. The submission was the first of McGregor’s MMA career. What followed was equally

 Introduction UFC 228: Woodley vs. Till — September 8, 2018, American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas. 18,627 fans, an estimated 350,000 PPV buys, and one of the welterweight division’s most dramatic title fight finishes in years. Darren Till arrived 17-0-1, the hottest name in MMA, a massive fan favourite from Liverpool who had beaten Donald Cerrone and drawn with Stephen Thompson in his most recent outing. Tyron Woodley arrived with three straight title defences — all controversial, all critici