7 Takeaways From UFC 213
UFC 213 had a rough build, but what happened inside the cage on fight night?
Once again, the International Fight Week pay-per-view had a tumultuous build. Losing Cody Garbrandt vs. TJ Dillashaw was a blow. Donald Cerrone vs. Robbie Lawler dropping the week before was bad news too. But the worst was yet to come just hours before the show started, as Amanda Nunes was hospitalised.
That being said, the show must go on. This time last year, UFC 200 ended up being a dud as fight night just couldn't escape the disarray of the build. But more recently, UFC 206 had one of the worst builds in UFC history, leaving a threadbare card devastated and destined to fail. When it came time to throw down though, it was arguably the most entertaining pay-per-view of 2016.
In reality this was something in between. The pay-per-view started well, fell off a cliff in the middle, before a really good main event sent the crowd home happy. A new interim middleweight champion was crowned, and perhaps a new #1 contender for the heavyweight championship emerged also.
But as good as the main event was, the fight of the weekend was on Friday at the TUF Finale. Bombs were thrown and chins were rattled on Friday in a Fight of the Year candidate. Here's everything you need to know about 2017's International Fight Week.
7. There Was One More Twist To Come
Just a few hours before the start of the show, the news came out that Amanda Nunes was taken to hospital and the main event was in serious jeopardy. In truth, when a fighter is taken to hospital on the day of a fight, you know anything other than a cancellation is irresponsible.
In the end, Dana White claimed that Nunes was cleared to fight, but opted not to. While it would be unwise to lie, it makes little sense to bury your champion. Many people criticised the lack of promotion of Nunes ahead of the Ronda Rousey fight, and in all honesty White should have kept that snippet to himself.
An interesting storyline quickly developed as strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk offered to step in on an hour's notice to face Shevchenko. Those girls faced each other three times in their Muay Thai career (with Valentina winning all three times) and while it's a fight you can count on down the line in the flyweight division when it opens, now wasn't the time. Especially for the 135 pound championship.
While weight cutting is a huge issue in MMA, Shevchenko walks around at 135, which leaves her undersized. And she's bigger than Joanna, so the idea that Jedrzejczyk could regularly win at bantamweight is frivolous.
As for Nunes, it's a black eye when the UFC were ready to finally get behind her. Dana White hinted they might re-book the fight for September's UFC 215 card in Edmonton. We'll wait and see.