This weekend (Sat. Feb. 10th, 2024) the UFC will hold their 86th event inside their APEX building in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fans have been complaining about the venue since restrictions on sporting events in proper arenas ended over two years ago. It’s too small. It feels cheap. The vibes are off.
And now, most importantly, the main events are bad.
We may be hitting a tipping point here based on a recent announcement from reporter Marcel Dorff that Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Shamil Gaziev will be the headliner for UFC Vegas 87 on March 2nd — the event that was originally set to be the promotion’s debut event in Saudi Arabia. Reports had The Kingdom telling the UFC to come back in June with something less average. Now MMA fans are saying this main event is a new low, even for the APEX.
And yeah, Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Shamil Gaziev is pretty weak. “Bigi Boy” is 2-4 over his last six and Gaziev has a single fight in the UFC. Fans and media let their displeasure be known on X (formerly Twitter):
This promotion really does hate us.
Where does this rank among awful UFC main events?
Anyone got that Mick Maynard tweet defending the quality of fight cards?
Remember how after Dolidze VS Imavov I said I wanna say this is rock bottom for the Apex but we know it can get worse? I am vindicated
The UFC is so washed I’m crying
Bad Main Event. Bad Venue. This is promotional malpractice from the UFC.
They’re seriously just testing how shitty they can make these cards before you stop watching. Have some self-respect, folks.
We are being tested at this point. That’s exactly what this is. They are testing the exact power of the UFC brand name. They want to see how consistently they can churn out laughable headliners and still get fans to tune in. https://t.co/Dh9OPeRp32
— Fury’s Fight Picks (@LucaFury) February 9, 2024
If fans keep mindlessly consuming a subpar product, what incentive does the UFC have to, you know, actually try?
COVID forcing the UFC to use the Apex as a venue ruined the sport. There’s been a lot of awful main events there but this may be the WOAT.
Don’t get too comfortable with this as the WOAT ‘cuz UFC has shown no signs that they plan on slowing down the APEX shows. So long as they continue, there’s no incentive for them to actually produce solid main events that generate interest and ticket sales from the public.
We’re past the stage where things like that matter. These events are just fodder produced to satisfy a contractual obligation to ESPN.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
