UFC 203: A Card That’s Getting Massively Overlooked

For whatever reason, it seems a good portion of UFC 203 is getting massively overlooked and under-hyped by the media and fight fans overall. It’s not uncommon. It seems a card to manage a lot a more hype and attention these days needs to have the interest of a Conor McGregor or a Ronda Rousey. There’s nothing wrong with that, but top-to-bottom, UFC 203 on paper looks like a card that offers a lot of excitement. It definitely has potential to be better than UFC 200 and UFC 202, probably among the bigger drawing events of the year. It’s somewhat reminiscent of UFC 199, another fantastic card that didn’t get the attention it nearly deserved, despite having two title bouts.

On top of UFC 203, you have a heavyweight title clash between the new champion, Stipe Miocic and the challenger Alistair Overeem. Miocic is defending the title for the first time in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Meanwhile, Overeem gets the first UFC title opportunity of his career, after holding the heavyweight belts in Strikeforce and DREAM and previously becoming K-1 World Grand Prix kickboxing champion. I think there was a time several years ago when Alistair Overeem was destined for super-stardom, but his MMA career suffered many setbacks. After he beat Brock Lesnar in his UFC debut, Overeem was poised to fight Junior dos Santos for the UFC heavyweight title. Then he failed a drug test for high testosterone levels and forced to sit out with a suspension. In his first fight back against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva at uFC 156, it seemed like the MMA public was ready to overlook Overeem’s indiscretion. With a win over Bigfoot, a title shot was all but Overeem’s.

Except it wasn’t. Overeem had trouble handling Bigfoot and ended up getting knocked out in the third round. Then Overeem got knocked out in his next fight against Travis Browne. He managed a win and avoided going 0-3 with an uneventful win over Frank Mir at UFC 169. It was considered an awful, boring fight by and large, where Overeem simply did what he had to do to win and avoid getting cut. Except right after that, he ended up getting knocked out yet again by Ben Rothwell. Say what you will, but after going 1-3, the man who was once one of heavyweight’s more exciting stars and prospects saw his stock drop significantly. Granted, Overeem has been on a strong run as of late, going 4-0 including strong knockout wins over former champions Junior dos Santos and Andrei Arlovski. Still, it’s hard to deny that in many ways that Overeem as a major star and draw became damaged goods coupled by his PED drug test failure and an awful stretch where he went 1-3, with his lone win being an abysmal performance.

Despite all that, Overeem has been looking good lately. Greg Jackson’s gym looks like it’s been a good change of pace for him, and he’s earned his spot for this title challenge. Similarly, Stipe Miocic is another fighter who is not really getting the attention he deserves. Miocic has always been a good fighter and a solid athlete. He probably has some of the best cardio and stamina of any UFC fighter in the heavyweight division today. After having a reputation for being a bit of a strategic point fighter, he put an exclamation point with his fights against Andrei Arlovski and Fabrico Werdum. He knocked out both champions in the first round. Now, I did recently see Miocic on ESPN to talk about his upcoming title bout, but for whatever reason, people don’t seem drawn to Miocic despite his exciting performances.

In the co-main event is another heavyweight clash between the former champion Fabricio Werdum and No. 6-ranked heavyweight Travis Browne. Both guys are coming off losses, but the fight still has a lot of intrigue to it. Werdum is fresh off a title loss to Miocic, so he needs to bounce back here to get back to the title level. Browne has been hot and cold as of late. He’s fresh off a tough knockout loss to Cain Velasquez. Previously, Browne’s title hopes were dashed after a UFC on FOX loss to Werdum. But if he can manage to get it done here, he can quickly reassert himself back into the title mix. This is still a highly relevant title bout.

Most of the attention for this card is going toward CM Punk vs. Mickey Gall. It’s understandable. It’s a fight involving CM Punk making his UFC and MMA debut. But it’s still an inexperienced fighter who has no athletic or amateur combat sport background. There’s a bit of sideshow intrigue here, but the real meat and potatoes of this card lie elsewhere.

The hot opener is Jessica Andrade vs. Joanne Calderwood. Andrade is looking to make a run as a strawweight since she moved down. Her opponent is ranked No. 7 in the division, and is riding a nice two-fight winning streak, rebounding to a loss to Maryna Moroz. Jojo is one of my favorite fighters, so I’m definitely looking forward to this one and expecting fireworks.

Also on PPV is Urijah Faber vs. Jimmie Rivera. Say what you will about Faber, but he’s consistently been one of bantamweight’s top performers for years. He simply has been unable to take home the UFC title. However, let’s not forget that he’s played spoiler to a lot of young, hot rising prospects before, such as Michael McDonald. Rivera is a surging bantamweight fighter in the UFC. He’s on an 18-fight winning streak, and he’s undefeated inside the Octagon. This fight could either be Rivera’s breakout performance that sets him up as a made man in the UFC, or it could be Urijah Faber showing that he can still hang at the top level and can still dispatch younger, competitive prospects.

Elsewhere on the card, you have other solid fighters and veterans, such as Bethe Correia vs. Jessica Eye. Also, Ian McCall hopefully, finally, gets back in the cage against Ray Borg. To me, more so than UFC 202, this card is can’t miss.

Jeffrey Harris is 411mania’s resident Jack of All Trades and has covered MMA for the site since 2008. You can shoot him an e-mail at [email protected] or hit him up on Facebook. He also co-hosts the 411 Ground & Pound Radio podcast along with Robert Winfree. You can listen to the latest episode of the podcast in the player below.