mma / Columns

UFC Fight Night 76 and the Most Cursed Cards in UFC History

October 26, 2015 | Posted by Dan Plunkett

It’s a stroke of bad luck to lose your co-main event fight 10 days before fight night. When you lose your main event a week later, forcing you to promote what was intended as a solid mid-card bout into a headlining position, you’ve crashed into a ditch of bad luck.

For what it was, UFC Fight Night 76 was a good show. Paddy Holohan vs. Louis Smolka, the surprise main event, was everything it was billed to be. However, without Joe Duffy vs. Dustin Poirier and Miocic vs. Rothwell, the show lacked significance. The main card featured zero ranked fighters – a first since UFC began compiling its own rankings.

Due to its late streak of bad luck, the show joins a list of infamous events best known for everything that went wrong. From shows that couldn’t get a main event to stay in place to shows that didn’t take place at all, the UFC is no stranger to bad luck. Let’s take a look at the UFC’s history of misfortune.

UFC 3: The American Dream
Date:
September 9, 1994

UFC 3 was sold on the idea that fans would see a rematch between Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock in the tournament finals. Gracie defeated Shamrock with ease in their semi-final match at the inaugural UFC show and went on to win both that night’s tournament and the UFC 2 tournament. Shamrock, who unlike Gracie looked the part of an ultimate fighting world champion and was one of the few early competitors with grappling experience, became Gracie’s natural enemy. He sat out of UFC 2 due to injury, but took aim at the defending champion at UFC 3.

He wouldn’t get the chance.

Gracie drew inexperienced brawler Kimo Leopoldo in the opening round, and Kimo’s size and strength were enough to give the 175-pound Gracie fits. Gracie managed to get the submission victory after a grueling 4:40 contest – easily the best one in the company’s short history at that point – but he emerged from the dressing room for his semi-final match totally spent. His corner threw in the towel before the match began, ending Gracie’s string of tournament wins and derailing the Shamrock rematch.

Shamrock cruised to the tournament finals, but withdrew from the competition after watching Gracie do the same. He had entered the tournament injured, and there was no point in risking further injury unless it meant a shot at Gracie.

After five short matches and minus one semi-final, the second half of the show badly dragged along until the finals, which pitted Harold Howard – the man Gracie was intended to fight in the semi-finals – against alternate Steve Jennum. Jennum, who was apparently alerted that he was needed to fight as he was exiting the arena, took home the tournament crown for UFC’s first truly bizarre show.

UFC 9: Motor City Madness
Date:
May 17, 1996

The UFC’s over-the-top marketing and the overt brutality of certain matches had caught up to the company by mid-1996. At nearly every location they attempted to settle for a show, the company was greeted with legal battles. Detroit, the site of UFC 9, was no different. The UFC was in court fighting for the right to go forward with the show just hours before the first match. At 4:30pm, the courts ruled that the show could go on, but banned closed-fist strikes and headbutts.

The rule changes put an obstacle in front of a big opportunity for the UFC and its biggest star. Ken Shamrock, the reigning super fight champion (the precursor to the UFC heavyweight title), was primed for a televised feature on CNN Sports and a potential cover story in Sports Illustrated. The rule changes were so significant that Shamrock considered pulling out of the fight.

Shamrock met Dan Severn a main event that was promoted as a battle to decide the world’s greatest fighter. It turned out to be something less than a battle.

Although multiple fighters in earlier bouts had violated the “no closed-fists” rule, Shamrock and Severn abided by it. It turned into the worst fight in UFC history, seeing long stretches without any contact. Severn won a split decision, and Shamrock lost the big media pieces. The fight drew nearly 190,000 pay-per-view buys, but many fans were turned off by the show. The next event, also hurt by shrinking pay-per-view clearances, drew only half that, and the UFC wouldn’t touch UFC 9’s success on pay-per-view until 2005.

UFC 24: First Defense
Date:
March 10, 2000

UFC 24 was the quintessential dark ages show – a time when pay-per-view was essentially limited to satellite companies, and the shows weren’t released on home video. The event was slated to feature Kevin Randleman make his first defense of the UFC heavyweight title against Pedro Rizzo. That didn’t happen. Backstage, Randleman slipped on a pipe and hit his head, knocking him out. He was eliminated from the fight, but the few pay-per-view buying homes weren’t alerted of that fact until after the co-main event – Tedd Williams vs. Steve Judson – had ended.

Although the event featured appearances from notables like Jens Pulver, Dave Menne, Shonie Carter, and Ian Freeman, the show was largely forgettable to those that watched it.

UFC 33: Victory in Vegas
Date:
September 28, 2001

What was supposed to be the most important night in UFC history turned into an unmitigated disaster.

It was the UFC’s first show in Nevada, and getting the controversial sport sanctioned in Nevada meant going from a pay-per-view universe of 7 million to one of 42 million and a company record $800,000 gate. With the heavy promotion, UFC needed about 100,000 buys to break-even, but weeks before the show, things started to turn south. The September 28 date was chosen to keep the show away from other pay-per-view events that would steal the cable companies’ focus when it came to marketing. However, after 9/11, the Felix Trinidad vs. Bernard Hopkins fight at Madison Square Garden was bumped from September 15 to September 29. As the more promising draw compared to the UFC show, cable companies focused on promotion of Trinidad vs. Hopkins, which drew about 475,000 buys.

Things went from bad to worse when Vitor Belfort, scheduled to fight Tito Ortiz in the main event, was injured when his arm went through a window, forcing him out of the bout 10 days before show time. The UFC contacted Ken Shamrock to replace Belfort, but the sides were far apart on financial terms. Frank Shamrock then got the call, but he hadn’t been training. Vladimir Matyushenko, scheduled to fight on the show’s undercard against Kevin Randleman, was then offered the fight but his management turned it down. Jeremy Horn was the next name on the list, but he was recovering from a spider bite. UFC then tried to get Kevin Randleman for the fight, but he had suffered a wrist injury, forcing him out of the fight with Matyushenko. With Randleman out, the UFC went back to Matyushenko, who took the fight.

The UFC stacked the card with three championship fights and a match between rising knockout artist Chuck Liddell and Murilo Bustamante. Naturally, every main card fight went to a decision, most of them boring. As a result, the mistimed show went seven minutes over its 3-hour time slot, and many homes that purchased the show missed the last round of the main event.

The show did 75,000 buys, but the disappointing show killed whatever momentum the UFC hoped to build.

UFC 85: Bedlam
Date:
June 7, 2008

UFC 85 was a revolving door of main events. The promotion was in the midst of an effort to bring big fights to the UK in order to expand their presence in the market, and as such intended to headline UFC 85 with Chuck Liddell vs. Shogun Rua. However, soon after the fight was announced, Rua injured his knee and was replaced by Rashad Evans. Not long after that, Liddell tore his hamstring. James Irvin, riding the momentum of an 8-second knockout victory, stepped in to replace him. Then Irvin fell to injury, and the UFC removed Evans from the card altogether. Ultimately, UFC signed Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves to headline the event.

In another major change, Chris Leben was pulled from his match with Michael Bisping after being handed a 35-day jail sentence for a probation violation.

On fight night, most of the fights delivered, although it drew one of UFC’s worst pay-per-view numbers of the year.

UFC: Fight for the Troops
Date:
December 10, 2008

The curse of this show wasn’t the changes to the card, but the injuries that occurred on fight night.

In the second match of the night, 6’4” lightweight Corey Hill’s leg snapped on an attempted leg kick.

Next, Ben Saunders kneed Brandon Wolff’s head into oblivion. Wolff was left with an orange-sized hematoma on his forehead.

On the second fight of the main card, Nate Loughran broke his rib and couldn’t make it out to the third round against Tim Credeur.

After that, Steve Cantwell gruesomely dislocated Razak Al-Hassan’s arm with an armbar.

In the co-main event, Jonathan Goulet was taken to the hospital after a 33 second knockout loss to Mike Swick.

In the main event, Yoshiyuki Yoshida was brutally knocked out by Josh Koscheck before being stretchered out of the arena.

UFC 108: Evans vs. Silva
Date:
January 2, 2010

Planning for UFC’s first event in 2010 did not go swimmingly.

The UFC intended to top the card with an Anderson Silva title defense against Vitor Belfort, but a Silva injury delayed the fight. Then, before the extent of Brock Lesnar’s illness was known, his title defense against Shane Carwin was penciled in for the card, but their names were erased from the docket when Lesnar didn’t recover in time to begin training. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez, already slated for the card, was called off due to Nogueira suffering from a staph infection. The UFC then brought in Rashad Evans, who was going to fight Quinton Jackson at UFC 107 before Jackson signed to do the A-Team movie and briefly retired, to fight Thiago Silva in the main event.

The undercard wasn’t free of injury either. Carlos Condit was forced out of a match with Paul Dale. Gabriel Gonzaga withdrew as Junior dos Santos’ opponent. Sean Sherk was slated to fight Rafaello Oliveira in an undercard bout, but was called on to replace Tyson Griffin against Jim Miller. When Sherk fell to injury, Duane Ludwig stepped in. Just days before that, Jacob Volkmann replaced an injured Rory Markham against Martin Kampmann. Finally, Steve Cantwell was injured the week of the show, cancelling his match with Vladimir Matyushenko.

UFC 133: Evans vs. Ortiz
Date:
August 8, 2011

UFC 133 should have been the site of the grudge match between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans. However, Jones was told he required surgery on his hand, thus delaying the match. In the meantime, Evans accepted a bout with Phil Davis that was to headline UFC 133. Soon after, Jones was told he didn’t actually need surgery, and he was matched with Quinton Jackson at UFC 135.

A month before the show, Phil Davis withdrew due to a knee injury. The UFC turned to Tito Ortiz, coming off his first win in years against Ryan Bader earlier in the month. Ortiz turned the fight down. Then Lyoto Machida accepted the fight, but wanted “Anderson Silva money” to do it, which the UFC would not agree to. Vladimir Matyushenko was then considered for the spot, although he was never offered the fight. Before the UFC could do so, Ortiz called them back and took the spot.

That wasn’t the end of UFC 133’s issues, though. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira pulled out of his co-main event match with Rich Franklin due to injury, and Franklin was moved off the card. Vladimir Matyushenko, matched with Alexander Gustafsson, was forced off the card and replaced by Matt Hamill. Michael McDonald was pulled from a match with Nick Pace to fight Chris Cariaso at UFC 130 (a match that was later cancelled). Ivan Menjivar stepped in against Pace. Costas Philippou replaced Riki Fukuda against Rafael Natal, but was later moved to fight Jorge Rivera, replacing Alessio Sakara. Paul Bradley was brought in as Natal’s opponent.

UFC 149: Faber vs. Barao
Date:
July 21, 2012

UFC 149 couldn’t catch a break. The original main event of Jose Aldo vs. Erik Koch was scrapped when Aldo went down with an injury. An interim bantamweight title match between Urijah Faber and Renan Barao took form as the new main event.

After Thiago Silva withdrew from a light heavyweight match with Shogun Rua, UFC attempted to push Shogun vs. Glover Teixeira, but Rua declined the fight and was rescheduled for a later card.

In a heavyweight bout, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was replaced by Shawn Jordan against Cheick Kongo.

Michael Bisping fell out of a match with Tim Boetsch and was replaced by Hector Lombard.

Chris Clements vs. Matt Riddle was initially supposed to be Thiago Alves vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama. Siyar Bahadurzada replaced Akiyama, and then Alves was replaced by Clements. When Bahadurzada went down, Riddle stepped in.

Notable bantamweight Bibiano Fernandes was expected to make his UFC debut on the card, but he got injured and never officially inked his UFC deal.

The show itself was marred by four main card decisions with a series of dull fights thrown in the middle. The UFC still plans to return to Calgary, Alberta, Canada as a make good to the fans that paid a $4.1 million gate to see the show.

UFC 151: Jones vs. Henderson
Date:
September 1, 2012 (Cancelled)

UFC 151 exhibited the danger of booking a one-match show. The pay-per-view was to be headlined by a light heavyweight title match between Jon Jones and Dan Henderson. The next fight on the card was Josh Koscheck vs. Jake Ellenberger (Koscheck was later replaced by Jay Hieron), in a match that couldn’t carry a pay-per-view.

In early August, Dan Henderson partially tore the MCL in his knee. Henderson rested the injury for two weeks, but upon returning to training realized he wasn’t in fighting shape. At that point, Henderson altered the UFC of his injury and that he wouldn’t be able to fight. The UFC scrambled and called Chael Sonnen, who accepted a match with Jones on eight days’ notice. Jones then turned the fight down, drawing the ire of UFC President Dana White. Without Jones, the event had to be cancelled.

UFC 176: Aldo vs. Mendes
Date:
August 2, 2014

Booking a strong co-main event that can step into the main event position is ideal, but not always possible. For UFC 176, UFC slotted Jacare Souza vs. Gegard Mousasi second from the top. It was a good fight, and a respectable co-main event, but not a fight that can sell a show.

A month out from the show, Jose Aldo withdrew from his main event title defense against Chad Mendes.

A few days later, Joe Rogan asked Ronda Rousey about headlining the show following her 16-second win over Alexis Davis, but it appeared the UFC had already made up its mind by that time. On July 8, UFC 176 was officially cancelled.


Dan Plunkett has covered MMA for 411Mania since 2008. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Dan_Plunkett.