Looking Back at UFC’s Memorial Day Weekend Events

For ten years, the UFC kept a tradition of staging pay-per-view events on Memorial Day weekend in the United States. Typically emanating from UFC’s home base of Las Vegas, the Memorial Day weekend shows were often among the year’s biggest, hosting some bouts that would be on the shortlist of the most notable in company history.

This column is a walk through memory lane of the pay-per-view events from this one-time tradition.

2006 – UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie
The UFC’s first Memorial Day weekend event briefly reigned as the most successful event in company history. Royce Gracie, the promotion’s biggest star from its inception in 1993 to his departure in 1995, returned to the UFC to fight Matt Hughes, the reigning welterweight champion.

This was not a winning proposition for Gracie, who was 39 and did not look good in his fight six months earlier against the much smaller Hideo Tokoro. However, UFC did an excellent promotional job through its new Countdown series, which helped fans buy Gracie as a legitimate threat to Hughes. The sell job resulted in 657,675 buys, more than 250,000 buys above UFC’s previous best (which had just been achieved the month before).

Hughes smashed Gracie in the first round of a non-title fight. Among other notable bouts on the card, Diego Sanchez improved his unbeaten record to 15-0, Brandon Vera advanced to 7-0, Jeremy Horn submitted Chael Sonnen, and Spencer Fisher scored a flying knee KO over Matt “Watt Miman” Wiman.

2007 – UFC 71: Liddell vs. Jackson
On December 30, 2006, Chuck Liddell affirmed himself as UFC’s biggest star when he stopped Tito Ortiz in the third round to complete his fourth consecutive title defense. The 37-year-old Liddell had lost three times in his career, and he emphatically avenged two of those losses. The lone lingering loss came at the hands of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who entered the UFC fold at the end of 2006 and made a successful promotional debut in February 2007. The rematch was set for May 26, 2007.

In the first UFC bout to receive major attention from ESPN (including Liddell appearing on the cover of ESPN the Magazine), Jackson knocked Liddell out in less than two minutes. As the promotion’s biggest star, Liddell still kept his scheduled early June appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, but his career never recovered from the stunning knockout.

Elsewhere, Karo Parisyan beat Josh Burkman and sang about his judo throws, and Houston Alexander blitzed Keith Jardine.

2008 – UFC 84: Ill Will
After years away, BJ Penn returned to the lightweight division in the summer of 2007 and made an immediate impact. Around that time, reigning UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk tested positive for the steroid Nandrolone. He was eventually stripped the title, which quickly found a new home around Penn’s waist. After taking the title, Penn declared, “Sean Sherk, you’re dead!” Sherk didn’t care for this statement, and decided to engage Penn in fisticuffs, with the belt as the prize.

On fight night, Penn handled Sherk comfortably, and called the fight off after ending the third round with a flurry that had Sherk in dire straits. The referee agreed, and Penn established himself as the world’s best lightweight.

The card was much deeper than the compelling main event. Wanderlei Silva returned to form with a vicious 36-second knockout of Keith Jardine in the co-main event. In the final fight of his contract, and in what some thought would be his last UFC bout, Tito Ortiz fell by decision to Lyoto Machida, but not before a thrilling last-minute triangle choke attempt nearly swung the fight. The card also saw Thiago Silva improved to 13-0, Rousimar Pahlares’s beautiful armbar over Ivan Salaverry, and a debuting Shane Carwin walloping Christian Wellisch.

2009 – UFC 98: Machida vs. Evans
The road to UFC 98 was a bumpy one. It was supposed to feature the highly-anticipated Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir rematch, but a Mir knee injury pushed the bout back to UFC 100. The UFC then targeted a Rashad Evans light heavyweight title defense against Quinton Jackson, but Jackson couldn’t make the date due to injury. And so, UFC settled on a battle of unbeaten fighters as Lyoto Machida challenged Evans.

Machida’s karate style, combined with a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and excellent trip takedowns, presented a puzzle that nobody had been able to figure out. Evans was no more successful than the last guy. Machida knocked out Evans in the second round to capture the gold.

The other key fight on the show was a grudge match years in the making between former welterweight champions Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. Hughes took home a controversial decision.

The notable card also saw the start of Chael Sonnen’s hot streak when he defeated Dan Miller on short notice and featured the breakout win of Frankie Edgar’s career against Sean Sherk.

2010 – UFC 114: Jackson vs. Evans
The rivalry between Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans simmered for more than a year, from their in-cage confrontation at UFC 96, to the highest rated season of The Ultimate Fighter, to Jackson delaying the bout to act in The A-Team movie. When it finally boiled over in May 2010, Jackson and Evans combined for the biggest non-title fight to that point in UFC history.

The fight itself wasn’t much to write home about. Jackson hurt Evans at one point, but Evans controlled the majority of the bout to win a unanimous decision.

The rest of the card wasn’t notably exciting, save for Mike Russow’s come-from-behind knockout win over Todd Duffee.

2011 – UFC 130: Jackson vs. Hamill
When I wrote in the introduction that Memorial Day weekend has been home to some of UFC’s biggest and most notable fights, I was not referring to this event in the slightest.

Quinton Jackson beat Matt Hamill in a dull main event, which snapped a five-fight win streak for Hamill (a run that included his famous DQ win over Jon Jones). In the co-main event, Frank Mir won a dull fight over Roy Nelson.

The undercard was more exciting. Travis Browne knocked out Stefan Struve with a superman punch, Brian Stann won impressively against Jorge Santiago, and Demetrious Johnson made his UFC debut by beating Kid Yamamoto.

2012 – UFC 146: dos Santos vs. Mir
The all-heavyweight UFC 146 main card is still remembered fondly, and for good reason. There wasn’t a bad fight among the five main card bouts, and all ended before reaching the time limit.

In the main event, Junior dos Santos defended his newly-won heavyweight title for the first (and last) time. His challenger, Frank Mir, wasn’t quick enough on the feet and was never able to bring dos Santos down to his world on the floor.

Just prior to the main event, Cain Velasquez slaughtered Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in one of the bloodiest bouts in UFC history. The main card also saw Roy Nelson knock out Dave Herman, Stipe Miocic stop Shane del Rosario, and Stefan Struve submit Lavar Johnson.

2013 – UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot 2
One year after Velasquez conquered Antonio Silva in a bloodbath, they met again, this time for the heavyweight title. There was little intrigue to the bout, which virtually everyone figured Velasquez would win easily, but there were no other fresh, deserving contenders available. After losing to Velasquez the year before, Silva stopped Travis Browne and Alistair Overeem, which secured his shot.

The fight was as uncompetitive as expected, but thankfully less bloody for the viewing audience. Velasquez hurt Silva on the feet and finished him with punches on the ground in 81 seconds.

Before that, Velasquez’s rival Junior dos Santos took out Mark Hunt to set up a third fight between the two later in the year.

Elsewhere, Glover Teixeira easily dispatched James Te Huna and TJ Grant stormed through Gray Maynard. Although the five earned Grant a lightweight title shot, five years later it remains his last bout. While training for his title bout, Grant suffered a concussion, and its lingering effects kept him out of the cage until he simply moved on with his life.

2014 – UFC 173: Barao vs. Dillashaw
At one point, Renan Barao was one of the scariest fighters in the sport. He hadn’t lost in nine years, and the UFC began promoting him as the pound-for-pound best fighter in the sport. That’s when TJ Dillashaw took his spot in the batter’s box. Entering UFC 174 as a major underdog, Dillashaw dominated the entirety of the bout, and then put a stamp on his performance with a fifth-round head kick that led to the end of the fight.

The initial main event for this card was supposed to see Vitor Belfort challenge Chris Weidman for the middleweight title. On February 7, Belfort failed a random drug test in a result that wasn’t announced until much later. Belfort formally withdrew from the bout after the Nevada Athletic Commission banned therapeutic use exemptions for testosterone replacement therapy on February 27, claiming as a TRT user he needed time to acclimate himself to the new policy.

The UFC 173 card also saw Daniel Cormier toss Dan Henderson around, as well as Robbie Lawler’s third-round stoppage win over Jake Ellenberger.

2015 – UFC 187: Johnson vs. Cormier
Initially scheduled with Jon Jones vs. Anthony Johnson in the main event slot, UFC 187 was shaken up due to Jones’s hit-and-run incident that resulted in UFC stripping him of his light heavyweight title. Daniel Cormier stepped in to fight Johnson for the vacant title.

Considering it came in the hangover of the Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight, UFC 187 performed well at the gate and on pay-per-view. With the exception of a bit of early trouble, Cormier dominated Johnson to capture the crown. In the night’s other title bout, the Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort title bout finally came to fruition, only for Weidman to destroy Belfort in the first round. This was Belfort’s first fight in more than a year, and he was not the same fighter after TRT.

The best fight of the card was a slugfest between Andrei Arlovski and Travis Browne, which saw Arlovski triumph after back-and-forth action.

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.