(Bout Order Unofficial)
UFC 309:
Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic
Charles Oliveira vs Michael Chandler II
Bo Nickal vs Paul Craig
Karine Silva vs Viviane Araujo
Carlos Prates vs Randy Brown
Nikita Krylov vs Azamat Murzakanov
Chris Weidman vs Erik Anders
Jonathan Martinez vs Marcus McGhee
Veronica Hardy vs Eduara Maura
Jim Miller vs Damon Jackson
Mickey Gall vs Ramiz Brahimaj
I'll give it a 7.5, mainly for Charles + depth. Jones/Stipe will probably be more intriguing come fight night, but for now I'm a bit flaccid on it.
What say you?
Main event has been coming for a long time. It's kinda been blown out of all proportion, but I'll give the main event a good 7/10. It's overshadowed by other potential fights for Jon Jones, and the fact Stipe is retiring win, lose, or draw, but hopefully the fight itself will be fun!
Charles-Chandler II is a bit... again, not quite working perfectly in terms of hype and momentum, so I'll give that a 7/10 too. The fight actually should be a banger, but we've seen this fight before, there's not really a good reason to expect Chandler to look great after so long out and the fact Charles is a bit of a nightmare match up for him anyway. The intrigue is if Charles' levels start to drop given all the wars, but that's not a positive reason to look forward to this one. 7/10 is right.
Main card is actually pretty good in that Karine and Carlos Prates both look like very promising prospects. Bo Nickal a little overhyped, perhaps, but it's a
BIG test for him against Paul Craig. 3 interesting fights featuring 3 fighters with real upwards momentum facing off against 3 opponents who could easily derail any one of them
and provide stylistic challenges that shouldn't be boring. Main card gets a 9/10 for me. Yes, 9.
Prelim card is okay. Krylov vs Murzakanov is actually pretty high level, Martinez vs McGhee is an interesting one, probably a step too far for McGhee though, Weidman-Anders I have absolutely no interest in, that's a dud, Hardy vs Eduarda, I can't remember who Eduarda is to be honest. I'll give it a solid 6.5/10 carried mainly by Krylov-Murza, even though they're both alphabet soupers who most casuals will
never have heard of.
Miller-Jackson should be super fun, Gall vs Brahimaj less so, early prelims get 6/10 just because it's one hit, one miss, neither relevant in any way.
As a percentage I've therefore scored it 71 %, but let's be real: it's a solid
7/10 card. There's room to be more cynical and deduct another point if you really aren't interested in the number of 'legacy' fights, but that's too harsh for me.
