After UFC Saudi Arabia displayed an action-packed, completely unpredictable card, Dana White and Co. are back with UFC 312. While the fighting community was excited to watch Dricus Du Plessis defend his middleweight belt against Sean Strickland, and Zhang Weili defend her strawweight belt against Tatiana Suarez, the rest of the card was deemed boring by the fans. And that seemingly hit a nerve with White.
Taking to Instagram, the UFC head honcho promoted UFC 312 but named 4 more fighters who, according to him, had the potential to entertain the fighting world. The first matchup that not many might have known was the one between Tom Nolan and Viacheslav Borshchev. This would be ‘Big Train’s 4th fight in the UFC. On the other hand, ‘Slava Claus’ didn’t really have an impressive career in the UFC, with 3 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw. Yet, White believed, “Both of these guys are nasty, technical, aggressive strikers. This should be fun while it lasts.”
Another lesser-known fight was the main card bout between Justin Tafa and Tallison Teixeira. And Teixeira is one of the debutants at UFC 312. Even though he’s undefeated and 6 of his 7 wins came via KOs, the fans did not believe that it would be as interesting as the Saudi Arabian card. As soon as the UFC CEO dropped the hype on Instagram, almost all the fight fans claimed that they were disappointed with the Sydney card. One fan commented, “the saudi fight nights get way better cards than this.” But he was met with a cold and stern response from White. He replied, “don’t watch it.”
With only 4 ranked fighters on the card and 7 debutants, there’s not much that the fighting world could get hyped for. Even the famed MMA reporter and podcaster, Ariel Helwani, talked about it.
What did Ariel Helwani say about Dana White and Co’s current matchmaking criteria?
During a recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show, the reporter said, “Dana White used to say all the time, ‘We’re not boxing. We don’t make top-heavy cards.’ Are they making top-heavy cards now? I would say so… But week in and week out, it’s very top-heavy.” There were definitely exceptions like the International Fight Week cards, or UFC 300, which Helwani branded as anomalies.
But when it came to UFC 312, White definitely went top-heavy. Of course, it’s mostly fighters from Dana White’s Contender Series who have filled the card. With Dricus Du Plessis, Sean Strickland, Zhang Weili, and Tatiana Suarez leading the parade, the rest of the card had no ranked fighter. Helwani continued, “I said it somewhat jokingly on Saturday, lowkey, the Saudi Arabia card better than the 312 pay-per-view card. I should’ve really said high-key.”
Nevertheless, the card does have a chance to entertain the fight fans. After all, we desire nothing but action-packed matches with an intricate story to tell. Even though most of the contenders coming to Australia are fairly new to the Octagon, they have the potential to put up a good fight.
What are your thoughts on UFC 312? Do you think the event would be as interesting as UFC Saudi Arabia? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.
The post Dana White Fires Back at UFC 312 Critics Despite Having Only 4 Ranked Fighters on Entire Card appeared first on EssentiallySports.
