UFC 300 battle card: Grading the UFC’s tricentennial occasion

It took about three months, and reserving the principle occasion was a saga unto itself, however the blockbuster UFC 300 battle card is lastly ultimate. No extra tinkering, no extra TBA on the high – 13 matchups are headed to T-Cellular Area in Las Vegas. Two actual titles are on the road – gentle heavyweight champ Alex Pereira defends towards ex-champ Jamahal Hill, and strawweight champ Zhang Weili faces Yan Xiaonan — and a pseudo-title goes up for grabs when “BMF” champ Justin Gaethje faces ex-featherweight champ Max Holloway.

Now that all the things is finalized, how does the battle card stack up with the UFC’s different centennial occasions, UFC 100 and UFC 200? Is it worthy of the additional hype? And most significantly, is it value $79.99 on pay-per-view?

MMA Preventing’s Jed Meshew, Mike Heck, and Steven Marrocco sit down within the digital struggle room to grade the UFC’s product.

Jed Meshew: For these of you unaware, in 2023, I debuted a brand new system for ranking battle playing cards dubbed “The Meshewlin Information.” The premise is easy and based mostly on the Michelin Information’s system for grading eating places:

1 Star = An excellent restaurant (battle card)
2 Stars = Glorious restaurant (battle card), value a detour (quick journey to attend)
3 Stars = Distinctive restaurant (battle card), value a particular journey.

UFC 300 is probably the most 3 Star battle card within the historical past of stars, the galaxy, and the universe typically. There has actually by no means been a greater battle card put collectively (on paper, no less than). Two title fights, the presumptive “Combat of the Yr,” two potential No. 1 Contender fights, an astonishing 13 (!) UFC champions on the cardboard, plus a two-time Olympic gold medalist. When the worst battle on the cardboard has a probable future champion in it (Bo Nickal), the cardboard is extra stacked than David Blaine’s deck of playing cards.

Actually the one dangerous factor about this card is that by placing all the great fights on it, each battle card for the following month is terri-bad because of this. However that’s a value we should always all be prepared to pay (together with the $79.99) as a result of occasions like this merely don’t come round usually.

Now, that’s to not say that the occasion will ship on all its promise. That is the battle sport, and something can occur. However even that appears pretty unlikely given the matchups.

I give the UFC a ton of crap (and may give them extra, if we’re being sincere), however not solely have they performed a fantastic job of loading up this card, they’ve performed it with fighters that hardly ever ship duds. Which means that they’ve created two potential outcomes for UFC 300: both the best evening of fights in fight sports activities historical past, or an excellent evening of fights.

When the ground for an occasion continues to be nice, you’ve received one thing particular.

Grade: A+++++ (so many pluses it might wrap across the Earth)

Mike Heck: I don’t prefer to be too judgy with these items, however when you aren’t grading this no less than an A, your expectations had been utterly unreasonable (although it definitely didn’t assist that Dana White promised us a major occasion that, whereas nonetheless freaking wonderful, didn’t knock socks off around the globe, however I digress).

UFC 100 and UFC 200 got here at instances when the promotion — and the game as an entire — was gaining buzz, gaining notoriety, and plenty of that was based mostly on bigger than life stars getting them to that time, guiding newer eyeballs to take a look at the product. Brock Lesnar was a big a part of the success of each of these beforehand talked about occasions. Star energy offered.

However that was then.

That is now, a world the place the letters U-F-C shine the brightest on the marquee, the place the most effective fighters on the earth compete however will not be the celebrities of the present. The 2 largest stars which might be on the UFC roster proper now have solely fought a mixed thrice since 2021 in Conor McGregor and Jon Jones, and the UFC — to their credit score — has solely gotten extra standard and are hotter than ever.

This card appropriately represents what the UFC is in 2024 — tremendously gifted fighters who’re extremely enjoyable to observe, however no huge superstars to be discovered. And that’s completely OK, as a result of this card is totally ridiculous. Each battle issues, each battle has which means, and there’s excessive divisional stakes to simply about all of them — exterior of the Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage battle, which can finish in a short time both approach.

Right here’s just some highlights: Pereira vs. Hill was already on my checklist for fights I have to see in 2024; Zhang vs. Yan is historic; Gaethje vs. Holloway is my all the things; my all-in on Tsarukyan prediction for this yr will both age tremendously or flip into ash in a short time; fascination with Kattar vs. Sterling. Then there’s the remainder of the cardboard – it’s so rattling good.

If UFC 100 and 200 represented the place the UFC was in these instances, and UFC 300 completely does the identical. But this may be the most effective card top-to-bottom the UFC has ever put collectively.

Grade: A+

Steven Marrocco: UFC shill alert!

Pound for pound, that is the most effective centennial card the UFC has assembled thus far. The rationale for that, in my thoughts, is the extent of intrigue in nearly each battle on the cardboard. There are burning questions so many of those matchups promise to reply concerning the opponents and the place they stand of their careers.

For instance: Can Jamahal Hill recapture gold at 205? Who’s the larger BMF, Gaethje or Holloway? Is Arman Tsarukyan championship materials? Does Charles Oliveira have one other title run in him? Is Bo Nickal the uncrowned 185-pound champ? Jiri Prochazka’s comeback, Aljamain Sterling’s featherweight debut, Kayla Harrison’s UFC crucible, Figueiredo and Garbrandt’s inevitable shootout, and as Mr. White says, the checklist goes on and on…

Then mix that with the aggressive stakes of the 2 title bouts on the high, and I feel this card beats UFC 100 and UFC 200. Perhaps I’d really feel completely different if Jon Jones didn’t USADA himself within the foot, however I see extra related matchups with extra attention-grabbing storylines on the April 13 battle card than its predecessors. We don’t want huge Brock Lesnar to take an occasion excessive – we want UFC stalwarts that carry wealthy historical past to the fights. In that, UFC 300 actually has all of it. The one knock to this card is the unrealistic expectations set by White within the first place.

My solely quibble? The MS Paint, junior graffiti artist occasion poster. Significantly, my canine may have performed higher.

Occasion: A+

Poster: F