3 times the UFC appeared to set up a fight to spite someone
The UFC’s booking of an interim UFC heavyweight title fight at UFC 265 between Ciryl Gane and Derrick Lewis is a piece of curious matchmaking, particularly as champion Francis Ngannou isn’t injured. So what gives? Has the promotion booked this fight purely to spite Ngannou, who has spoken out about fighter pay in recent weeks?
While the UFC usually books its fights to determine who the best fighter in each division is, the promotion has also seemingly booked fights purely to spite someone.
At times they’ve appeared to book fights to spite their own fighters, while at other times, they’ve seemingly looked to spite other promotions and even other sports.
With this in mind, here are three times the UFC appeared to set up a fight to spite someone:
#3 Holly Holm vs. Germaine de Randamie at UFC 208 – to spite Cris Cyborg
When the UFC announced that they’d be introducing a women’s featherweight title at the beginning of 2017, it seemed like the pieces were set up for Cris Cyborg to become a UFC champion.
The Brazilian had won her first two UFC fights in 2016 – albeit at a 140lbs catchweight – but her dream was always to capture UFC gold at 145lbs, and this seemed like her chance.
That’s why UFC fans were baffled when the promotion announced the inaugural title fight would take place at UFC 208 in February 2017 between Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie, with Cyborg nowhere to be seen.
Reportedly, the UFC had initially wanted Cyborg involved but balked when she told the promotion she wouldn’t be ready until March. Cyborg stated she was still recovering from her previous weight cut.
The Brazilian said she felt disrespected by the booking of Holm vs. de Randamie and outright claimed that the UFC had made the fight to spite her. And given that they booked it a month before she said she’d be ready, it felt like she had a point.
For his part, UFC president Dana White rolled out his usual line – he said that Cyborg had turned a title fight down three times and claimed the UFC 208 booking had nothing to do with spiting her.
Whatever the truth was, things ended up going Cyborg’s way in the end. She won the UFC featherweight title later in 2017 after de Randamie vacated it.
#2 Randy Couture vs. James Toney at UFC 118 – to spite James Toney and boxing
The rivalry between MMA and boxing is a bit of a ludicrous one, to be honest. Both sports are completely different and require largely different skills to succeed in, even if both involve punching an opponent in the face.
However, that hasn’t stopped fighters from either side from declaring that their sport is superior. In 2010, boxer James Toney decided to attempt to prove the superiority of the sweet science by signing a deal to fight in the UFC.
Toney bragged that no UFC fighter could survive the onslaught he’d bring with his fists. The pugilist even claimed that he wouldn’t need to worry about the ground game as his hands would be too quick for a potential takedown.
The UFC could easily have matched him with a kickboxer in his octagon debut, hoping that their fighter would use a more varied stand-up style to knock Toney out.
Instead, they chose to match him with former UFC heavyweight and light-heavyweight champion Randy Couture. At that point, 'The Natural' was 47 years old.
But the UFC knew that in Couture, they had a fighter who wouldn’t bother to test his striking against 'Lights Out' and would instead find the quickest route to victory.
It was clearly a piece of matchmaking done not just to spite the trash-talking Toney but also the sport of boxing and its fans who believed it to be superior to MMA.
And sure enough, within seconds of the bout beginning, Couture used an ankle pick to ground Toney and submitted him soon after with an arm-triangle choke.
It was an embarrassing and chastening defeat for Toney, who stopped all of his trash talk immediately and wasn’t given a second chance inside the octagon. On this occasion, the UFC’s spiteful booking worked perfectly.
#1 Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture at UFC 43 – to spite Tito Ortiz
Francis Ngannou isn’t the first UFC champion to find himself on the end of some spiteful booking from the UFC. Back in the promotion’s dark ages, the UFC’s poster boy – UFC light-heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz – suffered the same fate.
Ortiz won the title in 2000, and by the time 2003 came around, he was clearly the UFC’s biggest star. Tito Ortiz was riding the crest of a wave that he’d caused at UFC 40 with his win over legend Ken Shamrock.
Chuck L riding a lengthy win streak, was supposed to be next in line – but Ortiz balked at the potential booking as Liddell was one of his training partners and a supposed friend.
Liddell, for his part, didn’t seem to have a problem fighting Ortiz. However, 'The Huntington Beach Bad Boy' was determined to get the most money possible out of the UFC for fighting 'The Iceman'.
And so Ortiz decided to stall, hoping the UFC would cave in to his demands. But, instead, they refused – and seemingly to spite their poster-boy, they matched Liddell with Randy Couture in the promotion’s first interim title fight instead.
Ortiz was forced to watch as Couture made mincemeat of Liddell. With questions over who the “real” champion now was, Ortiz ended up returning to the UFC to fight 'The Natural'. The Californian lost his title after being dominated by Couture for five rounds.
It was the first sign that the UFC’s relationship with Ortiz had become fractious – and wouldn’t be the first time that spiteful behavior was seen from both sides.