5 times when a co-main event outshone the headliner in recent UFC history
Whenever the UFC puts together a big event, they intend for the headline bout to be the one that everyone talks about the next day. Of course, that doesn’t always go to plan.
Over the years, we’ve seen numerous examples of co-main events completely overshadowing the headliner on a UFC card, with Conor McGregor’s first fight against Dustin Poirier being an example.
Rewind the clocks ⏳
⏮ Look back on @DustinPoirier vs @TheNotoriousMMA from #UFC178 now. #UFC257 https://t.co/fgl3FuQ60l
More recently than that, though, there have been a number of co-main events that outshone the headline bout, even when said headliner turned out to be excellent in its own right.
Here are five times that a co-headliner outshone the headline bout at recent UFC events.
#5. Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Weili Zhang – UFC 248
UFC 248, one of the final events to take place prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, was built largely around the premise of a wild fight for the middleweight title between champ Israel Adesanya and challenger Yoel Romero.
However, while the fans in attendance at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena were treated to one of the wildest fights they’d ever seen, it didn’t come in the headline bout.
In fact, Adesanya vs. Romero turned out to be one of the worst title fights in recent memory, with both men looking gunshy and largely refusing to engage with the other. In the end, Adesanya came away with a unanimous decision win, retaining his title, but it was safe to say that nobody wanted to rewatch the fight.
The same could not be said for the co-headliner, which saw Weili Zhang defend her strawweight crown against former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. To say this fight was a crazy one would be an understatement.
TAKE A BOW, LADIES 
wins in a row!👏 TAKE A BOW, LADIES 👏
Zhang Weili and Joanna Jędrzejczyk just gave us one of the greatest fights of all time.
Zhang Weili wins by split decision and takes her incredible run to 2️⃣1️⃣ wins in a row!
#UFC248 https://t.co/tIttCIu89c
From the off, the two women traded nothing but bombs with one another, with both taking an insane amount of damage. Quite how neither woman ended up being finished remains a mystery, particularly when you consider that they actually threw a total of 783 strikes at one another.
Either way, Zhang and Jedrzejczyk produced a stone cold classic. While even a so-so fight would’ve outshone Adesanya vs. Romero, this one made the event worth watching even when the headliner went a little wrong.