5 times a guaranteed UFC slugfest failed to live up to the hype
As the biggest MMA promotion in the world, the UFC naturally always attempts to put together not just the best fights, but the most exciting too.
The UFC will often attempt to guarantee a slugfest by booking one exciting fighter against another, but at times, such fights turn out to be a major disappointment.
At the end of the day, MMA is a highly unpredictable sport in which anything can happen, and so while being treated to a staring contest after expecting a slugfest can be frustrating, it’s always possible.
So with this considered, here are five times the UFC booked a potential slugfest, only for it to fail to live up to the hype.
#5. Tim Sylvia vs. Andrei Arlovski – UFC 61
When the UFC booked a third fight between Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski for the UFC heavyweight title at UFC 61, both the promotion and the fans understandably expected fireworks.
After all, the first two clashes between the two men had been wild. The first meeting saw Arlovski win in less than a minute after flooring Sylvia with a punch and then submitting him with an Achilles lock.
The second, meanwhile, was even more dramatic, as Sylvia somehow recovered from a brutal knockdown to land an uppercut that knocked ‘The Pitbull’ silly, winning him the UFC heavyweight title in the process.
However, those first two fights seemed to have made both men wary of the other’s punching power. And that meant that when it came to the third fight, neither fighter really wanted to commit all that much.
And so at UFC 61, fans already angered by a controversial stoppage in a fight between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock ended up being treated to plenty of staring, feinting and circling, but very little in the way of actual action. To say they were frustrated would be an understatement.
In the end, Sylvia was awarded a unanimous decision in one of the worst five-round fights in UFC history. Strangely though, it was ‘The Maine-iac’ rather than Arlovski whose reputation was damaged for good, as the fans viewed him as a dull fighter for the remainder of his UFC tenure.