5 UFC fights that were hugely overhyped
The UFC is the world’s biggest MMA promotion and obviously, it’s their job to be able to sell the fights that they put on to the fans. Naturally, this means hyping fights up via countdown shows, pre-match videos, and the like.
How many times have we heard the likes of Joe Rogan, Jimmy Smith and Dana White himself selling fights as “the biggest fight in UFC history” or “fireworks guaranteed” and so on? It’d probably be impossible to count. Thankfully though, most of the time big UFC fights genuinely deliver.
Unfortunately though, sometimes big fights simply don’t live up to the pre-fight hype given to them by the UFC machine. Whether it’s because they were never likely to be good in the first place, or because they simply turned out to be a bad style match, the following 5 fights are examples of big UFC fights that were simply overhyped.
#1 CM Punk vs. Mickey Gall – UFC 203
When former WWE superstar CM Punk signed with the UFC in December 2014, it was practically a guarantee that his debut fight would be massively hyped by the promotion. After all, the last WWE crossover they’d signed – Brock Lesnar – had become one of the biggest draws in the history of MMA.
Punk though wasn’t quite cut from the same cloth as Lesnar, as he didn’t have the extensive amateur wrestling background that served Lesnar so well in the Octagon. And so we literally had to wait for years for the ‘Straight Edge Superstar’ to step into the cage.
During that time period the UFC were largely quiet around the future of Punk, but when it became known that he intended to debut in late 2016, the hype began. First, a fight between UFC newcomers Mickey Gall and Michael Jackson was put together with the idea being that the winner would face Punk.
Gall promptly won via first-round submission and essentially won a golden ticket to UFC stardom. His fight with Punk at UFC 203 was hyped massively, with the pay-per-view’s countdown show largely dedicated to the former WWE man’s transition into MMA, and despite a great-sounding main event between Stipe Miocic and Alistair Overeem, it was clear why most people were going to buy the show.
And then the fight happened, and Punk got stomped. He threw probably the worst punch in UFC history before being taken down, and from there Gall dominated him in the same way Royce Gracie dominated his foes in the early UFC shows – he mounted him, beat him up and then choked him out.
Any potential for Punk becoming a genuine contender in the UFC instantly went out of the window, and while Gall looked good, it was clear that he probably would never face such a poor opponent in his future UFC fights. This one-sided squash was a massive example of the UFC overhyping a fight.