UFC 225 – A Great Card With A Weird Lineup

UFC 225 is fast approaching and fight fans are ready for a card that is absolutely loaded with talent. This card features fifteen fighters who are either ranked in the top-fifteen of their respective divisions or hold the title. Thanks to that remarkable group, it makes it a challenge to put the card together without more than a couple fighters feeling they are getting short changed. That being said, there are a number of curious choices with how this card was built and it seems fans and fighters alike are voicing their frustrations. Some argue this card is perfectly balanced from top to bottom, others think only proven talent should get a shot on the main card. No matter how you slice it, someone is going to have to grab that last tiny, misshapen slot from the pizza box that is this lineup. Let’s take a peak at a few of the issues and see if we can make heads or tails of it.

CM Punk

We first have to turn our attention the to straightedge elephant in the room, Phil “CM Punk” Brooks. Don’t try and kid yourself, Punk being on the main card is a joke. Even he has gone on record as saying he thinks it’s nuts and he would rather be on UFC Fight Pass. Obviously as a professional fighter with a record of 0-1, he has not earned his way onto the main card but Punk did not make his to the UFC the same way as other fighters either. He cut his teeth in the wrestling ring. Love it or hate it, he came to the UFC a hotter commodity than almost any MMA prospect and wasting the value of his name would be absurd. Couple that with the fact that this fight is in his hometown and it seems a no brainer that UFC officials tossed him out as the curtain jerk for this pay-per-view. Has he earned this slot? No. Will the UFC make more with him on than pay-per-view portion of the card? Probably. The whole thing is a little nuts but CM Punk is an investment in fans not an investment in the future of a 39 year old that spent over a decade getting slammed on a mat night after night.

Joseph Benavidez vs Sergio Pettis

Benavidez versus Pettis is a fight that is getting little to no love on this card. This may be because each of these fighters have shown a lack of finishing ability in their more recent fights. However, when you talk about championship contenders, Joseph Benavidez is a person who has only ever lost to two fighters: Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and Dominick Cruz. Having two losses to Johnson hurts Benavidez but prior to an injury that has kept him sidelined since 2016, he had won six fights in a row with four of those against former title challengers. Having Benavidez buried on the Fight Pass portion of this card seems odd at best. His opponent, Pettis, is a fighter that many felt would eventually be able to earn a shot against Might Mouse. Pettis never truly lived up to the hype, but he did manage to win seven out of ten UFC fights and was even on a four-fight win streak before losing a decision to perennial title challenger, Henry Cejudo. Pettis may not have caught the world on fire, but when two of the top five flyweights are competing in the Octagon, it should make the main card of a pay-per-view.

Colby Covington

Colby Covington is a polarizing figure and there is no denying he is on the rise in the welterweight division. He has won five fights in a row and in his last outing, secured the biggest win of his career when he bested Demian Maia. However, with three straight decisions, two of which came against fighters in the twilight of their careers, some would argue that Covington should not be in the co-main event of this card.   His talent has taken him up the rankings, but his mouth seems to have done some of the work as well. That is the difference between a fighter like Sergio Pettis and a one like Covington. While many disagree with his antics, his trash talk on social media has clearly made him standout from a sea of UFC fighters. Covington may have taken some inspiration from fellow Oregonian Chael Sonnen, but his twisted version of the call out has him looking more like Bizarro Sonnen than the American Gangster. Covington is a shoe in for a future title shot but he could us a little more seasoning. Additionally, there are some heavyweights in Alistair Overeem and Curtis Blaydes that fight fans would love to see in the co-main event.

This card could be built any number of ways. Is it wrong the way it is now? Could it be better setup? Just who should be on Fight Pass? The answers to these questions could take weeks to decide and likely did, behind closed doors with the UFC brass hoping they made the right choices. This is a fun card no matter how you slice it and there will never be a piece left in the pizza box, even if it is tiny and misshapen.