Almost before we knew that UFC 300 would be held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on April 13, fans have been clamoring to know who would be on the card and, more significantly, who would headline it. We now know that Alex Pereira will make the first defense of his light heavyweight title against Jamahal Hill in the main event.
There is one more fight still to be added, and it might be a main card bout still. Most fans, of course, wanted to see Conor McGregor in the main event, and when the UFC announced its new anti-doping plan last year, that seemed like it would be possible. McGregor re-entered the testing pool on Oct. 8, while the UFC was still with USADA. Because he'd left the pool and then returned, it meant he had to be in it for six months before competing.
McGregor, who has been tested four times in 2024 per the UFC's anti-doping page, is eligible to return on April 6.
White said following UFC 298 that McGregor doesn't need the money and thus it had been hard to come to a deal with him for a fight. McGregor's movie, the remake of 'Roadhouse,' hits theaters next month, and he has to promote that. It also remains unclear whether McGregor is healthy enough to fight at this point, even if he wanted to do so.
The UFC has built its centennial cards a bit deeper than normal. At UFC 100, it featured massive stars such as Brock Lesnar and Georges St-Pierre while also featuring Jon Jones, Dan Henderson, Michael Bisping and Mark Coleman. UFC 200 featured Lesnar, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes and Jose Aldo. Jones was scheduled to headline that card but failed an anti-doping test.
It was obvious the UFC wanted to go big with UFC 300. And CEO Dana White built the anticipation by announcing fights that would be on the card on social media. And each time he did, as he made the case for why the latest fight to be announced would be incredible, he would promise that the final card would be mind-blowing.
He was doing his job as a promoter, building the fights he was selling, but it was also creating unreasonable expectations.
"It's a little crazy, but it's understandable," Hill said. "It's a simple fact of, I mean, what were they promised? It was so hyped and Dana promised something that would blow their minds that they didn't see coming. A lot of people already knew me and Alex were going to fight [at UFC 301]. So, you know, Dana did a very good job of hyping this card, of building it up. He did a very good job. And like we were saying [before recording started], they were expecting something like Conor versus Jesus."
Even the UFC, with all of its wherewithal, couldn't deliver Jesus.
And without McGregor, the UFC doesn't have that one transcendent star to headline the show who would bring world-wide attention by himself. They would have loved to have had a heavyweight title defense by Jones, but Jones told the UFC he wasn't healthy enough to be ready by then.
The UFC's strategy in making the card became clear: They put on the absolute best fights they could for it, given who was healthy and available. To me, the BMF title bout between Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway is the fight I'm looking forward to most, and I wouldn't complain if it were the main event. It has a series of fun fights, though, throughout. This is not a top-heavy card. The opening bout pits former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo against former bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt.
Pereira versus Hill figures to be a huge slugfest.
Charles Oliveira versus Arman Tsarukyan is a fascinating battle between elite lightweights with the No. 1 contender's status at stake.
Expectations got out of whack. Lesnar is 46 years old and hasn't fought an MMA bout since 2016, but there are those who wanted to see him in the show. Ronda Rousey is 37 and hasn't fought since losing to Nunes at UFC 207 on Dec. 30, 2016. St-Pierre is 42 and will be less than a month away from his 43rd birthday on the night of UFC 300. St-Pierre fought once, on Nov. 4, 2017, in the last 10-plus years.
Khabib Nurmagomedov has been retired since Oct. 24, 2020.
Maybe the UFC could have made 51-year-old Frank Shamrock in a rematch against 49-year-old Tito Oritz that would have satisfied the nostalgic portion of the fan base.
The card is outstanding, with a lot of big names -- there are 13 current or former champions on the card -- and intriguing bouts. Have your say and let us know what you think of UFC 300 by voting in this poll and making a comment.