UFC Fight Night 127 marks the promotion’s tenth visit to the English capital, playing second only to Las Vegas in the combat supremo’s favourite destinations across the globe. It also marks the first event for five years that hasn’t been headlined by a Brit, with Brazil’s Fabricio Werdum facing Russian Alexander Volkov in a heavyweight main event.
What happened the previous nine times the promotion arrived in London? Let’s take a look through the history books.
UFC 38 – July 13th 2002 – Royal Albert Hall
You have to dig back over fifteen years to find the first time the UFC touched down in London. The Royal Albert Hall was the somewhat surprising, although historic venue for the aptly named ‘Brawl at the Hall’.
Just seven fights featured on the card, headlined by legend Matt Hughes retaining his welterweight crown, defeating Carlos Newton in the fourth round. Future two-time heavyweight champion lost out to England’s Ian Freeman in the co-main event.
The event drew an attendance of just 3,800, which dwarfs in comparison to more recent visits!
UFC 75 – September 8th 2007 – O2 Arena
Fast forward over five years… and 16,235 piled in to The O2 Arena for UFC 75… aired on Setanta Sports (remember them!?)
The event was headlined by a light heavyweight unification bout between Quinton Jackson and Dan Henderson, with Jackson edging a decision victory over the future hall-of-famer. Michael Bisping featured in the co-main event, narrowly outpointing Matt Hamill.
UFC 75 marked a huge spike in attendance and popularity with the event generating $2.7 million on tickets alone. This was before Conor McGregor had even made his MMA debut!
UFC 85 – June 7th 2008 – O2 Arena
UFC 85 was completely plagued by injuries with the main event changing FOUR times! Chuck Liddell and Mauricio Rua were the original slated headliner before Thiago Alves vs. Matt Hughes was made the main event after a series of injuries resulted in the original fight being scrapped.
Alves defeated short notice replacement Hughes in the second round with a flying knee, whilst Michael Bisping’s stock continued to rise after defeating Jason Day in his second middleweight fight. This weekend’s headliner Fabricio Werdum opened the main card with a victory over Brandon Vera.
Whilst the attendance dropped slightly to 15,327, the revenue rose to almost $3 million. The UK market continued to show its value to the promotion.
UFC 95 – February 21st 2009 – O2 Arena
Headlined by The Ultimate Fighter winners Diego Sanchez and Joe Stevenson, UFC 95 showed a dip in popularity, despite a strong fight card.
Sanchez outpointed Stevenson over three rounds whilst current commentator Dan Hardy knocked out Rory Markham in his second UFC outing. The likes of Chael Sonnen, Demian Maia and Junior dos Santos also competed on the card.
The attendance continued to drop with 13,268 spectators whilst the gate dipped to around $1 million. Was the visit to London becoming a little too frequent?!
UFC 120 – October 16th 2010 – O2 Arena
Eighteen months later, the UFC return to London and the criticism starts, with fans claiming that the UFC only places British fighters on the bill, rather than the big ‘international’ names (sound familiar?).
Michael Bisping defeated Yoshihiro Akiyama in the main event, whilst Carlos Condit defeated Dan Hardy, in his first fight after losing his title challenge against Georges St-Pierre.
The attendance and gate rose, with 17,133 spectators making it a European record at the time for the promotion. The gate generated over $2.5 million in revenue to mark a successful event for the combat sports supremos.
UFC on Fuel TV 7 – February 16th 2013 – Wembley Arena
After a near two-and-a-half year gap, the octagon returned to London in a new venue, with the interim bantamweight title up for grabs as Renan Barao submitted Michael McDonald in the fourth round.
Cub Swanson defeated Dustin Poirier as well as Jimi Manuwa picked up a victory over Cyrille Diabate, in his second octagon appearance. Manuwa was set to become a mainstay at the summit of every UFC card to head to the capital.
An attendance of 10,349 marked the worst attended UFC event in London since their event at the Royal Albert Hall over ten years ago. A relatively disappointing gate of $1.3 million was also generated.
UFC Fight Night 37 – March 8th 2014 – O2 Arena
The promotion returned to the O2 Arena with Jimi Manuwa headlining his first event, taking on current teammate Alexander Gustafsson. The Brit was unsuccessful in his challenge, losing via TKO in the second round.
Brad Pickett made his flyweight debut, defeating Neil Seery by unanimous decision, whilst Gunnar Nelson, Ilir Latifi and Michael Johnson also picked up victories in the capital.
An attendance of 14,604 with a gate just north of $2 million proved the decision to return to the O2 Arena to be a right one.
UFC Fight Night 84 – February 27th 2016 – O2 Arena
The UK fans have been neglected in the past with the fight cards… but on Christmas Eve in 2015… Gegard Mousasi was replaced by Anderson Silva in the main event against Michael Bisping.
British fight fans rejoiced… and Bisping & Silva laid on a five round back-and-forth battle with the Englishman walking away with his hand raised (watch this fight!). Scott Askham walked away with the performance of the night bonus after a stunning headkick knockout of Chris Dempsey.
16,734 fans piled in for the second highest attended event in the UK, generating $2 million in gate revenue.
UFC Fight Night 107 – 18th March 2017 – O2 Arena
London’s own Jimi Manuwa returned to headliner status with a first round knockout of Corey Anderson. Gunnar Nelson shared performance of the night bonuses with Manuwa with a brilliant performance, resulting in a submission victory over Alan Jouban.
Marc Diakiese continued to show his growing potential with a stunning thirty-second knockout over Teemu Packalen, but it was Brad Pickett who’s ‘last dance’ left an emotional stamp on the event.
Pickett bowed out after a storied journey in the sport, fighting in four different weight classes. The MMA gods looked to be shining as Pickett controlled the first two rounds… but with just over a minute to go, Marlon Vera landed a head kick followed up by strikes to put a dampener on the mood.
Pickett lay his Trilby hat in the octagon for one final time… and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the arena! Even his opponent was crying!
If you didn't tear up at @One_Punch's last fight then we can't be friends!
