I firmly believe that Saturday’s bout between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos on FOX is the biggest, most important fight in UFC history.
The other fight in the running for that honour is the epic battle between Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin in the light heavyweight final of the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter.
It’s the unquestioned #2 in my book.
Without this fight, the UFC wouldn’t be where they are today.
The first season of The Ultimate Fighter was a gamble, a reality TV show that gave viewers a look inside the training that goes into being a professional mixed martial artist at the highest level. It also showed us that Chris Leben likes to drink and pee on Jason Thatcher’s pillow, Josh Koscheck can be a real pain in the ass, and introduced us to a number of fighters who remained elite stars in the UFC for years to come.
The show itself was a success; the fight between Bonnar and Griffin was one of those unexpected moments of perfection that can’t be duplicated.
For 15 minutes, the two finalists and UFC hopefuls went punch-for-punch in a fight that drew in more viewers with each passing minute. As word spread that one hell of a scrap was going down on Spike, more people started tuning in.
There are thousands of UFC fans who point to that night as the night they found the sport and became hooked.
Bonnar-Griffin was such a massive success that Spike TV agreed to move forward and finance Season 2 of The Ultimate Fighter, and airing live events on the network became a regular occurrence.
Six years and some change later and The Ultimate Fighter is a two-seasons-per-year fixture for fight fans, and next year, live events on the UFC’s partner networks will outnumber their pay-per-view output, including a handful of events on network television.
A lot of things have happened to bring us to the point where the UFC is two days away from debuting on FOX. Without this fight, we wouldn’t be here; the UFC might not be here.
The is the most important fight to ever take place in the Octagon… until Saturday, when it becomes the second most important fight in UFC history.
Still, second best is pretty damn good.
Wait? Isn’t that the Canucks motto for this season?
Sorry — I had to… hockey talk kills my numbers around here.
Check out the other important moments in UFC history covered this week:
Royce Gracie and UFC 1
Rules & Regulations
Zuffa buys the UFC