The Stats Zone
November 10 2016, 15:00 · Tom

UFC 205: The Biggest Card in MMA History

Post Share

New York has finally emerged out of the 90’s to legalise Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and thus the UFC have baptised the occasion by putting on the biggest card to date, taking place on 12th November at Madison Square Garden. After 19 years and a lot of persistence from the UFC, the New York State Assembly voted on 22nd March 2016 in favour of legalising and regulating the sport, becoming the final US state to do so. With this news, the UFC decided to make a statement by building a card as stacked as a juiced up Brock Lesnar.

How does UFC 205 compare to other cards?
To measure and compare the standard of the main card, we have analysed the rankings of each fighter from the biggest UFC events. The rankings were obtained from Fight Matrix.

UFC 100 has long held the claim of the biggest UFC event in history with an average fighter ranking of 6.8 (main card). That was until UFC 194 and 200 came along featuring even higher ranked fighters with an average of 5.2 and 5.3 respectively. This incredible level of competition made it difficult to imagine a card more competitive, however the UFC are treating fans to a card with an average fighter ranking of 2.9. Crazy, mouth-watering, gluttonous but fitting for the first event held at Madison Square Garden.

What makes this card even more impressive is the depth. We have warriors and veterans Frankie Edgar and Jeremy Stephens facing off – the winner of which will be put into title contention. We also have the unbeaten Russian monster Khabib Nurmagomedov taking on Michael Johnson that will also throw the winner into title contention. We then have former Light Heavyweight champion Rashad Evans fighting the war hero in Tim Kennedy. These match-ups are worthy of headlining any UFC event yet they are all on the preliminary card! In fact, out of the 26 fighters on the card, 20 of them have headlined a UFC event before, and we haven’t even mentioned yet that the main event may see the first ever fighter to hold two belts simultaneously if Conor McGregor (current Featherweight champion) beats the Lightweight champion; Eddie Alvarez.

Let’s take a statistical look at the main card: