UFC 312 fight card is kind of weak, and this is intentional

With at least 12 pay-per-view events a year not every UFC event can be a banger. There are a couple of reasons why that is but much of it boils down to the fact that many of the divisions just aren't that exciting anymore. The heavyweight division for example, has been a non-issue of sorts for around the past 5 years. Some new life was breathed into it by Jon Jones joining their ranks and taking the belt, but that enthusiasm has been a bit short-lived because of Jon's reluctance to fight the top ranked guys and his outright refusal to fight Tom Aspinal, and it is getting a bit silly how much Jones is dodging this obviously necessary match.

There is only so much promotional and microphone work that the UFC can do in order to pump up interest in an event. Sometimes the hype works, sometimes it doesn't. The fact Israel Adesanya fought on a non pay-per-view last weekend (and lost by the way) says a lot about how the UFC feels about a particular weekend in February and how it appears as though they "save the date!" for mostly fights that have a rather low level of interest in them.

Historically, the February PPV is the worst, or close to the worst-selling event of the every year.

src

I love how both of the fighters in this promotional poster don't even seem all that interested in what is going on here. I think it should be evident that this is photoshopped and no, the two of them did not go to a studio to actually pose for this.

The main event is Du Plessis, who is the champion, vs Sean Strickand, who many would argue is in the limelight and championship picture largely because "he got a mouth on him!" I'll talk about his mouth at another time but let's just say that he was running it so hard that people are kind of numb to him saying rather harsh and controversial things in interviews. It's expected of him and he does it so much that it isn't even surprising or shocking anymore.

Anyway, that fight should be pretty good because both of these guys are real sluggers with well-rounded game plans. At the moment Du Plessis is a -220 favorite at the bookies and he really deserves that. He is one of those guys that seems to have a limitless gas tank, can take a bunch of damage and also seems to be very difficult or impossible to submit. Well folks, I did some digging and found out that Du Plessis actually HAS been submitted in his career although it was so long ago that it isn't really relevant. He was submitted in a kind of regional event in Africa in July of 2014 in the 3rd round against a guy I've never heard of named Gareth Maclellan. I can't find a picture for it an I'm not going to devote a bunch of time to it because while it might sound like an excuse, there are reasons why this is possible and a lot of that is that it was 11 years ago and Du Plessis has changed and perfected his game a lot since then. Before leaving the EFC Driscus was a double champion so yeah, he improved.

sc

You can tell by the amount of empty seats in that already quite small arena that Du Plessis was probably elated when he got called up to UFC in 2020. Driscus DuPlessis hasn't lost a single fight in his 10 fights with UFC and most of his victories have been extremely one-sided. Some would argue, and I think successfully, that he is the reason why Izzy had fallen off since his loss to Driscus. The reason that Izzy fought a week ago was probably in the hopes that Adesanya would have a momentous victory so that Izzy could take on whoever won this one, but dude lost and now the division is kind of up in the air again and Israel kind of gave indication that he isn't really into fighting anymore.

Getting back to the point: This weekend's overall fight card is rather weak outside of the main event.

src

As an avid fan of UFC that watched every single event that takes place, it is very rare that I don't so much as recognize any of the names on the undercard. I find it really amusing that one of the guys is so much of a non-issue as far as UFC is concerned that they didn't even bother to have a photo of him on their own official website. I do love the name "Thickeness" though.

Hell, even the main card is filled with names I don't immediately recognize and I have to watch a promo reel to remind me who they are.

This is actually quite common when the UFC does their apparently obligatory one fight a year in Sydney where they involve as much Australia and New Zealand talent as possible for the sake of the home crowd. In nearly every single fight outside of the co-main-events there is an Australian fighting despite the fact that there are very few Australian fighters that are in any championship picture.

I do feel bad for the Australian fans because they have to start their event at 8 o'clock in the MORNING in order to cater to a USA audience and their sleep schedule. It's nothing personal folks, the UFC's audience is primarily North Americans and that is how they make their money.

The card is weak and if it wasn't for the two main fights this wouldn't even be PPV worthy but there is a very real reason why this rather weak event is saved for February: The Super Bowl. The Super Bowl takes place on the very next day and for most Americans, this is what they are saving their weekend energy for. To attempt to compete with the Super Bowl in the same weekend is an exercise in futility - you aren't going to win. Other networks in the United States will air some sort of children's programming during that time because nobody else is going to be watching it.

It seems strange to say that the Super Bowl can basically take over an entire weekend as far as sport viewership is concerned but that is exactly what happens. This is why UFC has a weak card in Feb and also why they hold the event overseas every year. I guess Australia is the perfect place for them to host this event because I would imagine that their population is about as excited about the Super Bowl as I would be about the NRL final.