As soon as Dana White announced that UFC 297 was going to take place live from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the Canadian fight fans began to salivate with excitement.
After five long years, the UFC finally returns to Toronto – their last event being UFC 231: Holloway vs. Ortega. Canadian fans should have been elated that the UFC was returning.
Is There a Lack of Excitement for UFC 297?
Unfortunately, the excitement for UFC 297 turned sour very quickly when the co-main was announced between Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva for the vacant bantamweight title (long held by Amanda Nunes) and fans were confused, thinking that was the headliner.
For the record, Raquel Pennington vs. Mayra Bueno Silva is an exciting fight and these two women are going to give everything to be a world champ; it is just unfortunate the fans don’t see that this fight could be an all-time war for women’s MMA.
The frustration began to boil over when the full fight card was announced and many believed that it was a glorified Fight Night card. The complaints did not end there, though.
As soon as tickets went on sale, social media was on fire with negative comments on how expensive they were, many opting not to purchase them. Many felt the fight card did not warrant or represent the high price of a ticket. On the flip side, some fans were pretty pumped about being inside the Scotiabank Arena once again and happily made the purchase.
UFC 297’s Loss of Two Fights
What was keeping a great card from being ripped to shreds from the masses was two interesting matchups, one being Jan Błachowicz vs. Aleksandar Rakić and the other Dominick Reyes vs. Carlos Ulberg. Both Błachowicz and Ulberg pulled out due to injury. The card still looks decent, but losing those two light heavyweight fights was a huge blow for many.
As it gets close to fight night, some fans are grading what they think of the fight card leading up to Saturday night.
Now, no matter the negative opinions from some fans, the UFC 297’s middleweight title fight and bad blood between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis still will get the excitement going. Sometimes when these types of fights get personal, that’s when instant classics are made.
It is easy to criticize the fight card, but all we can do is speculate and let the MMA gods do what they do – who knows, maybe UFC 297 will be a top contender for fight card of the year.
What are your thoughts on UFC 297? On paper, does it disappoint since it is the first UFC pay-per-view of the year?
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
