The month of July is a light one for the UFC. With the promotion already having held a bye week over the weekend of the Fourth of July inside the United States, only three events were on the schedule this seventh month of the year. By and large, MMA‘s top promotion put on a wonderful show Saturday night.
UFC Denver was a homecoming of sorts for Dana White’s promotion. Saturday’s event was the first UFC Fight Night card to be held inside Ball Center since the Nov. 10, 2018 show on FS1, commemorating the UFC’s silver anniversary.
We need to go back in time, however, to a point where the UFC’s relationship with Colorado seemed to be fractured.
UFC Almost Didn’t Go Back to Denver
There was concern in the past that the UFC might never set foot in Colorado again. Back in 2021, UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Marc Ratner, spoke out on the Colorado State Athletic Commission’s then-new policy on MMA where knee strikes to the head of a downed contestant were legalized.
“I would tell the world that we’re not going there,” Ratner said at the time. “I would tell the Governor that we would love to come to Colorado, but you have to have the right rules. So, I’m against that.”
Despite what Ratner said almost three years ago, the UFC returned to where both UFC 1 (also known as UFC 1: In the Beginning) and UFC 2 (retroactively retitled UFC 2: No Way Out) took place in the fall of 1993 and the spring of 1994, respectively, over the weekend.
The Crowd Was Live
Judging by the audience’s reaction to the show on Saturday night, Denver was long overdue for another UFC show. When you think of the undercard of an MMA show, you get an idea in your head of what the size of the crowd might be.
Aside from a few diehard fans of the sport, not very many people are in the venue. Given that the promotion hadn’t been there since the silver anniversary card in 2018, it’s not a surprise that the fans showed up and showed out early in the evening and kept the energy going for the entire six-hours plus that the card lasted.
It was a winning night for the crowd, and by extension, the UFC as a whole. Figures released after the main event of the evening indicated that UFC Denver was a sold-out card. All 16,884 seats were accounted for on Saturday night.
Another SOLD OUT event from the city where it all started! #UFCDenver pic.twitter.com/s0M7FHMSq8
— TKO (@TKOGrp) July 14, 2024
Jackson Delivers Best Moment of Night
The sold-out crowd had plenty to roar about, as well, during Saturday’s show, including an electrifying finish late in the prelims. If you took a restroom break during the Montel Jackson vs. Da’Mon Blackshear bout at bantamweight, you returned to your seat having missed an awesome knockout.
Right from the command to fight, Jackson’s mission was simple: Seek and destroy. Perhaps even more incredible is the foreshadowing given by Dominick Cruz, who was working as an analyst for the telecast this weekend.
“Watch the straight punches of Jackson,” Cruz said. “They’re just lightning, like straight down the pipe.” The words were barely out of Felder’s mouth when Jackson scored with a single blow to floor Blackshear, with referee Nick Berens ending the fight after just 18 seconds.
During the post-fight press conference, Jackson pocketed $50,000 (USD) as one of the winners of the Performance of the Night Award. This fight could become one of the best knockouts of 2024 by the time December hits.
Cortez No Match for Namajunas in Headlining Affair
Your main event of the evening saw Rose Namajunas take on Tracy Cortez in a women’s flyweight affair. “Thug Rose” kept up the pace throughout the contest and gave Cortez little chance to get going in round one.
Although Cortez tried to lock up a submission in round two of the fight, Namajunas was the toughest customer in the shop, using her ground game to pacify her adversary, who made her main event debut this weekend. Simply put, this was a clinical performance for the former champion at strawweight.
With her unanimous decision victory over Cortez, expect Rose Namajunas to be firmly in the conversation for the UFC Women’s Flyweight Championship. If she can parlay this performance into another victory in her next fight, she could be a challenger for the 125-lb. belt versus Alexa Grasso at some point in 2025.
Final Thoughts
If Ball Center wanted to use UFC Denver as a dress rehearsal for ONE 168 on the night of Sept. 6, consider it a success. While some of the UFC Fight Night cards don’t live up to fans’ expectations, this was a great outing for the promotion.
Hopefully, UFC CEO Dana White shortlists Ball Center as a potential host site for a future pay-per-view. It’d only be right. MMA as we know it began in Denver in 1993, so imagine a UFC pay-per-view from there in the future.
