Let’s talk about having a dream, shall we? A dream, in its simplest form, is time spent on the playground of a person’s imagination. When a person lets his or her imagination run wild on the playground known as the world of fantasy, anything is possible, anything at all.
One such dream that takes place quite often in the minds of sports fans is what a potential outcome of the 1994 Major League Baseball season might have looked like had a damaging players’ strike not happened and the World Series taken place. In an alternate universe, the New York Yankees may have traveled to the Canadian province of Quebec in the 1994 Fall Classic to meet up with the Montreal Expos.
This begs another question: Had the 1994 MLB strike never happened and the World Series gotten played, provided that the Expos win in this dream scenario, do the Expos relocate to Washington and become the Nationals in 2005? This is a different debate for a different time.
Dream Matchmaking For a Fantasy MMA Card
Let’s switch gears and talk about MMA. From time to time, for various reasons throughout the history of the sport, individual fights and in some cases entire cards get scrubbed. Five years ago, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world, the UFC moved to close a Fight Night event from Brasilia to the general public.
Subsequent to the UFC’s decision to hold UFC Brasilia behind closed doors, the studio show was moved to outside the arena. In the immediate aftermath of that card, all then-upcoming shows were cancelled, marking the first time that UFC shows were ever called off due to reasons outside of the organization’s control, not returning until May of that year for a one-week residency in Jacksonville.
MMA fans have undoubtedly have thought about playing matchmaker themselves for a dream card scenario. Today, allow me to play matchmaker if only for a moment or two, with promotional ties being waved off for the sake of this article.
Disclaimer: This is based on a dream event. No actual pairings of fighters mentioned within this article have been announced at press time.
Dream Card Main Event: Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson
For the headliner of this card, we go to the lightweight division for what is arguably one of the most snake-bitten pairings that this sport has ever seen and maybe ever will see. Out of all the fights that have been scheduled and cancelled ahead of fight night, no postponement has ever been more disappointing than the contest between Khabib Nurmagomedov (29-0 MMA, 13-0 UFC) and Tony Ferguson (25-11 MMA, 15-9 UFC.)
The UFC booked Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson on five separate occasions between December of 2015 and April of 2020. Every time, the contest was scrubbed without a single punch being thrown, with the April 18, 2020 cancellation due to coronavirus concerns being the final straw. Khabib Nurmagomedov retired from MMA that October, unifying the permanent belt in UFC 254 versus Gaethje.
"I am Khabib. I am not coronavirus."
Nurmagomedov took to Instagram Live to lay out the details of his travel to Russia and express frustration with what he believes is misplaced blame about the status of his fight with Tony Ferguson. (via @TeamKhabib) pic.twitter.com/xRR5zxPLAE
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) April 2, 2020
In a 2020 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan discussed the challenges that the pairing faced ahead of the fight that spring.
“This fight is so cursed,” Rogan said on his podcast. “This is how [UFC CEO] Dana [White] feels. This is why Dana’s trying so hard to make it happen even if there’s only 10 people in the room.”
Ferguson was instead paired on the rebooked UFC 249 with Justin Gaethje (25-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) for the interim title at 155.
Dream Card Co-Main Event: Stipe Miocic vs. Renan Ferreira
For the co-main attraction of this dream card, we have a promotional crossover featuring two fighters who know how to score championship victories at heavyweight. Stipe Miocic makes the walk in the co-main event of the evening to take on former PFL titleholder Renan Ferreira.
Miocic (20-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC) retired from MMA in the real world after sustaining a third-round knockout (spinning back fist and punches) at the hands of Jon Jones (28-1, 1 NC MMA, 22-1, 1 NC UFC) on Nov. 16 during the UFC 309 main event inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was his second defeat in succession before he hung up his gloves permanently.
Across the way, Renan Ferreira (13-4, 3 NC MMA, 7-2, 3 NC PFL) is still actively fighting in MMA in reality, losing by way of first-round knockout (ground and pound shots) to Francis Ngannou (18-3, 1-0 PFL) back in October during the Battle of the Giants main event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from The Mayadeen. How would this dream fight play out?
Dream Card: Kayla Harrison vs. Cris Cyborg
We move now to the women’s featherweight division for a contest between two of the best in the sport, Kayla Harrison and Cris Cyborg. While Harrison (18-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC), who went 15-1 in the PFL, is currently fighting at bantamweight, the former Olympian has spent time at 145 lbs in the past.
Back in 2020, she made a one-off appearance in Invicta Fighting Championships after the PFL moved to cancel its season that year due to COVID-19, scoring a second-round knockout (punches) over Courtney King in what turned out to be the former’s only fight that year. A contest with Jozette Cotton in the late Titan FC was scrubbed the next month after Cotton came in 24 lbs over the 156-lb lightweight nontitle maximum and needed to be hospitalized.
Much like the Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson fight mentioned earlier, Harrison and Cyborg almost met in the physical world, but Harrison left for the UFC before the fight could actually happen.
“We’re disappointed that fight between Cyborg and Kayla did not happen”, PFL CEO Peter Murray said last year. “Kayla chose not to make it happen and move on to her next chapter. We had the fight that matters, the fight that matters most, candidly, the biggest fight in women’s sports. Ultimately, Kayla made a decision to move on.”
Cyborg (26-2, 2 NC MMA) is the most-decorated champion in women’s MMA, having won five championships throughout her career in the cage dating back to her days in the late Strikeforce. She beat Larissa Pacheco in Battle of the Giants this past fall. Who would win if Cyborg and Harrison locked horns?
Dream Card: Johnny Eblen vs. Jack Hermansson
For the final main card bout in this dream event, we go to middleweight for a contest between Johnny Eblen (16-0 MMA), an alumnus of both Bellator MMA and the PFL, and Jack Hermansson (24-8 MMA,) a veteran of Bellator and the UFC. In the real world, Eblen has yet to lose inside the cage, most recently besting Fabian Edwards back in October of 2024.
Across the way, Jack Hermansson has posted a mark of 3-2 in his last five fights, scoring a unanimous decision victory over Joe Pyfer in February of 2024. If this fight were to take place in reality, which middleweight would be the one getting his hand raised?
Final Thoughts
Now that we’ve put together this dream card, which matchups would you like to see in a fantasy MMA event? Let us know in the comments.