UFC 266: Nostalgia vs. Now
Despite two title fights and plenty of compelling divisional clashes with legitimate stakes, Saturday's most anticipated fight is a rematch between a pair of veterans in their late 30s
The lineup for this weekend’s UFC 266 fight card at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas is loaded, with every fight from the start of the televised prelims through to the main event carrying legitimate divisional ramifications, save for one.
Ironically, that’s the fight the majority of people seem to be most excited about as the event draws nearer, and while I understand the appeal, it’s also emblematic of one the most confounding realities that exists in the MMA space today.
One of These Things is Not Like the Other
Here are final nine fights on Saturday night at UFC 266 (as of 3:30pm PST on Tuesday, September 21):
Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega
Valentina Shevchenko vs. Lauren Murphy
Nick Diaz vs. Robbie Lawler
Curtis Blaydes vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
Jessica Andrade vs. Cynthia Calvillo
Marlon Moraes vs. Merab Dvalishvili
Dan Hooker vs. Nasrat Haqparast
Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Chris Daukaus
*Roxanne Modafferi vs. Taila Santos
*not officially announced as the first televised prelim, but my guess is that will be the case
Outside of Diaz and Lawler, all but one of those fighters is ranked, and most would agree that Nasrat Haqparast is one of the top emerging lightweights in the division, and a win over Dan Hooker on Saturday would certainly vault him into the Top 15, given Hooker’s current position in the Top 10 and overall stature within the 155-pound weight class.
Each of those non-title contests will help clarify how each of those divisions lines up heading into the final quarter of the 2021 UFC calendar, and provide insights about both the victors and the vanquished, with many of those matchups likely to lead to an even bigger, more significant matchup for the winners next time out.
And then there are the veteran welterweights stationed in the middle of the pay-per-view — one a 38-year-old that hasn’t fought in more than six years and who hasn’t won a fight in nearly a decade, and the other a 39-year-old former champion on a four-fight losing streak and only a one win in his last six appearances.
Given their combined lack of success and overall inactivity these last several years, it’s impossible to look at this fight as having any kind of real significance in terms of the title picture in the 170-pound weight class, even if Diaz loyalists will declare their anti-hero leader a contender should he get a victory on Saturday night.
It’s a nostalgia fight — a rematch of a classic scrap from 17 years ago when both were just getting started in this sport and brimming with promise and potential, where Diaz did the unexpected and not only stood with Lawler, but knocked him out in the center of the Octagon.
The rematch between Diaz and Lawler feels to me like the fighting equivalent of going to see your favorite band from high school in concert again all these years later, where you’re eager to hear them run through the hits and be transported back to a different time, if only for an evening. But just like whatever act you go and see can’t hit all the same notes and look like weathered versions of themselves on stage, Diaz and Lawler are nowhere near the fighters they were when they first met at UFC 47, and while the excitement is understandable, it also feels like everyone is getting setup to get let down this weekend as well because the sequel is almost never as good as the original.
Could it still be an entertaining scrap? Absolutely — both Diaz and Lawler have a history over being in competitive, compelling battles, and their styles blend in a way that should, in theory, produce another exciting contest on Saturday.
But what I’ll never understand is how out of the nine fights that will air on television and pay-per-view, this is the one the majority of people are looking forward to the most.
Nostalgia vs. Now
I think about this stuff a lot — how segments of a given fan base hang on to certain individuals, clinging to the version of that person they see in their head when they think of that individual, and forever judging them, envisioning them as that person, rather than who they are today.
I was reminded of it on Monday when SI’s Ashley Nicole Moss tried to air out the voters that compiled the publication’s NBA Top 100 and left Carmelo Anthony off the list:
I think of it whenever a veteran competitor gets a good win and legions of fans and media set Twitter alight declaring that they’re still a contender or in the mix for the next title shot, even though recent results and the makeup of the division suggest that’s probably not true.
And I think of it when a nostalgia fight like Diaz-Lawler II is the most talked about and most anticipated fight on a card that features twin championship bouts, five matchups between Top 15 talents, and another lightweight scrap between one of the most consistently entertaining competitors in that stacked division (Hooker) and a promising emerging threat (Haqparast), plus a couple other solid scraps early on Saturday afternoon.
It’s not that I don’t have favorites or cling to the hope that one or two of the veterans talents I really like to watch compete won’t string together enough wins to make one more run at the title in their respective division; it’s just that I have a far greater interest in the fights that have an immediate impact on things and feature the best fighters of the present day, even if the combatants in those contests aren’t the biggest stars or names on a given card.
Was Diaz-Lawler I super-fun and really entertaining? Absolutely.
Are both major names in the sport? No doubt.
Does this fight have any impact on the state of the welterweight division? Nope.
For me, that makes this fight a fun little diversion in the middle of the main card — a one-off that could be competitive and exciting, but is probably more likely to be weird and a bit of a letdown that serves as a palette cleanser following a string of bouts between contenders carrying genuine divisional significance and ahead of the two championship contests that close out the show.
But I think that puts me in the minority heading into the weekend, and I really wish I could wrap my head around why that is so often the case.
People constantly talk about the UFC’s struggles to create new stars and generate interest in the next crop of ultra-talented competitors fighting at the highest levels, but then a card like this comes around with an assemblage of elite fighters all stepping into the Octagon and the guy everyone is most jazzed about seeing is someone whose last win came 3,615 days ago.
I get that none of the fighters on Saturday’s card have the coolness factor that Diaz possesses or the history of memorable bouts from back in the day, but at the same time, I genuinely don't understand how anyone can be more excited about seeing a guy that hasn’t competed in more than six years step into the Octagon than they are about getting to watch a bunch of competitive clashes between talented contenders, or seeing Valentina Shevchenko continue to be great, or settling in to see how things play out between Volkanovski and Ortega, who are at worst two of the five best featherweight fighters on the planet.
No amount of Diaz swagger and lore is enough to get me more excited to see him fight a struggling Lawler this weekend than I am about seeing whether Marlon Moraes can right the ship or if Merab Dvalishvili will take another step forward in the talent-rich bantamweight division or who will prevail when Jessica Andrade and Cynthia Calvillo throw down to open the main card.
And I think that nostalgia for guys like Diaz — for who they once were, and who they mistakenly still are in the eyes of many — takes away from the appreciation of the current product and the copious amounts of talent currently active on the UFC roster.
The Carmelo Anthony example above is a perfect illustration of this: Melo was dope, and was a Top 10, Top 20 player, for a number of years, but arguing he’s a Top 100 player today tells me that you’re either (a) giving him all kinds of credit for previous accomplishments, or (b) haven’t been paying attention to what’s been happening on the court for the last three or four years, where “Mr. Three to the Dome” has receded into being a bench player for middling teams.
And look, I get it that the old head, nostalgic part of you wants to see Melo ball out again, and he’s going to be your ride or die for life, but are you honestly that much more interested in watching Melo do what he’s capable of doing now than you are watching Luka Doncic or Zion Williamson or Giannis or LeBron?
And I get that Tyrese Haliburton isn’t anywhere near as big a name as Melo and doesn’t have the same kind of resume and highlight reel as Melo, but right here, today, on Tuesday, September 21 in the year of our Lord 2021, Tyrese Haliburton is a significantly better player than Melo, and anyone arguing otherwise is crazy.
It’s the same with Diaz.
Diaz was dope, he was a contender, but he’s not now, and me personally, I’m far more excited about seeing literally every other fight on the televised prelims and pay-per-view main card than I am seeing Saturday’s nostalgia play featuring Diaz and Lawler, and I don’t know why more fans of the sport don’t feel the same way.
What makes a 38-year-old that hasn’t competed in more than six years ago and who last earned a victory when “We Found Love” by Rihanna and Calvin Harris was climbing the charts significantly more appealing than either of this weekend’s defending champions or their respective challengers?
Epilogue
The reason this stuff perplexes me and matters to me is because I hear all the time that the UFC can’t build new stars or doesn’t build new stars, but it always feel like people just choose not to invest in many of the stars of today.
And yeah, everyone has their own personal preferences and no one is saying you have to blanket support current fighters, current champions, and current contenders at the expense of veterans you loved in the past, but it sure does seem like there are a lot of reasons constantly floated out there for why Volkanovski or a dominant force like Shevchenko aren’t compelling and aren’t more popular while someone like Diaz, who has been on sabbatical for more than half a decade, is still viewed like an absolute superstar.
It’s not just Diaz either, and I want to make that clear because I think people have a different kind of attachment to Diaz, and this extends beyond him.
Right now, it’s also people like Tony Ferguson and Frankie Edgar and Jorge Masvidal and Darren Till — fighters that constantly get the benefit of the doubt, and constantly get booked into big fights despite recent struggles, both in fantasy matchmaking and real matchmaking — that garner loads of attention, while more successful competitors with lesser names are frequently dismissed or told to do more.
Maybe it’s because I don’t have favorites as much as I just want to watch fights, or because I can find things to appreciate about each card, things that intrigue me about each upcoming fight, and want to see fighters that have done enough to merit praise and greater opportunities get their due and have their moments.
Maybe it’s because I’m always thinking about where things are going, rather than wistfully reflecting on how we got here and how much better things were back in the day.
Maybe I’m just a weirdo.
Who knows?
I don't think I ever will, because every time I ask these kinds of questions, I tend to hear nothing but crickets in response.
Maybe that’s because so few people are reading this stuff, but it kind of also feels like no one really has a great explanation beyond “I like who I like” either.
Ah well.