UFC Vegas 93, The Morning After: Begging And Pleading For No More Apex

Here’s what you may have missed!

Seeing as UFC Vegas 93 wasn’t very fun and went on until 1 A.M. EST, I don’t want to drag this recap article out any further than is necessary. Let’s aim for concision: the good, the bad, and the ugly of yet another evening in the Apex.

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THE GOOD

It’s easy to be concise in this section.

• Tatsuro Taira was quite good! The Japanese prospect-turned-contender showed off sharp kickboxing and good counters against former title contender Alex Perez, then he forced a finish within seconds of taking the fight to the mat in round two. That was the only fight between ranked contenders on the whole of the card, and it appropriately stood out!
• Garrett Armfield vs. Brady Hiestand was a very good Bantamweight fight between talented up-and-comers. Both men dug deep, fought hard, and nearly secured finishes at various points.

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

THE BAD

• The CO-MAIN EVENT of Miles Johns vs. Douglas Silva de Andrade was just a bad fight in a usually good division. A bunch of fight fans switched over from a Tank Davis boxing masterclass (watch here) to a pair of 135-pounders throw one punch at a time for 15 full minutes then flex on each other. Miserable.
• The whole undercard was wildly unimpressive. The average MMA fan would be better off tuning into an event from a feeder promotion like LFA, which routinely features better talent.
• Zero actual knockouts in eleven fights.
• Just eight of the 22 fighters featured have Wikipedia pages

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

THE UGLY

• Why did this card go on until so late in the night?
• Why was a 6’ tall fighter competing at 125 lbs?
• Why did Perez’s knee have to bend that way?
• Why did Michael Bisping forget Asu Almabayev’s name mid-interview?
• Why are we still in the f—king Apex?

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

IN SUMMARY

UFC Vegas 93 was the 100th event to be held inside the UFC Apex (it hosted a handful of numbered pay-per-view (PPV) shows at the height of the pandemic). Along with all those events came a lowered set of expectations about what a UFC fight should look like, how much fun a UFC event should be, and the skill level of the average UFC fighter.

UFC Vegas 93 was not fun. It was not worth the time of any but the most desperate of fans. It was a fight card that could have been summed up in a short email or an Instagram reel. The promotion can and should do better, but that won’t happen consistently until the Apex is a thing of the past.

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For complete UFC Vegas 93: “Perez vs. Taira” results and play-by-play, click HERE!