UFC 310 features four current or former champions, but only two of them are on the main card with Alexandre Pantoja headlining the event and former interim title holder Ciryl Gane taking on Alexander Volkov in a rematch.
Meanwhile, former middleweight champion Chris Weidman is the fifth fight of the night on the early prelims with former bantamweight king Aljamain Sterling two spots later on the preliminary card. While it often times seems like there’s no real rhyme or reason to the way the UFC fills out a bout order, Sterling took offense to his spot on the prelims as arguably the greatest 135-pounder of all time not to mention his fight against Movsar Evloev could potentially crown a new top contender in the featherweight division.
During his career, Matt Brown occupied just about every spot possible on UFC card, but he admits that being placed on the prelims always rubbed him the wrong way. That’s why he fully understands Sterling’s gripe even if the UFC wasn’t trying to slight him with his spot on the card.
“It’s like this — I think fighters naturally look at it as almost a respect thing,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “What do [the UFC] think of us? When they put us on the main card, we think that they think more of us. When they put us on the prelims, you feel like you’re kind of demoted.
“In terms of the fans and that’s kind of the selling point that the UFC will say ‘well if you’re if you’re on the ESPN prelims, more people are going to watch than the pay-per-view’ or something along those lines. I don’t think that really does it for most fighters. It definitely never did it for me. I was on the prelims, I felt like I was being disrespected in a sense or just demoted. I’m not a prelim guy!”
Brown says it probably feels even worse for Sterling and Weidman as former UFC champions because they reached a plateau that most fighters could only imagine.
Now both are buried deep on the card with the show taking place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the crowds are notoriously late to arrive, which means Sterling and Weidman aren’t likely to compete in front of a full house.
“The biggest difference is when you’re on the main card, there’s more crowd there and that’s what we all want,” Brown said. “We all want to be in front of more people, a louder crowd. I’m guessing every other fighter does … I feel way more comfortable in front of the biggest crowd than kind of scattered, empty seats and people kind of cheering and going to get their beers and getting settled in, people walking in as you’re fighting, things like that.
“Especially when you’ve got a guy like Chris Weidman, who’s a former champion. Aljamain Sterling, who’s a former champion. They feel like they’re demoted. I guarantee. I feel that way when I’d get put on the prelims. Like I’m demoted, like you don’t care about me as much. Like you think I’m on my way out. You’re not moving me up the card towards the main event. That’s where we all want to be. We want to be in the main event.”
The UFC rarely addresses why some fights are lower on the card than others, and Brown can’t say he’s ever heard any real insight on how the promotion decides the final bout order for any particular event.
That said, perception is reality and Brown knows from personal experience that it bugged him when he got placed on the prelims, especially during a pay-per-view where the main card matters so much.
“What you feel like in your head, you’re working your way up the card,” Brown explained. “Like the first fight on the card is the white belt and the next fight is blue, and purple and you want to be the black belt. Whether that’s really true or not, I don’t think the UFC actually looks at it that way. I don’t think they’re actually like ‘we’re going to put you on the prelims because we don’t like you or you’re not selling’ or whatever. I think there’s a subconscious feeling in every fighter’s head.
“Any time someone’s a former champion, you would think they would get a main card spot just for being a former champion. The featured prelims, I’ve been featured prelims a few times — you don’t feel like you’re a main event. That’s kind of the way they sell it like ‘you’re the featured prelim/main event of the prelims.’ No.”
As much as it bothered him to end up on the prelims from time to time, Brown knows the job is still the same no matter if he’s the first fight of the night or the final person to make the walk to the octagon.
He’s confident Weidman and Sterling feel the same way, but he sympathizes with any ill feelings they might have about where they’re actually fighting on Saturday.
“I’ll tell you what, ultimately you get paid the same unless you’re the main event and you get a bonus,” Brown said. “These guys are getting fights. Movsar [or] Aljamain winning this is going to be a big fight.
“You’ve got put that shit in the back of your head and you’ve got to go out and perform still. You’ve got to forget about all the bullshit. That’s what I always did.”
