There are so many honorable mentions, like UFC 139 (Shogun vs Hendo + Wand vs Cung), UFC 100, UFC 134 (this one would have been number 5 due to Nogueira, Shogun and Anderson's amazing wins, but 189 was just too epic from start to finish to exclude it)...UFC 146, UFC 117, UFC 166, UFC 52, UFC 43...
These are just off of memory too - shows that from top to bottom were filled with amazing scraps that stuck out in my mind. However, after thinking about it a lot (again based off memory, perhaps if I went online and looked at every single card in a row I may come to a different conclusion), the 5 shows listed above are my all time favorites.
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UU96 and UFC 31 were before my time, but my god what great shows they were. The second Ultimate Ultimate was the best tournament of the old SEG days, both on paper and the way it played out. UFC 31 was the best show from the early Zuffa period by far, with every fight back to back being insane. So many crazy finishes on that show with real legends of the game all over the lineup.
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UFC 79 was a phenomenal event. The Clementi vs Guillard fight had real bad blood behind it and the way it went down and ended was straight out of pro wrestling, but better. Machida looked like a beast, GSP solidified himself as the next WW king, but most importantly, the long awaited fight between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva finally happened.
It may have been a few years too late, but the fight played out just as we'd all hoped it would for years. Although I think it was closer than the judges cards indicate, and Liddell was surely knocked down by Wanderlei (a slip? Really?), every moment of that fight was terrific.
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UFC 84 was very similar to 79, with all time legends duking it out and another GOAT cementing his status as the best fighter in his weight class - BJ Penn. He destroyed Sean Sherk in possibly the best performance of his career, capping it off with a ridiculous knockout. Wanderlei absolutely SMOKED Keith Jardine in one of the most brutal knockouts we have seen, reminding everybody why he was called the Axe Murderer in the first place.
The Machida vs Tito fight was crazy and the ending was a jump out of your seat moment, where it actually seemed like Tito may pull it off, and give the finger even more to Dana & the UFC on his way out of the company (if you don't remember their beef around this time, it was the last fight on Tito's contract and he even showed up to the weigh ins wearing a "Dana is my Bitch" shirt).
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UFC 189 is still fresh in all of our minds so I doubt I need to go over that one too much for potential new fans who may be reading. But I believe,. by far, 189 was the most spectacular card of the last 10 years that the UFC has put on. Opening the card, we had the two flying knee KOs by Almeida and Stephens, the Gunnar Nelson beatdown of Thatch (who appeared an entire weight class larger than Gunnar)... and of course, the FOTY absolute WAR between Robbie Lawler and Rory McDonald. The type of fight that people will go back and watch decades from now.
The main event of UFC 189 had a special feel, from the entrances all the way up to the picture perfect knockout Conor pulled off on easily the second best fighter in the 145 division at the time - Chad Mendes, who had beaten every man put in front of him except for the champion, Jose Aldo, and he had come pretty close to doing it less than a year prior.
Anyway, that's my favorite 5 cards and the reasons why! If anyone is reading that has not seen one of, or any of these shows, I HIGHLY recommend going on Fight Pass and queuing them up. Prepare for hours of the best combat sports you can possibly see - you will not be disappointed
What are yours?
