Following an incredible main event which featured an opening round that seemed to cram several different and excellent fights into five minutes, UFC officials expressed disbelief that pairing a division champion with the obvious number one contender produced a more intriguing fight than booking him against someone who would have said a bunch of bigoted things about the champion on Twitter for several months prior to the bout then committed a minor assault during fight week. The fight between UFC Lightweight Champion Charles Oliveira and former UFC Interim Lightweight Champion Dustin Poirier included high level striking and grappling, with both fighters having strong moments and showing incredible skill in the many facets of MMA. It left fans in the arena on their feet, capping off a card which featured several other exciting and competitive bouts, including the shocking upset of two-division champion Amanda Nunes by new UFC Bantamweight Champion Julianna Peña. Asked about the quality of the card and the lessons the UFC learned from it, Dana White said, “What? Oh, yeah, that was pretty good,” before looking back at his phone to finish composing a text message to Conor McGregor.

UFC Shocked to Learn Matchmaking Based on Fighter Quality Actually Effective
So pairing talented and fun fighters is good?