2015 Event of the Year: UFC 189

"Events" can be tricky, because they’re a confluence of two clashing directions: Prospect and retrospect. One very seldom has much to do with the other in MMA. Some cards that look great on paper play out as ultimate duds. Some cards that look like dog mush up front end up reminding us why we watch the fight game to begin with.

We can control our excitement going in (or at least most of us can), but even if we try to sugarcoat things afterwards we can’t reshape what happened. It either lived up to something, or it didn’t. The bar is set, and we end up either above it or below it.

Perhaps no card in the history of the sport so evenly went from impossible buzz/hype to a feeling of total…