Ultimate Fighting Championship

UFC Denver: A Coming-Out Party for the UFC's Next Generation

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:11 p.m. ET

Fansided, Jay Anderson/FanSided via Cage Pages

UFC Denver on Saturday proved to be a coming-out party for tomorrow’s stars. The question is, will this help or hurt a promotion trying to re-establish its identity?

While the Denver card was playing out, UFC superstar Conor McGregor was busy hosting a Q&A for 5,000 of his closest fans in Manchester. The Ariel Helwani-hosted event was also available on PPV at just a shade under $5 U.S. for those not in attendance.

If nothing else, one thing became certain in the aftermath of McGregor Live: we won’t be seeing The Notorious in the Octagon anytime soon. He remains at odds with the promotion, and has his sights set firmly on Floyd Mayweather. Per McGregor himself, the next time he fights, it’ll be in a boxing ring. With or without the UFC’s involvement.

That’s fuel for a whole other story (and he could change his mind), but the end result is a UFC without any bankable stars capable of drawing close to a million buys on PPV. That’s an outright disaster for new owners WME-IMG, given their recent financial undertaking to facilitate the purchase of the promotion. With McGregor on hiatus, Ronda Rousey’s future in question, Brock Lesnar suspended, Jon Jones suspended, and Georges St. Pierre on the outs with the UFC, the cupboard is bare.

As huge as 2016 was for the company, 2017 may see something of a plunge.

UFC Denver seemed to recognize that. The company appeared to want to get a number of fighters over. Beyond the Octagon segments were geared towards connecting fans to fighters based on more than just their athleticism. Curiously, however, they seemed to focus on a couple of old names.

Nate Marquardt, we were reminded, appeared in Warrior. He challenged for the middleweight title nearly a decade ago. Andrei Arlovski is a proud pitbull owner who has done PSAs against dog fighting. He held the heavyweight crown before some of the night’s competitors were old enough to watch the UFC. Cowboy Cerrone, the returning hometown hero, was also featured prominently.

Want your voice heard? Join the Cage Pages team!

Of course, it’s easier to boost somewhat established names. Yet time and again, the underdog, the next generation, came through. Sam Alvey took a decision from Marquardt. Jason Knight put on an exciting show against Alex “Bruce Leeroy” Caceres to open the main card. Francis Ngannou, one of the hottest prospects at heavyweight in years, knocked out Andrei Arlovski early. Jorge Masvidal pretty much knocked out Donald Cerrone twice in one fight, after Herb Dean saved Cerrone at the end of the first (it was a rough night, frankly, for Greg Jackson’s fighters). Masvidal is perhaps the one exception, at 32 years old and having been around the game over a decade, but his stock still has room to rise.

More from Cage Pages

In the main event? Valentina Shevchenko showed she has a far more well-rounded game than anyone expected. Not to mention the makings of a star. Few if anyone had her winning by armbar. The face-off in the octagon afterward with champ Amanda Nunes had excitement at a high. The Denver crowd was hot throughout, especially during the last four fights.

That’s the good news. The bad news is, it seemed to catch many, including the UFC, by surprise. Aside from Ngannou, who got a huge push when Dana White fingered him as a potential champion some day, not much attention was given to any of the eventual winners leading up to the fight. Shevchenko might be the other exception, as both she and Julianna Pena are young talents not really in the public eye.

Luckily, the organization will have time to build all these fighters up moving forward. For the time being, they face an interesting dilemma, with plenty of young talent, but few standing out from the pack in terms of marketability. While in a pure sporting world, that wouldn’t matter, the reality is, the UFC needs to build stars. A couple threw their name in the hat Saturday. The promotion now needs to get behind them.