Monday Morning Hangover: UFC Fight Night 110 proved you shouldn’t judge an event by its cover

Admit it, when a fight card starts taking shape, you immediately look for star power.

You start looking for that big name, that tasty matchup, that title fight or that No. 1 contender’s bout that will make you reach into your pocket and pay the hefty price tag that comes with a pay-per-view (PPV) event.

Or, in the case of UFC Fight Night 110, an event that will make it worth your while to sit through two-plus hours of action to get to a semi-tempting headlining bout, or whether you’re going to hit up your DVR late at night to see the highlights. And that’s okay, when events are going down every other weekend, it’s fine to be picky.

Back to this past weekend’s event, UFC Fight Night 110 -- which went down on Saturday (June 10, 2017) from Auckland, New Zealand and aired on FOX Sports 1 — I absolutely slaughtered the card in this write up for its lack of star power and tantalizing matchups.

And wouldn’t you guess it, the FOX Sports 1 main card delivered in a big way.

It had it all, one finish after another to the tune of five of the six bouts on the televised event ending early, which included Ben Nguyen’s first-round submission victory over former title contender Tim Elliot (see it). Or how about Ion Cutelaba’s very violent 22-second destruction of Henrique da Silva (highlights).

If that doesn’t do it for you, maybe Dan Hooker’s destructive knees to Ross Pearson’s face which put him down for the count is more your flavor (see it again here). Just when you think it can’t get any better, Derek Brunson snaps his two-fight skid by knocking out Daniel Kelly in the very first round with a lethal straight right hand.

Then came the main event, the one fight that if anyone had to wager, would be the one to end very violently (and very fast). Instead, Mark Hunt and Derrick Lewis exchanged blows for nearly four rounds. Sure, it ended up in a finish (see it), but it was rather anti-climactic, as Hunt put “Black Beast” away after a visibly tired Lewis simply couldn’t go any further. Yes, he was punished by Mark’s strikes, but you get my drift.

At any rate, the event proved to be explosive, as even Vinc Pichel led us into the main card by obliterating Damien Brown via strikes in he opening round.

The point of my story is, never judge a book event by its cover, as even the lowliest of cards can prove to be one of the most action-packed events of the year. Meanwhile, cards are stacked to the brim with top stars and intriguing fights sometimes fail to live up to the hype.

But that’s the beauty of this crazy mixed martial arts (MMA) sport we tune into week in and week out.

For complete UFC Fight Night 110 results and coverage click here