Top 5: Worst UFC Cards of All-Time

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It was by all accounts an unmitigated disaster for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

UFC 33 remains a standard by which all other cards are judged in terms of ineptitude. Held on Sept. 28, 2011—just 17 days after the 9/11 attacks—at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, it was the first UFC event sanctioned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission under the Unified Rules of MMA. It featured three five-round championship bouts: Tito Ortiz-Vladimir Matyushenko at light heavyweight, Jens Pulver-Dennis Hallman at lightweight and Dave Menne-Gil Castillo at middleweight. All three went the distance, which resulted in the show exceeding its allotted time slot on pay-per-view. It led to multiple cable systems cutting the feed before the conclusion of the Ortiz-Matyushenko headliner. The UFC did not stage another event with three title fights again for more than a decade.

UFC CEO Dana White still considers UFC 33 an abomination. He railed against it as recently as 2024, when he brought it up at a post-fight Power Slap press conference.

“I don’t know if you remember UFC 33 when we came to Vegas for the first time—the worst f---ing show in UFC history,” he said. “You couldn’t f--- up an event more than we f---ed up UFC 33.”

Nearly 14 years after it played out, UFC 33 still sticks out as one of the worst cards of all-time. Here are four others that are worthy of consideration:

UFC 149: Some have called it the worst pay-per-view in history. Six of the 11 fights, including the headliner pitting Renan Barao against Urijah Faber for the interim bantamweight championship and the co-main event matching Tim Boetsch with Hector Lombard, went the distance on July 21, 2012 at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta. Worse yet, two of the finishes were erased after Matt Riddle tested positive for marijuana and Francisco Rivera was flagged for a banned substance. White stepped to the podium for the post-fight press conference and uttered two words: “I’m embarrassed.” Countless fans shared those sentiments.

UFC 130: It was memorable for all the wrong reasons. The original headliner—a rematch between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard—fell through due to injuries to both participants, and Thiago Silva withdrew from the co-feature opposite Quinton Jackson purportedly because of a failed pre-fight drug screen. Those circumstances led to “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 3 alum Matt Hamill being thrust into a main event assignment against Jackson, with Frank Mir-Roy Nelson providing the backup on May 28, 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The top two bouts, neither of which provided much excitement, went the distance, along with five others on the bill. Not even Travis Browne’s sensational knockout of Stefan Struve was enough to wash away the stink.

UFC 11: Fight promoters never want to leave the buying public with a sense of business being unfinished. UFC 11 on Sept. 20, 1996 at the Augusta Civic Center in Augusta, Georgia, featured an 11-man tournament that included Mark Coleman and David “Tank” Abbott. Coleman cruised through the quarterfinals with a 45-second finish of Julian Sanchez, then needed a little more than two minutes to strike Bryan Johnston into submission in the semis. The good times ended there. Multiple injuries led to a walkover in the final, where Coleman was declared the winner due to Scott Ferrozzo’s inability to compete. It remains the only UFC tournament to end in a default.

UFC 119: The UFC’s first-ever stop in Indiana was marred by matches that were either uncompetitive or uneventful on Sept. 25, 2010 at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Seven of the 11 fights reached the judges, with three of them resulting in split scorecards. A crowd of 15,811 expressed its displeasure by showering participants with boos at various points. The heavyweight main event between Frank Mir and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic was woefully lackluster up until the finish, as the two men pawed incessantly at one another and ran through a series of tiresome clinches. Mir ultimately knocked out the former Pride Fighting Championships superstar, but it was a clear case of too little too late for those who had sat through the forgettable show.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: UFC 177; UFC 24; UFC 9; UFC Fight Night 84; UFC 169; UFC 97; UFC 112; UFC 119; UFC 90; UFC Fight Night 36; UFC 147; UFC 161; UFC Fight Night 211; UFC 274; UFC on ABC 8; UFC on ESPN 68; UFC Fight Night 131; UFC on ESPN 61; UFC 61; UFC Fight Night 253; UFC 147; UFC 122; UFC Fight Night 167