By Tim Summerville, in Las Vegas.
UFC 200 was billed as the biggest event in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, so it was always going to be difficult to live up to that kind of hype.
The UFC has come a long way in the last few years to the point where it is rumoured to be selling for well over four billion dollars and UFC 200 was set to be the culmination of the company's rise to prominence.
The UFC took over Vegas for the week to the point that you couldn't walk 10 metres without seeing Kiwi Mark Hunt's face plastered over posters and billboards ahead of his heavyweight fight against Brock Lesnar.
Anticipation was high, with Lesnar's return to the company after five years in the WWE, a light heavyweight grudge match between bitter rivals Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier, Miesha Tate's first defence of her bantamweight title, and a featherweight showdown between future UFC Hall of Famers Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar.
The card was so stacked that former UFC champions Johny Hendricks and TJ Dillashaw fought on the prelims, and former Pride lightweight champion Takanori Gomi competed in the opening fight of the card.
Perhaps the event was jinxed from the start?
The original main event was a welterweight rematch between Irishman Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, but that fight fell through when McGregor refused to fly to Vegas for a press conference back in April.
The light heavyweight title fight between Jones and Cormier was then locked in as the new headliner, but just three days before the fight, Jones was removed from the card for a failed drugs test. That led to Tate and Nunes being promoted to the top slot on the card, hardly the headliner the UFC (and fans) had envisioned.
Anderson Silva (Getty Images)
Jones was replaced by Brazilian legend Anderson 'The Spider' Silva, but as much as fans wanted to see 'The Spider' turn back the clock and trouble DC, the 41-year-old failed to produce fireworks. Silva was over-powered by the former Olympic wrestler over three rounds.
Boos rang out around T-Mobile Arena as Cormier took Silva to the mat with ease and ground out a comfortable decision victory.
The Lesnar-Hunt heavyweight showdown was easily the most hotly anticipated fight of the night, but it was obvious from early on that Lesnar wasn't about to engage in a striking match with the 'Super Samoan'.
The WWE superstar stayed away from Hunt's dangerous heavy hands and used his wrestling and size to win a unanimous points decision.
Unfortunately, by that stage of the night, many of the casual fans in attendance had grown restless, with some even leaving the arena before Tate and Nunes faced off in the main event.
Nunes went on to pull off a huge upset, winning in the opening round via rear naked choke, after appearing to break Tate's nose. While Nunes was very impressive, Tate didn't fight with her trademark dogged determination. This is a woman who once refused to tap out to a Ronda Rousey arm bar, even after her elbow was dislocated, but against Nunes she was tapping almost as soon as the choke was locked in.
Cain Velasquez pounded Travis Brown (Getty Images)
The only other fight on the main card that really delivered was Cain Velasquez's domination of Travis Brown. The former UFC heavyweight champion battered Brown for the opening four and a half minutes of the fight, until the referee stepped in to stop the carnage in the closing seconds of the first round.
UFC 200 could be the end of the road for a few fighters. Gomi was knocked out in the first round by Jim Miller and surely must consider retirement at this point. The 37-year-old's failed to make it out of the first round in any of his last three trips to the Octagon.
Diego Sanchez also looks to be on his last legs. The TUF season one winner was brutalised by Joe Lauzon before the fight was topped less than 90 seconds into the opening round. Sanchez has long been a fan favourite, but he's lost four of his last six fights and has taken so many shots to the head over his fighting career that it's starting to become painful to watch him compete.
But there was more to the week than UFC 200. The UFC stacked the deck for International Fight Week with 36 fights over three days and as is often the case in the UFC, it was the "smaller" fights that delivered the goods.
The unpredictability of the UFC is its greatest strength. Who would have thought, heading into the week, that Thursday's (Friday NZT) UFC Fight Night Las Vegas would be the most exciting card? No one, but that's how it turned out.
The first five fights of the night were all decided by submission, while the card finished with Eddie Alvarez sensationally knocking out Rafael Dos Anjos to claim the UFC lightweight title.
The strawweight title fight at Friday's The Ultimate Fighter Finale between coaches Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha also provided plenty of highlights, with back and forth action over five rounds that surpassed anything to come the next night.
Jedrzejczyk looks close to unbeatable in the UFC’s lightest weight class, as she improved her pro MMA record to 12-0.
Newshub.