UFC 117: Why Is Matt Hughes-Ricardo Almeida the Co-Main Event?

Lets start by stating the obvious: the main card for UFC 117 is stacked with intriguing and exciting match ups.

You could make the case that UFC 117 has a better overall main card then both UFC 116 and UFC 118, cards which will likely generate more PPV buys. That being said, all three cards hold great apeal.

With the UFC recently confirming the main & co-main event for UFC 117, one might assume co-main duties would go to either the Jon Fitch-Thiago Alves fight, or the Junior Dos Santos-Roy Nelson fight.

Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves are the consensus number one and number two fighters in the welterweight division behind champion Georges St. Pierre, and they are finally going to step into the octagon for their highly anticipated rematch.

The duo first faced off just under four years ago at Ultimate Fight Night 5, where Jon Fitch T(KO)d the up-and-coming pit-bull.

As far as JDS and Big Country are concerned, this fight has implications to the title picture in the Heavyweight Division.

If dos Santos wins, he will become an even stronger number one contender then he already is, and likely wait for fellow phenom Cain Velasquez to take on the winner of Brock Lesnar-Shane Carwin. And if Big Country eats his meal ticket, then the Heavyweight division just got more interesting. 

Who wouldn't love to see Roy Nelson take on Brock Lesnar, or even Shane Carwin.

So, that begs the question, how did the Matt Hughes-Ricardo Almedia fight get second billing?

The obvious answer is the brand value of Matt Hughes.

He recently got inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame at this past weekend's UFC Fan Expo. And we dont have to list out all of his career accomplishments to know the man is deserving of his just desserts.

Ironically, in his last fight at UFC 112, agaisnt a legend of the sport in Renzo Graice, Hughes received the third billing which made sense since he was on the same card as Anderson and B.J , both in title fights.

So it appears as if as long as there is not two title fights on the same card as Hughes, he still carries the cache to garner co-main event status. Keeping that status could very well depend on him winning his next fight over a very dangerous foe at UFC 117.

Main event:

Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen

Main card

Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Hughes
Junior Dos Santos vs. Roy Nelson*
Thiago Alves vs. Jon Fitch*
Rafael dos Anjos vs. Clay Guida

Under card

Tim Boetsch vs. Thiago Silva
Dennis Hallman vs. Ben Saunders
Dustin Hazelett vs. Rick Story
Johny Hendricks vs. Charlie Brenneman
Rodney Wallace vs. Stanislav Nedkov

*Fight not officially confirmed