UFC 138 Leben vs. Munoz : 5 Reasons You Can't Miss UFC 138 in Birmingham

The UFC is known for putting on some of the most exciting events in all of sports. Not only do fans in attendance rise to their feet to cheer on their favorite fighters, but those watching at home arguably get an even better experience as the unique camera angles and overall production value from the world’s biggest MMA promotion are unmatched.

So why, then, is this weekend’s UFC 138 fight card from Birmingham, England getting so much criticism from those who call themselves fans of the sport?

Certainly the fact that this event is across the pond and will not be available live on television in the United States is a tough sell to some, but there seems to be a growing number of fans who are considering flat-out skipping this event and just skipping UFC 138 like it was the 13th floor in a hotel.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the greatest card that the UFC has ever put on, but I truly believe that this event is being highly underrated by those fans who aren’t even going to watch it.

In fact, I’ve put together a list of the top-five reasons that I believe no true UFC fan should miss UFC 138. So put your Haterade down and read on!

5. It’s Free!

UFC 138 doesn’t have the top-level names that some of the upcoming fight cards do, but credit the promotion for understanding its weakness in this particular event and not gouging fans to watch it.

Make no mistake about it, the UFC could have easily charged $44.99 like they do for just about every one of their numbered events. Sure, one could argue back that the buy-rates would’ve been very low, but that hasn’t stopped them from doing it in the past by putting other lackluster event on pay-per-view.

Instead, this event will be free to everyone. It’ll be like many of the other free events which don’t feature as many top-level fighters, but hey—it’s hard to complain about something that’s free.

4. Thiago Alves vs. Papy Abedi

This fight would’ve been a lot bigger if it happened a year ago or so, but Thiago Alves vs. Papy Abedi is the kind of contest that could tell us a lot about these two fighters.

For Alves, the former welterweight No. 1 contender has lost three of his past four fights and is really in need of a big win to turn his once promising career around. Of course, the losses came against champion Georges St-Pierre as well as top-level challengers Jon Fitch and Rick Story, but the UFC typically doesn’t look favorably upon fighters who lose four out of five fights, even if they are all against high-quality opponents.

He’ll have his hands full against UFC newcomer Papy Abedi who is taking a huge step up in competition to go up against one of the former consensus top-five welterweights in the world. Abedi is relatively unknown to most of the world, but he has been tearing it up overseas, putting together an impressive undefeated record at 8-0 with seven victories coming by way of either knockout or submission.

One intriguing aspect about this fight is that very point. While Abedi has proven to be a finisher, he will be up against Alves who was not finished by some of the best in the world in his recent losses to St-Pierre, Fitch and Story.

3. No Bellator Event

Sometimes weak UFC fight cards are countered by strong Bellator cards as the growing young promotion attempts to pick up some viewers who might be bored by the lackluster UFC event. But for some reason, Bellator is not holding an event this weekend and will return next weekend—just in time to go head-to-head with UFC on FOX.

Ouch.

Had Bellator setup a decent fight card for Saturday night, the case could have been made that fans should tune in, maybe even over the UFC 138 event. That isn’t happening, though, so your MMA options on television for Saturday night are either UFC 138 or old re-runs of Bully Beatdown.

Which to choose, which to choose...

2. The First 5-Round, Non-Title Fight in UFC History

Earlier in 2011, UFC President Dana White announced that the UFC would eventually be having five-round non-title fights to headline some of the main events on fight cards which do not include other title fights. We went months with rumors of various fights being the first to break into this unique category, but this Saturday night’s UFC 138 main event between Chris Leben and Mark Munoz will finally be involved in the debut of the five-round non-title fight in the history of the UFC.

It remains to be seen whether either of these guys can go five rounds at the pace they normally do, but being in the main event should help to give them that extra bit of energy that they will need to make this one of the most exciting fights of the year. 

1. It’s the UFC!

Whether you think this fight card is terrible or not, one thing is for certain—the UFC always delivers. Even when events look like they’re not very stacked, somehow Dana White and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva seem to use voodoo magic to sprinkle in some sort of hidden gem within each card.

It may not include the big-name fighters that some of the other UFC events do, but UFC 138 is still a UFC event... And when is the last time that a UFC event has been boring from beginning to end? There will be something which happens that we’ll all be talking about on Monday.

Don’t be the one who is “too cool” to tune into an event that doesn’t have a title fight on it. It’s the UFC and you will regret it if you do.