UFC 332 Salt Lake City had one of those sleeper cards that came with little hype but delivered far beyond expectations. Several records were broken on Saturday night: most knockouts in a single UFC event (11), most first-round knockouts (9) and most knockouts (16).
But on a big card full of excitement and action, the main event ended in a drag. Natalia Silva and Wang Cong were matched up to compete for the vacant women’s flyweight championship, with the expectation that their pairing would lead to fireworks. Instead, it was a relatively dull affair that left Utah fans booing and leaving the arena early.
If Silva vs. If Wang wasn’t in the main event spotlight, we probably wouldn’t even be talking about it. It wasn’t terrible. It just wasn’t good, which has become a long-term trend in UFC women’s fights. Wang kept folding instead of connecting combos. Silva got on the bike as soon as he thought he had three rounds on the scorecard.
We’ve seen a string of similar disappointments lately. Ailin Perez vs. Norma Dumont it was really hot but got a half-baked dud in the cage. Women’s strawweight champion Mackenzie Dern against defending champion Gillian Robertson was way to drag around. Can’t deny The talent of Valentina Shevchenko, but his fights were so brutally dull that Silva vs. Wang was heralded as a potential hit in his division. gave up his title due to injury.
It’s not all bad. Alexa Grasso vs. Manon Fioro stood out as a decent scrap even on a strong Noche UFC card. Casey O’Neill has returned from injury with two slick first-round finishes in 2026. And we have Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes coming up at UFC 334 in November. But these are points of positivity under a blanket of negativity. The fan base is turning against women’s MMA and can you really blame them considering the last year we’ve witnessed?
Things can turn around. We remember when flyweight was disparaged as a boring division. Hell, go back far enough and the general opinion was that lightweight MMA wasn’t worth watching because the 155ers couldn’t pull off a knockout. It wasn’t for flyweight or bantamweight, but the perception was there – just as there is now with women, the perception that comes from a few too many tame performances.
What brings out women’s MMA? Nunes vs. Harrison could kick things off. It would be nice to see more action from the remaining stars like Zhang Weili. Maybe some more powerful prospects on the rise? And a UFC matchup that suggests the divisions have a unified direction. But it all has to pay off in the cage. If we don’t start getting more barn burners, WMMA’s reputation will keep slipping back.
