Vera vs Sandhagen UFC Fight Night Booked for 2/18/23...at the Apex

Marlon "Chito" Vera vs Cory Sandhagen has officially been announced by the UFC to be a Fight Night headliner on the eighteenth of February. This is a super exciting announcement. However, it seems as if the UFC is struggling to please everyone which every decision. Lately, the judging has been super weird, fights have been getting canceled left and right, and there are just way too many Apex fights these days. What is that? Chito and Sandhagen are superstars, people want to watch them fight. Chito is currently on a five-fight win streak. If Chito beat Jose Aldo, it would be a seven-fight win streak starting with a win against "Suga" Sean O'Malley. Chito's most recent victory was a knockout kick to the face to the UFC legend Dom Cruz. As for Sandhagen, he is coming off a win against rising star, Yadong Song who holds a victory over Chito. Prior to the win over Song, Sandhagen lost a couple of wars to Petr Yan and recently retired, Tj Dillashaw. Yet, after the win against Song, it put him right back into the title conversation.

So why is the Apex not the right location for this fight? For starters, you can tell when you're at home watching a fight that is booked anywhere how much energy is in the arena. Fight Nights can bring just as much energy to an arena as a pay-per-view sometimes. However, not when it's booked in the Apex. Apex fights have zero energy. That's what you get when you book fights in a building that can hold 300 people. Having a Fight Night in Vegas shouldn't be an issue. Multiple venues hold tens of thousands of people. The Apex used to be great...during the Covid era when there couldn't be an event with thousands of people. That said, we are long out of that era. Every event going forward should be held in a real area so actual energy can buzz through the arena and the fighters can actually feel appreciated by the fans. Unless the UFC books a Fight Night full of no names, they should never book the Apex again. It is not meant for super fights like this one.