15 May 2017

Breaking it Down 35: 2017 Topps UFC Knockout from TeamBreaks.com

For quite a while I was using TeamBreaks.com to get my UFC group break fix, but they haven't been very active on the breaking scene lately. It also seems like there hasn't been a lot of UFC products out in the recent past. I think Museum Collection was the last one outside of the online-exclusive Topps Fire product, and it seems like Museum Collection released like fifteen years ago. Topps Chrome is scheduled for July, and that should be a pretty big release. But the most recent release is 2017 Topps UFC Knockout. TeamBreaks.com resurfaced briefly to bust a few boxes of this stuff, and I bought a couple of weight class slots in their breaks. Knockout is a hit-based product, with 4 autographs and 4 relics per box.


In the first break I got the Flyweight + Arianny Celeste spot. The Flyweight division is pretty much Demetrious Johnson and a bunch of dudes, so Arianny Celeste got put in with them to keep the person who got the Flyweight slot from feeling too sorry for themselves. I wound up getting a Demetrious Johnson card from the Knockout Relic insert set. This is the Blue parallel, numbered # 25 / 25. I was hoping to get slots that gave me a chance at Randa Markos' first Topps UFC autograph or some new Neil Magny cards, but I guess this is an okay consolation prize.


The Arianny Celeste part of my random weight class yielded a Green parallel. This is the most common of the parallels in the product, and my copy is numbered # 108 / 215.


And here's the base version of her card. I have to admit to being a little underwhelmed by the background design on these cards. I get that the hits drive this product, but to me these are reminiscent of school picture backdrops. I'd rather just have regular action photos without all the laser business, but I guess they need the lasers so they have something to color for the parallels.


My spot in the second break was pretty much a dud. I got the Featherweights in this one, and this Green Ryan Hall parallel was the only thing of note that came out of that spot. It is numbered # 151 / 215.


I got a few base cards from the break. The hits that come out of this product are pretty nice-looking. I came very close to ordering a box of this stuff to break on my own, but then I got to thinking that I would wind up with like $13 in cards and be really mad about it. Dividing the going rate for boxes by the number of hits per box gave me number well over $16 per hit, and you're just not going to get that out of a box of UFC cards unless you pull some big stuff. I saw one amazing box and a couple of okay boxes, but most boxes just aren't going to be that awesome.

I should have just saved the money, but instead I used the money I would have spent on a box of Knockout + a little more to buy 5 different boxes of product from Dave & Adam's Card World. I think I'll get more pleasure from opening 5 boxes of UFC, NASCAR, MLB x 2, and Star Wars cards than I would from busting one box of Knockout.


Here's another base card. Every time I see that 7-11 logo I am reminded that they pulled out of Idaho several years ago. I wish they'd come back, but I don't see them making the business decision to come back to Idaho just because I want the chance to buy a Slurpee two or three times per summer. Chas Skelly fought in UFC 211 this past weekend, losing a really good fight to Jason Knight. Knight has been one of my favorite fighters to watch in the recent past, and he didn't disappoint here, earning himself a performance of the night bonus.


Frankie Edgar also fought at UFC 211, winning his fight against Yair Rodriguez by hitting him in the face so much that the doctor stopped the fight in between the second and third rounds. Although there were a couple of clunkers and weird finishes on the card, UFC 211 was pretty entertaining. I asked Topps on Twitter (again) if there might be some new UFC Topps Now cards on the way, but they never got back to me on that. I am thinking that the UFC Topps Now program might be dead, and I'm pretty sad about that. I liked that particular line of cards.

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