Pack of the Day 114: 2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth

My last package from TeamBreaks.com included a few unopened packs of cards as a bonus, including a Hobby pack of 2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth. The front of the pack says each pack contains 10 cards, but that packs with a relic card might contain fewer cards. This pack felt pretty thick, so I thought it might be one with a hit inside. 2011 was a few years ago, so we'll see if I recognize any of these fighters.

Matt Hughes retired a few years ago, having held and defended the Welterweight title several times. Struve is still active, although recently he has lost more than he has won. The dude is 7 feet tall! It's surprising that anyone could even hit him in the face, which is probably why so many of his fights are described as ending with wrestling. People have to grapple / climb him to get to his face. The Gold parallels are one per pack.

The only name here among the base cards that rings a bell is Matt Mitrione, maybe because he spent some time as a pro football player? I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just making things up now. I did recognize Jim Miller on Kamal Shalorus' card there in the upper left. Miller would go on to win that fight in the 3rd round. The card on the bottom right is a Showdown Shots insert featuring Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn. Frankie Edgar beat Chad Mendes this weekend and wants to fight Conor McGregor next if he can politick his way into making it happen. BJ Penn is retired and was featured a couple of posts ago. Edgar beat Penn on three separate occasions.

Sure enough, this pack contained a relic card, a Fighter Gear Relic Card of Frank Mir. He was the Heavyweight champion once in 2004 and the interim champion in 2008, and he had some pretty significant battles with famous WWE and MMA star Brock Lesnar. He is still ranked as the # 10 fighter in the UFC Heavyweight rankings, but he's lost 5 of his last 7 fights dating back to 2012. He's wearing a pretty cool shirt in the picture, but the swatch embedded in the card is just a plain white piece of fabric. The card is numbered # 48 / 88 which makes it an Onyx parallel, the most common variation.

That does it for this pack. I was kind of interested to see what these cards looked like, as one of the deals in the Dave & Adam's Black Friday sale was for boxes of this product. The only thing holding the value down on this set is that it predates the inclusion of women on the UFC roster. A visit to eBay or the breaker channels will tell you that cards featuring the female fighters do brisk business and are in high demand. Some of the more successful male fighters also draw some dollars, especially after a big fight, but it seems like the chat on the online breaker channels is full of demand for hit cards from the female divisions. But that's probably a discussion for another day.