01 November 2016

2016 Topps UFC NOW - UFC 204

UFC 204 was kind of low on big names, so I wasn't surprised to see that Topps only released two 2016 Topps UFC NOW cards for the event. Any more would have been overkill, even though I thought many of the fights were pretty good. In the end, only the two matches at the top of the Main Card got represented on cardboard. I know I sound like a broken record, but I prefer to just have a couple of cards per numbered UFC event because I don't want to go bankrupt trying to collect the set. The baseball version of Topps NOW is up to 649 cards for 2016 as I type this, with various off-season and postseason cards not included in that number. With a cost of $5-$10 per card, that is $3,245-$6,490 for a complete set of the baseball version. I like the UFC, but I don't like it to the tune of a couple hundred dollars a month for one trading card product.


The first card for UFC 204 is for Gegard Mousasi's TKO of Vitor Belfort. My memory isn't that great, but I think Mousasi was in control for most of the fight.


This fight was pretty controversial, as Michael Bisping got the decision victory in his home country in spite of being knocked down and staggered a lot in the first couple of rounds. Dan Henderson just didn't have enough volume in the fight to earn the victory. He landed the bigger shots, but he got worn down and lost to Bisping's control and volume. Henderson really needed to finish the fight on one of those knockdowns if he wanted a chance to come away with the win. It was still an exciting fight to watch, though, and the card as a whole was a fun watch. Only the first and last fights (out of 11) went to decision, so there were lots of knockouts and submissions.

It will be interesting to see what Topps does for UFC 205. I am hoping for just a couple of cards, but there are some big names all through the lineup, so there is potential for them to go nuts on it. I don't know if the UFC trading card community can handle that, and I would hate to see myself get pushed out of pursuing this set by Topps going overboard on it. I can probably handle 1-3 cards per numbered UFC event, but any more than that will be too much.

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