On Sunday, the UFC held its first show on big ESPN, where Cain Velasquez made his long-awaited return to the Octagon to take on Francis Ngannou in Phoenix, Arizona.
The fight had tons of anticipation, and UFC Phoenix ultimately drew the best Fight Night viewershipnumbers in three years.
Ultimately, however, the main event ended rather quickly, as Francis Ngannou scored a 26-second TKO victory. That loss, which also featured a knee injury, resulted in Velasquez being medically suspended 180 days. Meanwhile, Ngannou wasn’t medically suspended so he can fight again soon.
UFC Phoenix had some other great finishes to, such as Vicente Luque’s jaw-dropping defeat of Brian Barberena. Former bantamweight champ Renan Barao also got knocked out by Luke Sanders, and Emily Whitmire scored an impressive submission win.
Although Velasquez did suffer a TKO loss and an apparent knee injury, his 180-day suspension wasn’t even the longest suspension. That honor goes to Paul Felder who tops the list as he is suspended indefinitely after having his lung collapse.
It was a crazy card which has produced some lengthy medical suspensions.
A complete list of the UFC Phoenix medical suspensions can be seen below. (via MMAFighting)
- Paul Felder: Suspended indefinitely
- Cain Velasquez: Suspended 180 days
- Cynthia Calvillo: Suspended 180 days
- Cortney Casey: Suspended 180 days
- Vicente Luque: Suspended 180 days
- Bryan Barberena: Suspended 180 days
- Jimmie Rivera: Suspended 180 days
- Luke Sanders: Suspended 180 days
- Nik Lentz: Suspended 180 days
- Ashlee Evans-Smith: Suspended 180 days
- Renan Barao: Suspended 60 days
- James Vick: Suspended 30 days
- Myles Jury: Suspended 30 days
- Aljamain Sterling: Suspended 30 days
- Scott Holtzman: Suspended 30 days
- Andrea Lee: Suspended 30 days
What do you think of these UFC Phoenix medical suspensions? Who do you want to see Cain Velasquez fight when he is eligible to return?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 2/21/2019.