UFC 72

Lore & Background

The night's significance extended beyond the headline. UFC 72 sat in the middle of a period when the promotion was rapidly professionalising its presentation, its media coverage, and its athlete development. The event helped cement the idea that the UFC could produce clean, competitive, championship-level fights that belonged on the same broadcast tier as boxing. For the fans in Phoenix and the millions watching on PPV, it was the night the sport stopped being a curiosity and started being a sport.

In Their Own Story

The desert air outside the US Airways Center was dry and warm, the kind of March Phoenix heat that makes the arena's air conditioning feel like stepping into another country. Inside, the crowd was a sea of black and white, the low murmur of a crowd that had learned, over the past two years, to expect something more than a brawl. In the corner, a young man in a blue robe rolled his shoulders, jaw set, eyes already somewhere past the cage. Across the octagon, a bigger man in a black robe cracked his neck and grinned the grin of a man who had been the best in two weight classes and intended to stay there. The bell rang. Three rounds later, the grin was gone, and the young man in blue was holding a gold belt above his head while the Phoenix crowd roared like the desert had finally learned to sing.

Reader's Guide

UFC 72 — March 18, 2007 — US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ — Georges St-Pierre def. Matt Hughes (U) to win the UFC Welterweight Championship. • Matt Hughes, a two-division former champion, was dethroned in what became a defining moment of the UFC's post-Zuffa professional era. • The event showcased the promotion's growing broadcast polish and helped solidify the UFC's place as a legitimate mainstream combat sport on PPV.

Did You Know?

• Georges St-Pierre was just 25 years old when he won the UFC Welterweight Championship at UFC 72, making him one of the youngest champions in the division's history at that time.
• Matt Hughes entered the fight as a two-division former UFC champion, having previously held both the middleweight and welterweight titles.
• The US Airways Center, the venue for UFC 72, is now known as the Footprint Center and remains a major arena in Phoenix.
• UFC 72 was broadcast on pay-per-view, part of the UFC's push in the mid-2000s to establish itself as a premium live-sport product alongside boxing.