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10 Wrap-Up Thoughts on UFC 330 in South Philly
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UFC 330 broke the attendance and gate records at Xfinity Mobile Arena in South Philly, according to the UFC:
There were some very small corners of the upper bowl that had empty seats, likely the result of resale tickets that weren’t claimed. Otherwise the place was packed to the gills. MMA is obviously different from hockey and basketball because the Octagon is smaller, and placed right underneath the jumbotron. So you can sell these floor tickets and push the attendance beyond the typical capacity for a Sixers or Flyers game.
Nevertheless, the crowd was very good from start to finish. I got there around 4:30 p.m., and there we people lining up to get into the building more than hour before the early prelims even got underway around 5:40 –
Now to some bulletpoint takeaways after 36 hours to digest the results, which included both champions keeping their belts. Islam Makhachev defeated Ian Machado Garry by unanimous decision and Mackenzie Dern did the same to Gillian Robertson. Both fights were somewhat similar, with the champs controlling the fight along the fence or on the ground and playing to their strengths. There weren’t a lot of “wow” moments in the title fights, thought that’s sometimes the case when grapplers are fighting five rounds.
Observations and whatnot:
- By the time the card got underway, I’d estimate that about 40-45% of the arena was full. That’s pretty good considering these events run upwards of six hours.
- Jeremiah Wells was the only Philadelphia fighter on the card, but he walked out to boos to start the show. That was unexpected. There were actually a ton of Kyrgyz fans in the crowd, throwing support behind Wells’ opponent, Myktybek Orolbai, who was performing on the East Coast for the first time. They were no doubt disappointed when Wells choked out Orolbai in the third round to win as a +700 underdog and claim one of four Performance of the Night honors. You have to feel good for Wells to not only get it done at home, as the only local guy on the card, but get a nice $$$ bonus at the same time.
- There was a lot of talk about how unexciting this card was outside of the title fights. Go figure, then that the title fights ended up being somewhat pedestrian while the rest of the card delivered. There were seven fights on the prelims and early prelims and only two went to decision. Then we saw a KO, TKO, and submission on the main card before the Dern vs. Robertson fight. With four decisions in 12 fights, the finish rate for Saturday night was actually 66%. And while the Vicent Luque and Tresean Gore fight went to decision, both guys were active and throwing for the better part of three rounds.
- Charles Johnson walked out to the Rocky theme song, came back to win via Scottish Twister (a super rare sub), and then proclaimed that he has been an Eagles fan his entire life. He led the crowd in the Eagles fight song, but stopped halfway through, which was slightly confusing, but he seemed to be bolstered by the Philly crowd even though he’s from St. Louis via Kansas City.
- Edson Barboza retired after losing his fight to Esteban Ribovics. Barboza headlined in this building the last time UFC came to Philadelphia, and he got a standing ovation from the crowd for his decorated and lengthy MMA career. That was cool to see.
- The crowd was boooooooooing the hell out of referee Herb Dean every time he was introduced.
- Robertson just didn’t have anything for Dern. Nothing on the feet, nothing on the ground. She did get the better of Dern late in the fight, as Dern started to fade a bit, but by then she needed a finish and there was zero path to winning.
- The crowd booooooooooooooooooooed the hell out of Ian Machado Garry and went absolutely nuts for Islam Makhachev. It was incredibly lopsided. Philly was definitely riding with Islam on Saturday night. Even when they showed the guys walking into the arena, on the TV screens, the boos for Garry were deafening.
- The main event was not an instant classic. Makhachev controlled Garry in round 1 and then landed a knockdown with a beautiful head kick in round 2, but there weren’t any flashy moments in rounds 3, 4, or 5. Islam largely locked up Garry and held him down while being unable to inflict a lot of damage, and that received a lot of criticism after the fight. It’s the same thing people have been complaining about for several years now when it comes to MMA. Some of the best fighters in the sport are grapplers and wrestlers who shoot for takedowns and hold opponents down or push them up against the fence. Some are better than others at chasing submissions and using ground and pound, and while Islam didn’t have his best on Saturday night, his 17-fight win streak does include nine finishes. Khabib was largely the same, and fought to some boring decisions, but he ended his career with three straight finishes against Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, and Conor McGregor. Islam is also fighting up a weight class, which people need to remember. This was only his second fight at 170 pounds and first welterweight title defense.
- If you’re going to criticize Islam, fine, but what about Garry? He did very little all night. He landed 29 significant strikes in a five-round title fight. He was conservative, throwing teep kicks and playing defense, which is fine to start out against a world-class grappler, but when the fight started to slowly tilt his way in the 3rd and 4th rounds, there just wasn’t much offense from him, not a lot of aggression or assertiveness. Dana White was right to criticize Garry afterward for this lack of killer instinct. Garry seemed more focused last week on showing respect to Islam and trying to shift his public image and less focused on actually fighting. He’s very skilled and very talented but he was too conservative in this fight and should be receiving a lot more criticism than the champ, who at least tried to play his game. If Islam was disappointing on Saturday night, then what was Garry? It’s so weird to see more criticism for the winner than for the loser.
Anyway, it was a good time. Was it the best card ever? No. Was it the worst card ever? Also no. Maybe there’s a bit of irony in the unheralded prelim bouts delivering more than the main and co-main, but sometimes that’s how it goes.
Regardless, Philly is a combat sports town and BKFC proved that in 2025 when they sold out XMA for Knucklemania. UFC was overdue for a Philadelphia return, and the crowd was up for it.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com