It's not the middleweight title fight we were hoping for. Nor does it involve Robert Whittaker or Georges St-Pierre, the last two men to win a middleweight title fight. But as far as a replacement matchup for an interim title goes, Luke Rockhold vs. Yoel Romero makes for a compelling and competitive main event. Appropriately, it's right in line with the last two middleweight title fights as far as the betting market is concerned.
The trouble for the pay-per-view market is the rest of the card. A major UFC event held internationally always gets loaded with regional talent at the cost of star power for the U.S. market. However, while going head-to-head with opening weekend of the Olympics may mean conceding some market share in the northern hemisphere, choosing Perth, Australia, for the event may have been wise given the lower local interest in the Winter Games. There's no doubt the UFC's first visit to Perth will have the stadium popping.
With an undercard offering a mix of veterans and newcomers, only the top two fights will have serious implications on the rankings. We'll look at those two fights in detail to see if there's betting value in these relatively tight lines.