It’s been a busy year in the UFC’s design department. A total of 39 events, and each one comes with its own specially designed poster, a chance to sell the fight card to the masses with one carefully crafted image.

That’s no easy task, and with each new event there is no shortage of fans with strong opinions on how successfully (or not) the UFC has met the challenge. For the bigger events, sometimes it even becomes a competition among fans to see who can come up with better stuff than the UFC itself. (For example …)

But how did the UFC do at churning out creative, effective fight posters in the year 2017? For some analysis, we turned to professional artist and illustrator Marco Bucci, who was kind enough to take a break from his busy life of being awesome on Instagram in order to give us his picks for the five best and worst UFC fight posters this year.

(Be sure to check out Marco’s website for more of his great work, and see his YouTube page for his legitimately educational art tutorials.)

The Worst

5. UFC Fight Night 103
Date: Jan. 15
Main event: Yair Rodriguez vs. B.J. Penn
Marco’s take: I’d like to think a fight poster should stir some kind of feeling. What are we supposed to feel here, bland resignation? Actually, given that this was Penn coming out of retirement, I’m almost afraid that I’ve unintentionally nailed it.

4. UFC Fight Night 107
Date: March 18
Main event: Jimi Manuwa vs. Corey Anderson
Marco’s take: You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if the UFC has some kind of computer program that generates these copy-and-paste jobs. Or maybe it’s an underpaid, disgruntled designer – which, in light of what we know about fighter pay, would also not surprise me.

3. UFC Fight Night 109
Date: May 28
Main event: Alexander Gustafsson vs. Glover Teixeira
Marco’s take: This one looks like it could be the result of Dana White following one of those 10-step Photoshop color-correction tutorials on YouTube and thinking to himself, “Fire the art staff, I got this.”

2. UFC Fight Night 116
Date: Sept. 16
Main event: Luke Rockhold vs. David Branch
Marco’s take: Guys, Rockhold is a former UFC champ and Branch is a former WSOF champ! But does this poster suggest any of that? I mean, the two dudes here could be competing in a beer league bowling match and this poster would work equally well. That’s a design problem.

1. UFC 209
Date: March 4
Main event: Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson 2
Marco’s take: Hahaha. Know what the thing about this one is? It’s absolutely appropriate, but only in retrospect. (Hint: what do the insides of your eyelids look like?)

The Best

5. UFC 212
Date: June 3
Main event: Jose Aldo vs. Max Holloway
Marco’s take: This is a good example of how a simple departure from reality can lead to a variety of creative interpretations. If you’re a Holloway fan, this poster says: ‘I’m gonna turn Aldo’s world upside down.’ Or, if you’re an Aldo fan, it’s like Holloway is a reflection of Aldo: he’s good, but not the real thing. The meaning lies in the mind of the beholder. I dig that.

4. UFC 219
Date: Dec. 30
Main event: Holly Holm vs. Cris Cyborg
Marco’s take: I’m torn on this one. While I don’t care for the stock fighters-posing look, and masking Cyborg’s belt with text is an unforgivable design flaw, I do enjoy the dramatic color and light. Warm light really pops the main event fighters, while the co-main fighters are in a subdued, cooler light. Elements of both lights spill over into each fighter, which binds the foreground and background together as one cohesive space. A painter’s touch!

3. UFC Fight Night 110
Date: June 11
Main event: Mark Hunt vs. Derrick Lewis
Marco’s take: Hunt vs. Lewis is a crazy matchup, and everything in this poster serves that theme. Those fun, chicken-scratched lines are electric bursts of energy, symbolic of unpredictable chaos. Color would not add anything here, so the designer has wisely discarded it. Solid design!

2. UFC 210
Date: April 8
Main event: Daniel Cormier vs. Anthony Johnson 2
Marco’s take: I saw a lot of blowback on Twitter about how the UFC was disrespecting the champ here. But I think this poster is true to how fans felt about this matchup: a gigantic, red-hot ‘Rumble’ Johnson matches the scary physical force we all see him as, and Cormier’s diminutive size aligns with how his exterior doesn’t exactly say ‘UFC champ.’ But the irony is, as we saw in their first fight, it’s actually the opposite when they’re in the cage. That makes this a subversive and interesting design, if you ask me.

1. UFC 214
Date: July 9
Main event: Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones 2
Marco’s take: I really like this one. Diagonals and angular lines like this can be some of the most powerful tools in pictorial composition. For one, they carry an inherent sense of movement, which fits MMA nicely. Also, you get Jones’s arms going from the lower left of the frame to the upper right, emphasizing his all-encompassing reach.

Marco’s UFC poster wishlist for 2018:
“I’d love to see the poster design team push for more iconic imagery in 2018. We’ve had a steady diet of mean mugging, brandished fisticuffs, and other stereotypical fight poses. It’s becoming ever harder to innovate those images.

“Why not draw inspiration from the fighters’ real personalities, like how Jose Aldo looks down at his feet before every one of his fights? Or how Jon Jones spider-walks into the cage? Or how Demetrious Johnson is all about video games? Or how Frankie Edgar runs in instead of walks in? Or how Joanna Jedrzejczyk transforms into a gremlin during her staredowns?

“If I were doing the poster design for the next Max Holloway fight, I’d try having a belt-holding Holloway proudly ruling over his domain of cupcakes. A UFC champ and cupcakes: two seemingly conflicting images. But it’s true to the guy, it reveals another layer of these fighters, and I’ll bet way more people would notice and be intrigued by the juxtaposition. I’m not suggesting you could or should do that for every poster, but there is some serious potential there begging to be explored.”

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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