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By Hunter Homistek

UFC 200 doesn’t feel right, does it?

The card is amazing, no doubt. It's headlined by a rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier for the undisputed UFC light heavyweight title. Two more championship fights—an interim featherweight title scrap between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar and a women’s bantamweight title showdown between Miesha Tate and Amanda Nunes—round out the golden matchups on tap.

A fight card featuring three title fights will never be bad. Not even close. Yet, UFC 200 doesn’t feel like enough. The UFC’s bicentennial showcase was supposed to be unreal, bigger and more mind-blowing than anything the company had ever done before.

UFC 200 is unquestionably great. It just isn’t that great.

This fact is highlighted by the two pay-per-view events immediately preceding it. UFC 198, slated for May 14, and UFC 199, going down June 4, are fantastic cards on their own.

Colloquially termed the “Brazilian UFC 200,” UFC 198 is loaded with South American legends such as Vitor Belfort, Anderson Silva, Fabricio Werdum, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Cris Cyborg, Demian Maia, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. That’s a whole lot of talent and history.

Even better, though, their respective matchups make sense in the context of the bigger picture. Silva faces Uriah Hall in a bout that will determine whether he still belongs atop the 185-pound division or if Hall is ready to absorb the spotlight he previously owned. Werdum defends his heavyweight title in the main event against heavy-hitting Stipe Miocic, while Belfort faces Souza in an apparent number-one- contender bout in the middleweight division.

Shogun must sink or swim vs. former The "Ultimate Fighter" winner Corey Anderson, and Cyborg will make her UFC debut. Her future inside the UFC Octagon begins here. These are bouts of substance, offering something more than just name value. There’s definitely appeal at a glance, but digging deeper, these matchups trace deep root systems.

The same can be said for UFC 199, a card which features two title fights of its own.

In the main event, Luke Rockhold attempts to defend his middleweight title in a rematch against Chris Weidman. Rockhold defeated Weidman via TKO at UFC 194, but both men entered that bout banged up—one with a staph infection and the other with an injured foot—and the result was less than stellar.

Rockhold’s finish was dominant. He rained down blow after blow from mount upon a largely defenseless Weidman, but it’s tough to ignore the fact that each fighter gassed early in the fight. It will be interesting to see how each competes at full strength. 

Bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz faces Urijah Faber just one bout earlier at UFC 199. These two have a well-documented history, with Faber handing Cruz his only career loss—a first-round guillotine choke at WEC 26. Cruz avenged that defeat at UFC 132 via unanimous decision, but much has changed since then. The two have fought a combined 34 times since their first encounter, so improvements, adjustments, and changes are expected.

Like the bout between Rockhold and Weidman, there’s legitimate intrigue rooted in the past here. We’ve seen the fight before—twice—but never quite like this. Will Cruz steamroll the aging Faber, or does “The California Kid” have one last push in store for us?

If that isn’t enough, UFC 199 also features the return of BJ Penn, a high-profile featherweight scrap between Max Holloway and Ricardo Lamas, and a lightweight tilt between Dustin Poirier and Bobby Green.

Penn left the sport on a sour note after “retiring” at The Ultimate Fighter 19 Finale in July 2014. There, he was demolished by Edgar via third-round TKO. He didn’t look like the Penn we know—the Penn who captured both the welterweight and lightweight titles and happily lapped the blood of his enemies while doing so. After shacking up with Team Jackson-Winkeljohn, Penn might be able to recapture some of that past magic against Dennis Siver June 4. Or he might not. That’s why we watch.

Holloway vs. Lamas, meanwhile, adds depth to the card and advances the featherweight division, as the winner likely finds himself in line for a title shot of his own. Plus, it’s a badass fight by any standard. Holloway is on an eight-fight—EIGHT- FIGHT—winning streak, and Lamas is a former title challenger whose game is as well-rounded as anybody’s in the 145-pound division.

That’s just it. When you look at UFC 198 and UFC 199 and the killer matchups they contain, you see that UFC 200 lacks a little shine.

Where UFC 200 impresses most is in its depth. Joe Lauzon vs. Diego Sanchez is a prelim. Cat Zingano vs. Juliana Pena, a potential title eliminator, is, too. That’s bonkers.

But depth just doesn’t cut it. MMA fans need superstars. We need Georges St-Pierre, Brock Lesnar, and Conor McGregor for a card to truly feel massive. Anything less gets lumped into this category of “good, not great.”

Right now, that’s where UFC 200 sits.