The final two bouts at UFC 170 couldn’t have been more different.

In the main event, you had Ronda Rousey facing off against Sara McMann — a battle of two Olympic medallists with unbeaten records. This was, in my opinion, the best matchup in the history of women’s mixed martial arts (on paper) and arguably the top pairing in UFC history as well. We’d seen Olympic athletes compete before, but never had two medallists squared off in the cage.

Preceding the final pairing was a light heavyweight matchup between two-time Olympian Daniel Cormier and Patrick Cummins, a 4-0 newcomer pulled from a Dana Point, California coffee shop 10 days earlier based on a pumped up story from the time Cummins spent helping Cormier prepare for the Olympics.

From the time the penultimate bout of the night was booked, the hard sell was on.

Cummins was the latest fighter to be positioned as an MMA Rocky Balboa, his potential for beating the undefeated former heavyweight contender sold on the basis of a decade-old training session, praise from his teammates and coaches, and the fact no one on the regional circuit wanted to fight him. Oh, and the guy rides a mountain bike uphill all the time too!

When Cormier and Cummins hit the cage, things went as expected.

The former Olympian crushed the dude that was baking artisan breads and getting Johnny Hipster his low-fat, half-soy, no whip, double shot mocha latte ready two weeks earlier, rocking him with an uppercut almost immediately and bringing the bout to a close in less than 90 seconds.

After repeatedly being told by the promotion and several media members that this was no squash match — “Cummins is a legitimate threat! Count him out at your own peril!” — fans were treated to the UFC equivalent of The Ultimate Warrior running into the ring and flattening some jobber that looked like he worked at a coffee shop right up until the point he was tossed in the ring in mismatched trunks and boots.

To borrow from Nick Diaz, the UFC sold people a bunch of Wolf Tickets.

Trying to pump life into a fight is one thing; promoting a hastily put together mismatch at the expense of a legitimate battle between two world-class athletes is something entirely different.

That’s not to say that Rousey and McMann didn’t get their share of attention or to gloss over the fact that the challenger is a fiercely private person, which makes selling her as a fighter and a draw a little more complicated, but at no point in time should two undefeated Olympians battling for a championship belt take a back seat to anyone, for any reason.

But in the build up to Saturday night, that’s exactly what happened and the UFC needs to re-examine its decision in the aftermath this weekend’s event.

The main event might have featured prominently on the fight poster and in the promotional trailers, but over the final 10 days before UFC 170 took place, it was all about Cummins and Cormier. That is all kinds of wrong.

Here’s the thing: if Cummins was such a freak athlete and legitimate threat to Cormier, why wasn’t he signed prior to being pulled off the drive-thru window? The ironic thing is that Cummins probably deserves to be in the UFC — the light heavyweight division is devoid of emerging talent and he has the pedigree and potential to be a solid addition to the 205-pound ranks.

Of course, there is a monstrous difference between being good enough to merit a shot in the middle of some preliminary card against a lower-tier light heavyweight and coming in off the street to challenge one of the very best fighters in the entire organization. When asked if, in hindsight, he regretted making the bout between Cummins and Cormier at the post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White countered by asking if it would have been better just to pull Cormier from the card entirely and shuffle the remaining lineup to fill in the main card opening?

Yes — that would have been better and is precisely what should have happened because there was nothing gained from going ahead with this lopsided contest, save for a few more pay-per-views being sold. Unfortunately, that’s reason enough for the UFC to take the approach they did.

While the decision can be built up around accommodating Cormier’s wish to stay on the fight card after getting down in weight and having family flying in to see him compete, there should never be a point where “dude off the street” is positioned next to “legitimate title contender” with the company repeatedly shouting, “This dude off the street has what it takes to beat our unbeaten legitimate title contender!”

And that tandem should never steal the spotlight from a championship bout featuring a pair of legitimate world-class athletes. Cormier is no further ahead after dispatching Cummins — the only real takeaway from his brief appearance is that he’s able to comfortably make the light-heavyweight limit. His prior success at heavyweight positioned him as a threat in his new weight class, and this win did nothing to enhance his standing.

So why bother? Why risk one of the few fresh challengers in a depleted division against a guy with an inflated story and zero meaningful fights under his belt? The UFC should have apologized to Cormier for the bad break and cranked up the focus on Rousey and McMann, the transcendent face of the organization and the woman many viewed as the one to halt the champion’s reign.

What should have been a “look how far we’ve come” moment for the UFC was overshadowed by a bout that was reminiscent of the early days of the organization, where 11th hour alternates with moderate experience and a collection of folk tales about their exploits actually had a fighting chance of coming away with a victory.

For an organization that worked hard to establish its legitimacy and show that its competitors truly are world-class athletes, the UFC went out of their way to promote a fight that stood in contrast to those realities on Saturday night.