UFC 200: Why is the octagon mat yellow?

By Josh Hill | Jul 9, 2016

LAS VEGAS, NV - JULY 09: An overhead view of the Octagon as Gegard Mousasi of The Netherlands punches Thiago Santos of Brazil in their middleweight bout during the UFC 200 event on July 9, 2016 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) /

Why is the octagon mat yellow at UFC 200?

The UFC celebrated a massive milestone on Saturday night when the promotion held its 200th event. That’s not a small feat, as there is over two decades worth of history and not 200 massive fight cards to put on the mantle.

Needless to say, the UFC wasn’t going to just make this some other event, and they rolled out all of the carpets to celebrate.

Literally — they even rolled out a mustard yellow carpet.

You might have noticed that unlike other UFC events, especially PPV events, the mat was yellow.

UFC going with the yellow canvas for UFC 200. pic.twitter.com/UNuCjKCTug
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) July 9, 2016

Like most, don’t be upset if you were initially thrown off by this. The yellow mat was indeed a special thing for this specific event. The yellow mustard is supposed to be ‘gold’, just like how the NFL rolled out gold all over the place last season to commemorate the 50th Super Bowl.

But the ‘gold’ was more mustard — which sort of threw people off.

It’s a solid effort though. Maybe by UFC 300, the color palette will make more sense.

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