2012 Topps UFC Finest

Product Review

2012 Topps UFC Finest Product Review

Reviewed by Kerwin Leong

Good: You are guaranteed six hits per box, which gives you two autographs, two jumbo relics, and two jumbo mat relics. Some highlights of the autograph checklist includes Randy Couture, Brock Lesnar, Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, and even Dana White. The base and inserts have a solid glossy design that showcase amazing photography from inside the Octagon. I love the look and design of the Autograph Jumbo Thread Relics and Thoughts From The Boss Dual Autographs. Great innovation for the Grill Gear Relics which has a fighter's piece of a fight-used mouthpiece on the card itself. There are also Autograph Glove Redemption cards and Dana White Autograph VIP Pass Redemption cards that can be redeemed to win a trip for two to a live UFC event, complete with a fighter meet and greet. MMA collectors should love this product.

Bad: Like any product, the autographs and relics can be hit or miss. For such a premium product such as Finest, you really don't expect to see some of the lower-tier MMA fighters among your hits. Many of the autographs are also stickers. You only get 60 cards per box. This means it will take several boxes to put together the 100-card base set. There are no base cards of Ronda Rousey, but she does have her first autograph card.

The Bottom Line: 2012 Topps UFC Finest is a premium MMA product that cost around $90 per master box at its time of release. This is very reasonable, especially compared to other products with similar configurations. With six hits per box, the end results can be rewarding with so many autographs of top fighters included in the product. The overall design of this product definitely lives up to the Finest brand and reputation. There is a reason why Finest is always one of the most anticipated products each year.

Card Design: 5.0/5.0

The base cards have a solid glossy design and puts the sole emphasis on the fighter in the center of the card. The card photography showcase action shots, fighter poses, and victory celebrations. The fighter's first name, last name, and weight class are at the bottom center of the card. There are six different parallel variations: White Refractor, Blue X-Fractor, Gold Refractor, Black Octa-Fractor, Red Refractor, and Printing Plate.

Finest Moments and Bloodlines are the two basic insert sets of 2012 Topps UFC Finest. Finest Moments has 25 fighters and spotlights the fighter's top MMA accomplishments. Bloodlines is a 25-card set that shows the country the fighter comes from.

The Jumbo Mat Relics have a large swatch of the actual mat which is bordered around an octagon. The Jumbo Finest Threads Relics have a large swatch of fighter-worn gear embedded on the right side of the card. The Fighter Autographs, Finest Moments Autographs, and Bloodlines Autographs are basically like the basic versions of the card with a sticker signature on the front.

The two dual autograph designs are Thoughts From The Boss and Parallel Bloodlines. Thoughts From The Boss has 15 cards with an autograph of Dana White and another fighter. Parallel Bloodlines has ten cards and highlights fighters from the same country. This dual autograph set also has a card of MMA Legend Randy Couture and his son Ryan Couture. The Jumbo Mat Relics, Jumbo Threads Relics, and Parallel Bloodlines also come with autograph versions.

Checklist: 4.0/5.0

The base set is comprised of 100 cards. This is the same count as the last Topps UFC product, 2012 Topps UFC Knockout. This product has a mixture of current fighters from UFC and Strikeforce. There are no retired legends or UFC personalities, though. Topps has to balance their UFC product to include cards from the always-growing UFC roster, so there are some people who should be included that won't have cards in every release. If they are focusing on current fighters, it is odd that they only included one female fighter: Miesha Tate. Rounda Rousey is nowhere to be found in the base set, but at least has an autograph.

One highlight of the 2012 Topps UFC Finest checklist is that majority of the top recent UFC stars have autographs. These include Jose Aldo, Randy Couture, Urijah Faber, Brock Lesnar, Chuck Liddell, Ronda Rousey, Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, Cain Velasquez, and Dana White.

Value: 5.0/5.0

2012 Topps UFC Finest master boxes cost around $90 when it first came out. These master boxes have two mini boxes, each of which has six packs of five cards. Each mini box contains an autograph, a Jumbo Fighter-Worn Relic, and a Jumbo Mat Relic. Out of the 60 cards in our box, we pulled 38 Base Cards, eight White Refractors, two Blue X-Fractors, two Gold Refractors, two Bloodlines, two Finest Moments, two Autographs, two Finest Threads, and two Mat Relics. Considering this is a premium product, there is a lot of value. The rewards far exceed the risks.

The Fun Factor: 5.0/5.0

Topps has made another amazing UFC product that introduces different designs and innovations. 2012 Topps UFC Finest can be seen as one of the company's top products. There is an abundance of great card designs in the set. The different autographs, relics, and parallels should keep set builders busy buying and trading. While there are stickers on a lot of the autographs, they come in different combinations, which helps. The redemption cards for Autograph Gloves and VIP Passes to a live UFC Event cap a stellar release.