The 2022 Donruss UFC set is a nice debut for Panini in the mixed martial arts area of sports. The sport continues to grow in popularity, and Panini is looking to capitalize since obtaining the license for UFC cards last year.
The Donruss set is a good start. It is more workmanlike and tailored to the everyday collector, rather than previous releases like the 2021 Panini Prizm set, which focused on chrome cards.
A blaster box of Donruss UFC contains six packs, with 15 cards to a pack — or “Pak,” as the blaster box reads. A nod to MMA Pakistan, perhaps?
The product offers a 225-card set. That includes 200 base cards, 20 Rated Rookies and five Voices of the Octagon cards.
The latter pays tribute to the sport’s announcers.
Rated Rookies has the traditional blue logo that Donruss has used for years, and no matter what product it adorns it still brings back nostalgic times.
The Donruss set is a good start. It is more workmanlike and tailored to the everyday collector, rather than previous releases like the 2021 Panini Prizm set, which focused on chrome cards.
A blaster box of Donruss UFC contains six packs, with 15 cards to a pack — or “Pak,” as the blaster box reads. A nod to MMA Pakistan, perhaps?
The product offers a 225-card set. That includes 200 base cards, 20 Rated Rookies and five Voices of the Octagon cards.
The latter pays tribute to the sport’s announcers.
Rated Rookies has the traditional blue logo that Donruss has used for years, and no matter what product it adorns it still brings back nostalgic times.
The blaster I bought had 75 base cards, a pair of Rated Rookies (Tom Aspinall and Grant Dawson) and one Voices of the Octagon card (Megan Olvi). There was also a Holo Orange Laser parallel of Alexander Volkov and Press Purple parallel of Jose Aldo.
The design is straightforward and the card front uses red as one of the primary colors. Whether the shot of the competitor is action or posed, it is tightly cropped and framed with a thin red line. The remainder of the card is framed in white.
The player’s name is near the bottom and is stamped in foil, and the Donruss logo is at the top left-hand corner. The UFC logo is at the bottom left-hand corner.
There are some great expressions in the photos Panini uses in this set, but my favorite is of welterweight Matt Brown (No. 149). Look at the mean mug on that guy. You’re not getting me to step into that octagon with “The Immortal” (the nickname is tattooed on his stomach).
Come to think of it, I wouldn’t step in the octagon with any of them, but that’s another matter.
The design is straightforward and the card front uses red as one of the primary colors. Whether the shot of the competitor is action or posed, it is tightly cropped and framed with a thin red line. The remainder of the card is framed in white.
The player’s name is near the bottom and is stamped in foil, and the Donruss logo is at the top left-hand corner. The UFC logo is at the bottom left-hand corner.
There are some great expressions in the photos Panini uses in this set, but my favorite is of welterweight Matt Brown (No. 149). Look at the mean mug on that guy. You’re not getting me to step into that octagon with “The Immortal” (the nickname is tattooed on his stomach).
Come to think of it, I wouldn’t step in the octagon with any of them, but that’s another matter.
The card backs have a large UFC logo at the top, with the player’s name, weight division and biography in white type set against a black background.
The eight-line biographies can be fun, too. For Tim Means (No. 157), the bio notes that “Means means business.” The bio for Colby Covington (No. 17) tells the collector that the welterweight uses the microphone “like an old-school pro wrestling heel.”
You get the idea.
As for inserts, I pulled two Craftsmen cards featuring welterweight Jorge Masvidal and heavyweight Stipe Miocic. There are 20 cards in this set.
Production Line consists of 10 insert cards. I pulled a card of heavyweight Francis Ngannou that celebrates his 20-second victory at UFC 249.
The eight-line biographies can be fun, too. For Tim Means (No. 157), the bio notes that “Means means business.” The bio for Colby Covington (No. 17) tells the collector that the welterweight uses the microphone “like an old-school pro wrestling heel.”
You get the idea.
As for inserts, I pulled two Craftsmen cards featuring welterweight Jorge Masvidal and heavyweight Stipe Miocic. There are 20 cards in this set.
Production Line consists of 10 insert cards. I pulled a card of heavyweight Francis Ngannou that celebrates his 20-second victory at UFC 249.
Octagon Marvels is a 20-card insert set that gets its inspiration from comic book covers. I pulled a card of flyweight Valentina Shevchenko. Another 20-card insert is Crunch Time, which uses the typography similar to a box of Cap’n Crunch cereal. The card I pulled was of lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Retro Series has 10 cards and I pulled middleweight Michael Bisping. Magicians, another 10-card insert, gave me a Conor McGregor card and a Press Proof Pink parallel of Rose Namajunas.
Duos, as the name implies, highlights two competitors on a card. There are 10 and I pulled a base card of Alexander Gustafsson and Jon Jones, and a Holo Orange Laser parallel of Nurmagomedov and McGregor.
So, not a bad debut. It’s an interesting sport that combines the power of boxing and the agility of martial arts with the hype of pro wrestling. Donruss UFC has the same attributes.
Retro Series has 10 cards and I pulled middleweight Michael Bisping. Magicians, another 10-card insert, gave me a Conor McGregor card and a Press Proof Pink parallel of Rose Namajunas.
Duos, as the name implies, highlights two competitors on a card. There are 10 and I pulled a base card of Alexander Gustafsson and Jon Jones, and a Holo Orange Laser parallel of Nurmagomedov and McGregor.
So, not a bad debut. It’s an interesting sport that combines the power of boxing and the agility of martial arts with the hype of pro wrestling. Donruss UFC has the same attributes.
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