Ufc introduces 5-round non-title fights for all main events in the future ; Evans vs Davis exempt

UFC president Dana White today told a small group of reporters that the promotion has decided that all main-event non-title bouts – whether on pay-per-view, Spike TV or Versus – will now be scheduled as five-rounders.

However, the adjustment will not apply to any currently scheduled bouts, such as UFC 133's Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis tilt, or UFC on Versus 5's Dan Hardy vs. Chris Lytle contest.

"From this day forward, as we speak right here, right now today, every fight that is a main event that is not a title fight will be a five-round fight," White said following a UFC 131 pre-fight press conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

When immediately asked if that applied to Evans vs. Davis, White corrected himself.

"Except that one," White said with a laugh. "It should be, but what I don't want to do to guys is fights that we've already made and they've signed the bout agreement, you're mentally training for a three-round fight. To come back and say, 'Oh, it's five rounds now,' you can't do that to a guy.

"So all the fights that will be made from this day forward will be five rounds."

In a special Q&A session in conjunction with April's UFC 129 event, White revealed UFC 131's originally scheduled main event of Brock Lesnar vs. Junior Dos Santos nearly took the honors of the promotion's first five-round non-title matchup.

"I'm in to that," White said when asked by a fan about five-round non-title fights. "I like it. I think there's some fights that aren't title fights that are main events, and it ends up being three (rounds), and it should have been five. I'm a big fan of it, and we're working on that right now.

"We were actually going to start it with Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos, but we had already made the fight, so it's kind of hard to go back to those guys after you've already made the fight and say, 'You know what? This is going to be five (rounds) instead of three.'"

And now it's done.

White doesn't yet know who will be featured in the UFC's first five-round non-title fight, but potential main-eventers might want to start upping their cardio sessions because the change is coming.

"From this day forward, any main-event fight that is signed after right now today will be five rounds instead of three," White said.

What happens if a week before an event, the main event gets scrapped due to injury? Do they then make the new main event a 5 rounder when those guys have trained and prepared for 3 rounds? Could lead to problems. Great move obviously, but some tough decisions ahead if main events get cancelled.

I really like this move, it will really show in fights who the better fighter is and gives fans better value for money. However as Anfield said, it will be a problem if a guy pulls out 1 week before the fight or something like that.

I would have preferred a review of the current scoring system, and kept the five rounders to the title fights.

They should just make all fights between two top ten fighters (by the consensus rankings) 5 rounders.

The third fight on a big PPV is often more worthy of 5 rounds than the main event of a fight night.

Does this mean TUF finals will now be 5 rounds?

That's what I'm wondering mryzyz

Anfields5thKing wrote:What happens if a week before an event, the main event gets scrapped due to injury? Do they then make the new main event a 5 rounder when those guys have trained and prepared for 3 rounds? Could lead to problems. Great move obviously, but some tough decisions ahead if main events get cancelled.

This is a completely naive question, but in terms of training, how does a camp for a 3 or 5 round fight differ? More cardio for 5 rounds i guess?

I agree on your points, it's an interesting move, and will resolve some issues, but for short notice fights/replacements it could be a problem. Then again, i guess short notice replacements for title fights (ie. Maia) have always been faced with the same problem...

Yeah for a 5 round fight you'll work on more cardio, but you also train to fight at a slightly slower pace so you can retain energy for the later rounds.

obviously a good move....

now lets see what can be done about that stupid one minute rest period fights have in the middle.

manschesthair_utd wrote:obviously a good move....

now lets see what can be done about that stupid one minute rest period fights have in the middle.

you mean they should make 1 25 minute round....?

sure; i think its more like fighting that way...would probably be a lot more boring but its more fair - and easier for a grappler to implement a strategy.

maybe they should start rounds in the position the previous round ended...would definitley make for less stalling by the guy on the bottom, and more fighting.

According to wiki september 17th fight night will feature first 5 rd main event non title, I guess that answers the will it only be main ufc cards

2brutal wrote:According to wiki september 17th fight night will feature first 5 rd main event non title, I guess that answers the will it only be main ufc cards

It's every card - It says at the top of the article PPV, Spike tv or Versus cards, which is a bonus i suppose.
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It'll mean the UFC will need to choose their main events more carefully. For example, if the 5 rounds was implemented for the Hardy/Lyttle it would be a disgrace that that fight was the main event, as Miller/Bendo would gain more experience from the 5 rounds.

i wonder what forced the change and wether other promotions will follow suite.

I would bet miller hendo gets the 5 rds

Once Mohawked Pete wrote: I would have preferred a review of the current scoring system, and kept the five rounders to the title fights.

Me too mate.

I dont know if Dana and Co think that with 5 rounds there might be more finishes and therefore the shite MMA scoring system used in UFC might be used less...

But id like to see stats for title fights vs non title figths to see how much more often a finish happens. The last thing I want to see is fighters pacing themselves more.

p4pnumber_1 is bang on about the wrong fight getting the 5 round status. Miller and B.hendo are both ranked, Hardy and lights out arent... wheres the logic in that? I dont like this 5 round main event bollox because there is no good way of deciding who is the main event and usually they go for heavier fighters.