Five by Five: The UFC is 'probably' going to implement five-round main event non-title fights

According to UFC President Dana White at yesterday's UFC 129 press conference:

"We've talked about it before. There have been fights that we were watching that have been three-round fights like 'Damn, this should have been a five-round fight. It's the main event and it should have been five.' Yes, we can do it. we can make a main event a five-round fight and we're probably going to start doing that."

Thats a great idea. I hope they implement it as soon as possible. BJ vs Fitch 5 rounder would be great.

Yeah he talked about it in one of those videos I posted early, I'll have to find which one.

This is a must imo!

Time to play devil's advocate. I love the idea hope it goes through but will they expand the time of PPV so we dont see less fights? I agree BJ Fitch five rounds would be great in that Fitch will wear him down and get to finish a fight finally but if I miss a great undercard match to watch Fitch hump BJ'S left leg for the first 20 minutes I dont see it as a good thing. As long as they expand the time of the PPV im 100% down though.

They'd better just be extending the time on ppv

corydd7 wrote:

Time to play devil's advocate. I love the idea hope it goes through but will they expand the time of PPV so we dont see less fights? I agree BJ Fitch five rounds would be great in that Fitch will wear him down and get to finish a fight finally but if I miss a great undercard match to watch Fitch hump BJ'S left leg for the first 20 minutes I dont see it as a good thing. As long as they expand the time of the PPV im 100% down though.

A concern of mine as well. Main events are not always good fights.

GDPofDRC wrote:

corydd7 wrote:

Time to play devil's advocate. I love the idea hope it goes through but will they expand the time of PPV so we dont see less fights? I agree BJ Fitch five rounds would be great in that Fitch will wear him down and get to finish a fight finally but if I miss a great undercard match to watch Fitch hump BJ'S left leg for the first 20 minutes I dont see it as a good thing. As long as they expand the time of the PPV im 100% down though.

A concern of mine as well. Main events are not always good fights.

Most of the time on paper they are though.

about fucking time

Often UFC PPVs end with time left and they endup showing undercard fights, I doubt adding 5 rd main events will cut into the PPV real time at all or have need for expanded time slots. With talk that undercard fights will possibly soon, but def eventually all be available, they'll be less need to fill in the left over time with replayed fights. It is possible you could get scenerios where you're just prolonging boring fights, or dominant LnP performances, but at the same time we should see close fights through 3 rds get decided more clearly, what if Hendo vs Franklin was 5 rds? ect. I also think this could lead to more finishes.

Title fights are a different length for a reason. This is fucking stupid and just a way to hawk non-title less relevant fights as on the same level as title fights. Championship Rounds should mean something. Terrible.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Title fights are a different length for a reason. This is fucking stupid and just a way to hawk non-title less relevant fights as on the same level as title fights. Championship Rounds should mean something. Terrible.

I dont think it takes away from the title fights it just makes average cards better.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Title fights are a different length for a reason. This is fucking stupid and just a way to hawk non-title less relevant fights as on the same level as title fights. Championship Rounds should mean something. Terrible.

I'm gonna have to agree with Wolf on this one. Only title fights should be 5 rounds. With 7 titles now there should be a title fight on every PPV anyway.

I don't want every main event to be 5-rounds, but I would love it when it's a big grudge match or epicly hyped fight or something.
5 rounds of Wanderlei/Liddell woulda been amazing.....
5 rounds of Rashad/Rampage, not so much

corydd7 wrote:

Time to play devil's advocate. I love the idea hope it goes through but will they expand the time of PPV so we dont see less fights? I agree BJ Fitch five rounds would be great in that Fitch will wear him down and get to finish a fight finally but if I miss a great undercard match to watch Fitch hump BJ'S left leg for the first 20 minutes I dont see it as a good thing. As long as they expand the time of the PPV im 100% down though.

there is also the concern that fighters approach a 5 rnd fight differently, thinking more about conserving energy through the early rnds. Thus we cannot say "franklin Wandy needed a couple more rnds to determine the winner" cause the fight may have been completely different if these came with in with a 5 rnd mindset.


Though I too am playing devils advocate here. Im cool with the idea.

I am against the 5 rounder for main event with no championship involved. Sure from time to time that might seem like that wuld have been a good one, but Ilike the idea of Championship matches are the only 5 rounders, particularly now that we have added two more belts.

Hel13torm wrote:

I don't want every main event to be 5-rounds, but I would love it when it's a big grudge match or epicly hyped fight or something.
5 rounds of Wanderlei/Liddell woulda been amazing.....
5 rounds of Rashad/Rampage, not so much

See I thought at the end of the third the fight was really getting going and it was over.

I like the idea of 5 round main events but not every fight. I'm not even sure all main events should have them. All #1 contender fights should be 5 rounds though IMO.

OU wrote:

I like the idea of 5 round main events but not every fight. I'm not even sure all main events should have them. All #1 contender fights should be 5 rounds though IMO.

You mean like Okami vs Marquardt which Okami won and still wont be getting a title shot?