Issue 128
May 2015
Watching Johny Hendricks and Matt Brown walk to the Octagon at UFC 185, I couldn’t help but feel a little cheated. The pair of leading welterweight contenders hadn’t even flicked a jab at one another and I was already dreading the final hooter in 15 minutes time.
NICK PEET
The Fighters Only editor on why fight fans deserve to see more five-round fights
Matching two combatants of their caliber and ranking – both undeniable human highlight reels and established top-five 170lb’ers – for just three rounds should be recognized as a criminal offense.
Bravo matchmaker Joe Silva, for making the fight in the first place, of course, but it got me wondering why more brilliant match-ups like this aren’t staged over five rounds. Even on stacked pay-per-view (PPV) events.
Already this year we’ve been denied two extra rounds in an array of fights that, long before a punch was thrown, fans could predict would’ve benefitted from 10
extra minutes.
On what planet is Benson Henderson vs. Donald Cerrone not a five-round fight? Miesha Tate vs. Sara McMann was cut down in its prime too, as was (weight issues aside) Tyron Woodley vs. Kelvin Gastelum, both at UFC 183.
Coming up too there are fights on UFC cards that deserve championship rounds regardless of any lack of belt or headline positioning. ‘Jacare’ Souza vs. Yoel Romero and Cub Swanson vs. Max Holloway early this month are crying out for more airtime.
Next month’s UFC 187 main card may already have two five-round title fights on the bill, but scheduling Cerrone vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov – a legit lightweight title eliminator – for just 15 minutes is nothing short of a travesty.
The first issue is how to differentiate those ‘entertaining’ individuals from the rest – perhaps even higher-ranked fighters – with regard to affording them more airtime. For example, the practice of simply choosing the likes of Hendrick/Brown and Cerrone/Nurmagomedov based on their status as top contenders in their respective weight classes would fall down eventually.
In Stockholm, Sweden, Ryan Bader and Phil Davis went at it for three rounds in a top-10 light heavyweight match-up. But the thought of another two five-minute stanzas following that first, lifeless 15 minutes may well have provoked the frenzied distribution of cyanide at cageside.
Since November 2011, the UFC has consistently scheduled five-round fights to headline all their fight cards. And during that time we’ve seen an array of unexpected ‘Fight of the Year’ contenders that achieved true greatness in the ‘championship’ rounds. Can you imagine if time was called on ‘Shogun’ vs. ‘Hendo’ 1 after just three frames? We would have been denied a true MMA classic.
Of course, there have also been some pretty forgettable 25-minute exchanges – or perhaps more accurately, lack of. But the switch overall has been a positive move for the promotion. Surely adding more – albeit hand-picked – five-rounders would only make cards even better?
One avenue worth exploring is card placement. Having a quality five-rounder to finish off the Fox Sports 1 portion of a PPV would pique fans’ interest. But would moving ‘name’ fighters to free TV take away from PPV buys? Practice proves otherwise.
Urijah Faber’s last two outings were headline acts on the prelims, and UFC 175 and UFC 181 were the two top-selling PPV events of 2014. Coincidence perhaps, but rounding off the free fights with a ticket-seller in a dramatic five-rounder could persuade casual viewers that the PPV portion will offer even more excitement.
Another solution may be to start the main card with a five-round match. UFC 175’s PPV portion could’ve started with Carla Esparza vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the women’s strawweight belt, then featured Hendricks/Brown over five as co-main. That would have been awesome.
One stumbling block may be time. After all, PPV events are run against the clock and a multitude of 25-minute fights could prove costly. Nobody wants a repeat of UFC 33 (shudder), when every fight on the main card went to points and the PPV broadcast actually cut out midway through the main event.
But boxing gets around this problem by having ‘swing bouts’ on their TV cards that can either drop in should a fight go early, or simply play out after the main event. The UFC has actually made this work before too.
At UFC 100 in July 2009 – still the most successful event in UFC history – Jon Fitch vs. Paulo Thiago took place after the headline heavyweight title fight between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir.
Some fights simply demand 25 minutes of action, though whether I’ve stumbled across any possible solutions here or not, I’m not entirely sure. But what I am sure of is this: fans are hungry for more entertainment.
Signing the likes of ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone and Urijah Faber up for more five-round fights, regardless of their place on a bill, can only be a good thing.
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