UFC to implement five round fights for all main events
by Hubert Lau on June 09, 2011

UFC president, Dana White, announced that all UFC main events will be a five round fight according to mmafighting.com.

The exception to this new rule is Rashad Evans' bout with Phil Davis  and any fighters that have already signed to fight for three rounds, not five. As White pointed out, any main event thereafter will be five round, title contention or otherwise.

The five round rule would have definitely benefited numerous important bouts such as the welterweight contention eliminator between BJ Penn and Jon Fitch at UFC 127 that was fought to a draw within the three round limit. With an extra two rounds, the outcome of the fight could have been very different especially with Penn's cardio wavering in the later stages of the fight. The two were scheduled for a rematch until Fitch suffered an injury that put him out of action until late 2011. Such a predicament could have been avoided with an extra two rounds.

Additionally a five rounder can allow a fighter who lost the opening two rounds to rebound without the need for a finish to win the fight.

No word of which two fighters will be the first to partake in the five round non-title bout.

 |  (40) Comments illegalpoke: **** just got real. Lay'n'PrayNINJA: Woot! mike5k: Interesting point about it adding less OOMPH to title fights. With the amount of contracts Zuffa is acquiring though, they needed to add the OOMPH to non-title fights to help sell some of these main events. I hadn't even thought about it taking away from title fights but good point, it does make them a bit less special. shawnb: bout time. i'd like to see a "sudden death" clause for close, exciting fights too. fight going well? but no clear winner? 2 MORE ROUNDS! ds1001: it's pretty good, although some of the weaker cards have main events that i wouldn't necessarily want to see go 5 rounds...like the rampage/hamill fight GO HARD: suprisingly so... i dont like this. i mean it would make things better for me if gsp and silva fought at a catch weight. and alot of fights i want to be over in 3 cuz i dont want a 2 more round hump fest. if fitch vs penn was 5 rounds... fitch would have finished it i think, so this is big news. Marker28: I expect to see a lot of fighters run out of gas after round 3. Cryptic_Soldier: I thought i posted in this thread... guess not... Somtimes it seems like my postes dissapear.... 5 round fights should make non title cards more interesting. nygiant: I wouldn't actually mind if they implented an opportunity for *1 standing 10 count or something. But, only implement it if the fighter was looking where he was punching. I see alot of fighters throw a haymaker w their head down(not even looking where their punch is being thrown) and land it. If it was a perfectly thrown technical punch and he ko's the guy then fair game. None of this lucky haymaker punch...too many times we don't see who's really the better fighter b/c of this ala GSP/Serra 1... GO HARD: no luck in mma... well except when cote hurt his leg. he was DAYUUUUM lucky. 5 round fights... u know what that means?? if gsp vs silva happens, this is an advantage for andy!! q; D GO HARD: Okay Ill take that sig bet. Lay'n'PrayNINJA: GSP is VERY far from a favorite against Andy. Very far. GSP has an easy time taking down Welterweights who are his size or smaller. Leverage makes quite a bit of difference, and GSP will not be able to get inside on Anderson (6'2"/77.5") like he can on the ~5'11/75" WW division. Expect Anderson to be favored around -220 or more.......IF GSP ever decides to actually fight Anderson like he has said he wanted to do in the past. The Hitman: This is going to make or break alot of fighters. I like it.
WHO WINS THE MAIN EVENT AT UFC 162 BETWEEN ANDERSON SILVA AND CHRIS WEIDMAN?
Silva via Decision
Silva via TKO/KO
Silva via Submission
Weidman via Decision
Weidman via TKO/KO
Weidman via Submission
TAKE ANOTHER POLL!