3 round fights in MMA

Discussion in 'MMA Forum' started by lufcrazy, Oct 10, 2017.



  1. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

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    I don't know how I feel about this, I'm more thinking out loud.

    UFC 216 was a great event imo, and it featured two draws for the first time in years.

    Now for me, I'm not convinced 3 rounds is enough to demonstrate superiority over another fighter.

    I'll explain what I mean.

    Werdum vs Overeem is a great example of a fight with 2 clear rounds and 1 close round. Is it fair to say Overeem got the better of Werdum that night? And let's reverse the controversy, would it have been fair to say Werdum got the better of Reem? The fight was essentially decided by a punch. I know judges are encouraged to score winning rounds but for me this fight might as well have been a draw.

    Another example of my issue with 3 round fights is Rampage vs Evans. Rashad won the first two rounds but by the end of the third Rampage was well in control and over 5 rounds would Evans have been a favourite? If not what value does the 3 round victory actually have?

    Not to criticise but some posters are very adamant in their scoring of rounds and who should or should not be the winner in a 3 round fight, but for me it's often a case of a 3 round decision can go either way.

    What this means is if a 3 round fight goes the distance neither fighter really loses out which means that losing fighters can occupy the ranking spots and not really lose face whilst the winner moves forward despite not really doing much more.

    Another example, Bisping vs Wanderlei. Silva won a very close fight but the loss didn't effect Bisping all that much really as it was a competitive fight and his rise up the rankings continued.

    Are 3 round fights pointless or is it better that so many top fighters face each other under a system were both progress with their career?

    Not really sure how I feel about this, as I said I'm just musing out loud.
     
  2. UnleashtheFURY

    UnleashtheFURY D'oh! Full Member

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    Yeah it creates a lot of room for controversial or unconvincing decisions. Been a problem for a long time. Not sure how they'd go about remedying it.... Would require a complete reformat of the # of rounds, length etc. the 3x5 and 5x5 format is just so ingrained in MMA that I doubt they'll ever change it. Kind of stupid though... Boxing has everything from 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 round fights. I see no reason why a fight like Werdum/Overeem III which was a bout between two top 5 heavyweights, former title challengers should be limited to 3 rounds just because it's not a main event or for a title.
     
  3. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

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    Rampage vs Evans is the same as well, two elite class guys who both clearly have more in the tank.

    Seems a waste.
     
  4. Kevin Willis

    Kevin Willis Boxing Junkie banned Full Member

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    5X5 is just too long for most fights and it would occupy more event time, lessening the total number of fights. Most guys on the roster cannot get enough fights the way it is. They would have to have 3 or 4 minute rounds to compensate.
     
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  5. UnleashtheFURY

    UnleashtheFURY D'oh! Full Member

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    They should look to expand fight pass... Throw the bulk there and focus actual TALENT on the televised/PPV cards. It doesn't help that there are just way too many fighters signed and that WMMA is in the equation as well.
     
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  6. Kevin Willis

    Kevin Willis Boxing Junkie banned Full Member

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    That is hilarious how Rowdy Ronda rotten crotch crashed and burned, leaving Uncle Fester (Dana White) with that mess! LOL He would not dare eliminate WMMA from UFC now and suffer the special interest blow back. Now all he has left is a repulsive angry Brazilian lesbian who gets gift decisions and a Polish girl who cannot stop anyone.

    Most compelling WMMA fighter they have is Cyborg yet they treat her like a leper while turning the ship over to crappy Angela Hill.

    WHAT A MESS!
     
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  7. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

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    As I said, I'm not sure if it is a bad thing as it allows lots of top names to face each other in a way that both are able to move forward, which is one or boxing's biggest issues.

    It just means that more often than not (I don't have the stats to back this up) if a 3 round fight goes the distance we can be left with an unsatisfactory conclusion, or misleading fight records.
     
  8. Kevin Willis

    Kevin Willis Boxing Junkie banned Full Member

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    I am sorry but that last sentence is simply not true. Most if not overwhelming majority of 3 round fights that go to the cards have no controversy. I appreciate your MMA opinions and I am NOT attacking you here I simply disagree.

    Perhaps 5X3 minute rounds would be a better option that I am on board with but ground work can chew up time very fast so after considering this I am in favor of leaving it alone. At times good intentions can make things even worse.
     
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  9. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

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    I did say I dont have the stats to back it up, but you have to understand my mma journey to understand my context.

    I've only really been a proper fan of MMA from January when I began watching from UFC 1.

    I'm up to 2011 right now so I've crammed nearly 20 years of fights into 10 months.

    So where as most MMA fans will recall a handful of close either way 3 round fights this year, I have every close fight in history within that time period.

    If you get what I mean.

    So percentage wise I've no idea how many 3 round decisions can be argued for either man but volume wise lately I've seen a good number of them.

    As I first said though, I'm not even convinced it's a bad thing. I began being more interested in MMA cos I'm sick of big fights "marinating" in boxing and over in UFC the overwhelming majority of big fights come off, maybe this is part of the reason.
     
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  10. ForemanJab

    ForemanJab Deus Vult Full Member

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    I don't have a problem with the 3 round fight format for non-main event fights. I believe it's enough time to decide a winner and a loser. From some of those example you listed, Evans and Silva clearly won their respective fights, no controversy at all. The main issue in regards to controversial decisions in the UFC as I see it is poor judging and the implementation of a scoring criteria imported from boxing that doesn't fit well with the pace of the action in an MMA contest. If this isn't already happening Judges should be graded on the quality of their scorecards, the ones that have a history of bad scorecards should be retrained. Continue to to mess up and they get the boot. There are going to be close, hard to score fights sometimes, that's unavoidable but there have been far too many in the UFC compared another MMA company that didn't use the 10 point must scoring system, like Pride FC for example. Pride also had 3 round fights (10 min 1st round but still) and there were very few decisions over there which could've been deemed as robberies.
     
  11. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

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    I didn't list those two as controversial.
     
  12. ForemanJab

    ForemanJab Deus Vult Full Member

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    I know you didn't, I'm just saying if there's no controversy with an outcome to a decision then I believe superiority for one fighter has been established. I get your point that perhaps 3 rounds in some fights might not be enough for a fighter to put a definite stamp on a win by way of a finish or a resounding beating but I don't think a potential option of say, adding a bunch of extra rounds is the answer. As others have stated it's bad for TV and there's the possibility that the rest of the fight can play out in the same way it did for the first 3.
     
  13. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

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    I don't think 5 rounds is necessarily the answer, I also don't think 3 rounds is necessarily a bad thing, it's just some musings I've had.

    I do disagree with your first sentence. I certainly don't think Evans proved superiority over Rampage.
     
  14. ForemanJab

    ForemanJab Deus Vult Full Member

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    [/QUOTE]
    From what remember Evans dominated the 1st two frames and most of the 3rd, only being momentarily dropped late in the 3rd before recovering quickly.
     
  15. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

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    From what remember Evans dominated the 1st two frames and most of the 3rd, only being momentarily dropped late in the 3rd before recovering quickly.[/QUOTE]

    We could remember it slightly differently then, I remember the first two being clear Evans rounds dominated behind his quicker shots, probably the first half of the third as well. But when Page hurt Evans he came very close to stopping him imo and certainly did enough to win the third round by any measure.

    My point being, had that been a 5 round main event the momentum was with Page and I think the fight wasn't enough to say with certainty that Sugar was better than Page.

    I'm not saying every fight should be 5 rounds, I don't know if there's even a problem.

    I just think that if they were signed to a rematch over 5 rounds there's a decent chance Page would have been the favourite off the back of that fight.