Throughout the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, there have been non-title bouts that went the distance with fans demanding one more round. Under the Unified Rules that are used in regulating MMA in North America, title bouts are scheduled for five/five-minute rounds, and non-title bouts are scheduled for three/five-minute rounds. Fights that fans felt should have gone an extra round or two usually involve such action that a three round decision is just to close to call, a Draw occurs, or it is just such a high profile fight that it is considered equal to a title fight. Such fights have included Liddell vs Silva, Sanchez vs Kampmann, Ortiz vs Griffin 1 & 2, Sanchez vs Guida, Penn vs Fitch, and many more. After many close fights and decisions, fans would cheer "one more round" hoping to force it upon the fight. Many fans refer to the way fights are conducted on TUF where if the judges see a fight as a draw after the set two rounds, a sudden victory round would be implemented. Leading up to this weekend's UFC 131: Dos Santos vs Carwin, UFC President Dana White announced that from that every main event bout following the upcoming UFC Live 5: Hardy vs Lytle will be five/five-minute rounds, both title and non-title bouts.
Following this announcement, White was questioned on why he does not implement this policy sooner than after Hardy vs Lytle. White justifies his decision to postpone implementing this policy due to already signed main event bout agreements. For fights like Hardy vs Lytle, the two parties have already agreed on payment, schedule, and especially the fact that it is scheduled as a three round bout. White feels that switching the already arranged format for signed bouts would affect the fighters' mental preparation already focused on possibly going the full fifteen minutes, rather than the twenty-five minutes. At this point, Hardy vs Lytle, scheduled for August 14, is the most recently signed non-title main event prior to the implementation of this policy, and therefore the following main event for UFC Fight Night 25: Battle on the Bayou will be the first to feature this new policy. The headlining bout for this event has not yet been officially announced or signed which will make it the first five round non-title fight in UFC history. The UFC will likely choose their main events more precisely setting high profile fights like #1 contendership eliminators and action packed bouts like super-fights to headline future events. In an interview with leading MMA journalist Ariel Helwani, White was asked if there was any talks with the multiple athletic commissions to make this possible. Even though the Unified Rules state policies on title and non-title bouts, the UFC has there own authority to at least designate non-title main events to bare the same rules. A problem that may come up some time in the future may be what happened leading up to UFC 130. Originally the main event was scheduled with the third meeting of Lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard to settle the score after a draw in their previous bout, but both were injured in training leading up to the event. In their place, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Matt Hamill were moved up from the co-main event to headline the event. This is no doubt a situation that the UFC will encounter with future events, and something that they will have to figure out how to deal with when bout agreement are already signed for the regular three rounds.
The only disapproval this encounters from fans is that many see this as taking away the importance of title fights being set for five rounds. Though this may take away from the significance of five round title fights in some views, this may help justify #1 contendership bouts for fighters to prove they are ready to fight for the title. This especially helps if a last minute contender is needed, similar to how Demian Maia was brought in to fight Middleweight champion Anderson Silva at UFC 112: Invincible when #1 contender Vitor Belfort was injured. Is this a good move for the UFC and fans, or does this diminish the significance of five round title bouts?
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