Rounds In Mma
LAS VEGAS – Israel Adesanya doesn’t think his loss to Jan Blachowicz was as lopsided as the scorecards made it out to be.
Middleweight champion Adesanya (20-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) failed to capture a second belt when he was defeated by light heavyweight champ Blachowicz in the UFC 259 main event this past Saturday. All three judges gave Blachowicz four rounds, and two gave him a 10-8 score in Round 5.
How Many Rounds In Ufc
AN MMA SITE OFFERING OVER/UNDER WAGERS: BOVADA In the case of corner retirements, the fight is considered to have ended at the end of the previous round. If after 2 rounds, a fighter either quits or the doctor or cornerman stops the fight, the bout is ruled a 2nd-round stoppage.
As mentioned, MMA fights can only either last 3 or 5 rounds. 5-round fights are reserved for championship fights and main event fights. A typical UFC with no special circumstances surrounding it will always be three rounds. Championship fights are self-explanatory. If there’s a belt on the line, then the fight goes five rounds. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is owned and operated by Endeavor Group Holdings along with Silver Lake Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and MSD Capital via Zuffa, LLC. It is the largest MMA promotion company in the world and features some of the highest-level fighters in the sport on its roster.
Although Adesanya agrees Blachowicz (28-8 MMA, 11-5 UFC) did enough to beat him, he’s not sure about the 10-8s in Round 5. He was taken down and controlled on the canvas, but didn’t seem to absorb any serious damage.
“It wasn’t that big of a difference. I don’t know about those 10-8 rounds, and I don’t know about some of those scorecards from the judges,” Adesanya told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at the post-fight news conference. “But I lost the fight to the better fighter tonight, the craftier fighter tonight. But it wasn’t an ass whooping or anything.
“When he had me on the ground, if he had postured up and then wailed on me and thrown some crazy elbows and some crazy punches and connected crazy, yeah – I can say, ‘Yeah, give it a 10-8. Give it a 10-7, even. Use the whole 10-point must system.’ But it wasn’t under that. He just held on and snuck some shots in to try and keep it busy enough that the referee doesn’t stand it up, and that’s a veteran move because he’s a veteran in this game.”
Because Adesanya didn’t think the scorecards accurately reflected his performance, he likes the idea of open scoring that he thinks would help fighters understand where they stand in the fight.
“I wasn’t scoring it, so I didn’t really know what it was. But I’m telling you, some of those judges, they at least need to train,” Adesanya said. “There needs to be some kind of criteria before you start judging MMA and not just get some guys from boxing, like, ‘Oh, have a look at this MMA fight and judge.’ At least you need to get down with the business.
“(Open scoring) might be a good thing. Maybe even scores during the rounds so you know if you’re behind or not. That’s smart. Let’s do that then. I like the fact that we have instant replays now. I don’t know why that took so long. I think that’s a really smart idea. Get it done so that way if my corner wants to tell me, ‘Yo, we need this round,’ because I saw him getting tired. Trust me – I was fresh. He was getting tired and the size played a factor in the fifth round.”
- Amateur boxing bouts that are practiced at Pan American games, the Olympics, the Commonwealth games as well as at the collegiate levels, have just three rounds that last for three minutes each for men. The rounds are two minutes long for women.
- Attempting to determine the most unbelievable rounds in MMA history is a rather daunting task. It is also a great excuse to sit in front of UFC Fight Pass and rewatch several epic fights however. Unfortunately to boil it down to the top 5 rounds in MMA history some great bouts had to be excluded.
As a new UFC fan, or even as a casual viewer, it is important to know the nuances of a UFC fight. And one of the most important aspects of any combat sport is the number of rounds involved. So in this post, I’m going to cover the following: How many rounds are there in UFC fights?
There are either 3 or 5 rounds in a UFC fight. Normal bouts are 3 rounds in length, while championship and main event fights are scheduled for 5 rounds. Each round is five minutes long, with a one-minute rest period between each round.
In the rest of this post, I’ll go more in-depth on how the round system works, as well as exceptions to the rules stated above.
When Are Fights 5 Rounds Instead Of 3?
As mentioned, MMA fights can only either last 3 or 5 rounds. 5-round fights are reserved for championship fights and main event fights. A typical UFC with no special circumstances surrounding it will always be three rounds.
Championship fights are self-explanatory. If there’s a belt on the line, then the fight goes five rounds. But what is considered a main event fight?
Basically, the last fight of the night on any fight card is considered the main event. This goes for any type of UFC event, whether it’s a pay-per-view or a free fight on cable tv. The last fight will go five rounds.
Of course, there are always exceptions to this rule.
As far as championship fights go, special circumstances can cause the fight to be three rounds. The most famous example is probably the match between then Light Heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier, when he faced Anderson Silva at UFC 200.
Championship Fights At 3 Rounds
Cormier was originally scheduled to defend his title against interim-champ Jon Jones, in a highly-anticipated rematch between the two. Unfortunately, Jones tested positive for a banned substance the week of the fight, meaning he was unable to compete.
It was soon after announced that former middleweight champion Anderson Silva would step in to replace Jones. However, Silva had one stipulation. Because he would be moving up a weight class, and the fight would be on two-days notice, Silva would only fight if the bout was scheduled for three rounds.
Ufc Fight Rules
According to ESPN: “Anderson is giving Daniel the opportunity to fight, to make money and to perform on UFC 200,” White said. “So if Anderson wants three rounds, if Anderson wants two rounds, he’ll get it.”
Thus, Light-Heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier fought Silva in a Light-Heavyweight bout that lasted three rounds, and that was not considered a defense of his title.
Main Event Fights At Three Rounds
As stated, main events are usually scheduled for five rounds. However, there are exceptions that can shorten the main event to a three-rounder.
These exceptions are often similar to the example of Cormier vs Silva given previously, where some unexpected change happens on short notice.
Typically what happens is that the main event of a fight card will be cancelled for whatever reason, forcing the UFC to put another fight as the main event.
However, fighters train differently for three-round fights than they do for five-round fights. So it would be unfair for the new main event fighters to compete for five rounds when they weren’t prepared for it.
A recent example of this occurred at UFC Moscow in 2019. The main event was to be a heavyweight fight between Alexander Volkov and Junior Dos Santos.
However, Dos Santos pulled out of the fight citing an infection as the issue, about two weeks before the fight.
The co-main event was a featherweight bout between Zabit Magomedsharipov and Calvin Kattar. However, this was a three-round fight.
With the main event still in question, the UFC decided to move this fight to the main event spot, while keeping it for three rounds, as the fighters would not be prepared for a five-rounder.
How Many Rounds In Mma
Conclusion
In short, UFC fights last either three rounds for a normal bout, or five rounds for championship fights and main events. Every round is five minutes long, with a one-minute rest period between every round.
If you enjoyed this post, consider checking out similar posts on the Martial Arts History page. Thanks for reading!