Three minute rounds? Ten round title fights? Roy Nelson states his case

[VCURamFan]

From MMAMania.com:

UFC heavyweight contender and well-traveled mixed martial arts (MMA) veteran Roy Nelson wants to instill a sense of urgency in fighters while also making life easier for cageside judges charged with calling the bouts.
That Roy, what a guy.

Part of his grand plan is reducing the length of rounds from five minutes to three, which in turn would create five round fights for non-championship bouts and ten round affairs for title fights.

"Big Country" breaks it all down for ESPN.com:

Nelson's proposed change comes on the heels of UFC President Dana White's idea to convert all televised main events to five rounds, regardless of whether or not a title is at stake.

The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 10 champion has a different vision of improving the sport and has found an unlikely ally in Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) Executive Director Keith Kizer (via ESPN.com), who finds merit in Nelson's argument:

That would pretty much eliminate the ground game. Might as well delete the grappling altogether and just call it ‘MMBoxing’.

[flo]

Originally Posted by VCURamFan

Nelson's proposed change comes on the heels of UFC President Dana White's idea to convert all televised main events to five rounds, regardless of whether or not a title is at stake.

Great. Then we'd get even fewer match-ups on PPV for our $50.

Originally Posted by Dethbob

That would pretty much eliminate the ground game. Might as well delete the grappling altogether and just call it ‘MMBoxing’.

Good point. Unlike some of the booing fans at the events, I like the grappling/wrestling.

I have an attention span of a 2yr old there's no way my mind is prepared for 10 rounds...

It does not end the ground game at all. If anything it make good wrestling better and allows better ground fighter to progress faster. I like the idea.

[J.B.]

I've been preaching this for quite a while. I love the idea.

Originally Posted by flo

Great. Then we'd get even fewer match-ups on PPV for our $50.

Not really. All it would add to each non-title fight would be 2 extra one minute breaks between rounds. The producers could easily find some fluff/pomp & circumstance to cut back on and make up for the lost minutes. Sure, it adds an extra 5 minutes of downtime to title fights that go the distance, but so what? I think that it puts more demand on the company to make title fights that are truly worthy of seeing.

Shorter rounds would make the fighters press the action early on in the fight so they can establish a lead on the scorecards. Thus, with MMA being as unpredictable as it is, that could potentially lead to even more crazy knockouts or submissions out of nowhere. However, just like in boxing, we would also see fighters coast through the later rounds after they know they have done enough to win the fight. Still, the other side to that is that typically the fighters who are losing the fight on the scorecards will be more likely to know it going into the later rounds and they will be forced to press the action themselves if they hope to win the fight.

No one way is going to be perfect, but I would definitely be in favor of seeing how this method worked for MMA.

[J.B.]

Originally Posted by Miss Foxy

I have an attention span of a 2yr old there's no way my mind is prepared for 10 rounds...

[F34R]

Originally Posted by Chris F

It does not end the ground game at all. If anything it make good wrestling better and allows better ground fighter to progress faster. I like the idea.

Agreed. There would be more a sense of urgency of the person in a disadvantageous position to improve faster instead of waiting for a judge to stand them up after being laid on for two mins.

[Llamafighter]

How about the fighter's just train so they can fight a 3 minute pace for 5 minutes...

[flo]

Originally Posted by J.B.

Not really. All it would add to each non-title fight would be 2 extra one minute breaks between rounds. The producers could easily find some fluff/pomp & circumstance to cut back on and make up for the lost minutes. Sure, it adds an extra 5 minutes of downtime to title fights that go the distance, but so what? I think that it puts more demand on the company to make title fights that are truly worthy of seeing.

I was never good at math.

Dang it, JB.