The UFC hasn’t been shy about tinkering with the format of its pay-per-view product over the past few years.
Once upon a time, ordering the fights meant shelling out $45 for a five-fight main card.
As the promotion began aggressively asserting its brand, the UFC started offering an hour of free preliminary action (two fights) on Spike TV as a lead in to its pay-per-views. This trend was taken a step further when the remaining prelims were made available on Facebook.
Most recently, a variation of this model has come to define fight night, with one bout shown on Facebook, the remaining prelims via FX, and the main card on PPV.
Through all the tweaking and toying with the format, it was only the five-fight main card of the structure that went unaltered until February 26, 2012, when UFC 144: Edgar vs. Henderson aired a main card showcasing a total of seven contests over a four-hour duration.
While the seven-fight main card was an exploratory venture into uncharted territory for the UFC, the promotion’s maiden voyage was a glowing success, one that should chart a course for future imitation.
Dana White has given no indication that the composition will stick for upcoming shows, but writing off the idea would be foolish.
Formatting future UFC pay-per-view events on the model of a seven-fight card is something Dana and the rest of the UFC brass need to consider, as the structure comes with a bevy of benefits touching all branches of the promotion.
It is beneficial to the fans, fighters, and UFC alike. Its trial run in the Land of the Rising Sun exposed the imperfections of the standard five-fight card, which it should ultimately succeed.
The first problem of the previous main-card format stems from the three-hour time slot it is afforded.
Most cards feature four three-round contests and one five-round main event. This means that, at the very most, there will be one hour and twenty-five minutes of actual competition.
Add in promotional filler, entrances, interviews and breaks between rounds, and you’re looking at two-and-a-half-hours of content.
At the absolute most.
Your average UFC bout lasts approximately nine minutes. Adjust for time between rounds and you are looking at about one hour for five fights.
Now, the fights are not the only important aspect of the production, but they should be the focus. Given that they take up less than one third of the time allocated to a UFC pay-per-view, it seems that fitting in a couple of extra bouts should not be much of a challenge.
In fact, it is quite common to see a prelim battle replayed during the main card to help fill in the three-hour slot. While this is not an altogether poor idea, splicing in previously accessible content is a bit redundant for those who have already seen it, and are anxiously awaiting the night’s main event.
In the past, the UFC has alternatively shown replays at the end of broadcasts, but this does little to escape redundancy, as those who watched the prelims are shut down up to an hour-and-a-half before the scheduled conclusion of the card.
A seven-fight main card is an easy rectification to this problem.
Beyond eliminating the possibility of repeats, two additional fights would ensure that the main card hosts at least half the entertainment provided during the evening.
If you are one of the many MMA fans that likes building your Saturday night around UFC events, you know where I am coming from with this point.
Your big-screen is flashing out the Hi-Def, the surround sound is blaring, your buddies have their feet propped up on your coffee table, the top button of you pants has long been undone to help relieve you from that large pizza you polished off, and then it happens—ten o’clock rolls around.
Now, you’ve already been watching since 6:00pm, and while you can never get enough UFC action, it sometimes seems as though the main card is just an encore for the end of your night. After all, if it ends a bit early, say at midnight, the time you spend watching the main card is a fraction of the time you spend watching the prelims.
There are the those among us that don’t think twice about breaking out the wallet to watch the main card, but there are also those who are a little skeptical about laying down $45 once or twice a month for the last hour-and-a-half of a five-hour show.
If a fan is deliberating whether or not making that investment is a sound choice, realizing that they have already enjoyed two thirds of the show for free is unlikely to tip their hand.
This is where the benefits overlap for the organization and its fan base. While airing the prelims in the first place deserves a hearty “bravo!” for the UFC, it also presents a solution to correct its own scheduling problem.
A seven-fight main card.
Instituting this presentation format rewards those who make the decision to lay down their cash for the main card, while others turn out the lights at 10:00pm, satisfied with the four hours of freebies.
Given how outspoken Dana White has been on the issue of Internet piracy, it would seem he would be looking for any excuse he could find to reward loyalists who support the company in favor of indulging in ill-gotten streams. An additional two fights would go a long way in my book.
I know, I know, people who stream the fights for free would benefit as well. But, a measure of credence would be stripped from the justification that they would never have paid in the first place, thereby making piracy of no consequence.
The stable of UFC fighters would be another group of beneficiaries of a seven-fight main card becoming the status-quo for PPV events.
Fighting on a main card is a somewhat exclusive honor among fighters. A sign of making it big. By opening up four additional spots per card, four more fighters receive that honor every event.
Also, appearing on the main card typically means more revenue from PPV shares and sponsors for competitors.
A seven-fight card for pay-per-view events has a plethora of positives for fans and fighters alike, as well as for the UFC. The only question it raises is how the card should be structured?
One way to do it would be to mimic the scheduling of UFC 144, and expand the run-time of the main card from three hours to four, but this is not wholly necessary. And since not everyone would be so easily convinced that staying up until 2:00am is A-OK, fitting the seven bouts into three hours seems like a viable alternative.
The total amount of time for which the UFC 144 fight clock ran during its four-hour broadcast was one hour, 24 minutes, and 26 seconds. And that was with only two of seven fights stopping before the third round.
Given that the average length of a UFC fight, this event would seem to be on the lengthy side of what could be expected on a regular basis.
Besides, is an hour-and-thirty-five-minutes not enough time for the rest of the production?
The next question is whether the main card should receive its additional matches from the preliminary roster, or externally, meaning two fights would be added to the card as a whole.
Either way would work. My preference would be for two additional fights, but that’s just because I can’t vote against more fights.
My greed aside, bringing in additional fights would benefit the fighters. It would allow them to compete more often, which means more money, more exposure, and more opportunity.
UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans is set for April 21, 2012, and will usher in a reprisal of the standard five-fight card, with prelims airing on Facebook and FX.
Hopefully, it will be the last card to do so.
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