The Ultimate Fighting Championship, just like any other major sports promotion, is susceptible to injury-plagued moments. Just like a team in the NFL or NBA can have its season hopes ruined by one misstep, an entire MMA event can be blown up due to one painful moment.
Mixed martial arts is a violent sport—a sport in which the athletes must train hard in order to be ready for high-level competition. Unfortunately, the UFC cannot do more than it is to protect its champions from sudden injury. Yet, it can do more to protect its cards from falling apart when it occurs.
Injuries within mixed martial arts are going to happen. When they do, the results are going to be catastrophic at times and “minor” in others. The moments that have struck UFC 177 and UFC 178 will ring out as two examples etched in the fight community’s mind.
If the UFC expects these fighters to come in and compete as world-class athletes, then hard training is a must. This hard training will lead to accidental injuries that will keep big-name athletes from upcoming events. The UFC can respond by having a match-making system in place that would help prevent cards from being drastically weakened if major players are forced to back out.
As the UFC moves forward with having all pay-per-view events headlined by title fights, the undercard should also feature title contenders from the same weight class. What this strategy would do is allow the UFC to shift its cards around in the moment of an injury or other change. UFC 158 can be pointed to as an example of how this card structure would work.
Georges St-Pierre was set to defend his title against Nick Diaz, who had been pulled from a previous title shot at UFC 137 due to missing media requirements (via MMA Fighting). If the UFC was forced to do so again, it could have filled his spot with either Johny Hendricks or Carlos Condit, who were in the co-main event. The UFC also booked Jake Ellenberger against Nate Marquardt, both of whom could have stepped in to face other men if needed and would have kept the welterweight division moving forward that night.
Keeping key fighters active within the same time span or on the same cards would help stop injuries from ruining event expectations. This would ensure that specific fighters are training in preparation for the moment in which their number is called.
UFC 146 is another example of a card that was shaken up due to a fighter being taken off the card. When Alistair Overeem was removed because he failed his pre-fight drug test, all of the heavyweight bouts were moved around (via MMAjunkie). Frank Mir was originally supposed to face Cain Velasquez, but instead he was bumped into the main event spot against Junior dos Santos.
Ben Fowlkes of MMA Fighting reported that Mir volunteered his services once it was official that Overeem was pulled from the card. He volunteered to do so at the right moment, and the fact that he was preparing to compete already could have helped the UFC select him to take the spot. Had the company not had any other heavyweight bouts in place, the promotion would have had a much harder time finding a replacement.
Injuries are going to happen in mixed martial arts no matter what the UFC or any other promotion tries to do. However, creating a card development system that books multiple contenders on the same event will help ease the pain of replacements when needed. The UFC will never be able to prevent injuries, but being prepared to face them is its next best option.
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