UFC
Dana White: UFC "blew it" with three round UFC on Fuel main event; all future main events to be five rounds
Feb 16, 2012 - 2:30:41 PM Dana White: UFC "blew it" with three round UFC on Fuel main event; all future main events to be five rounds

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

In 2011, the UFC announced that they would make all of their main events five round fights, whether there was a title on the line or not. That policy provided one of the most epic battles of the year in its first outing, with Dan Henderson and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua thrilling fans in a 25-minute fight.

However, the "every" in "every main event" went out pretty quickly when the first UFC on FX event was scheduled as a three round fight, and it was revealed that only Fox and pay-per-view main events would be five rounds. However, that's going to change this summer after Wednesday's first Fuel event.

With Jake Ellenberger up two rounds to none on Diego Sanchez going into the final frame in Omaha, the tide was turned in the third with a strong finish by Sanchez. However, there was no fourth or fifth round to see if that could be sustained, and there was at least one person who was not at all happy about that: UFC President Dana White. White said after the event that the UFC "blew it" by not having the fight scheduled for five, and he doesn't want that to be the case in the future.

"Already thought and done," White said (transcribed by MMAJunkie.com). "I'm actually pissed at myself about it, so yeah... We blew it tonight. It should have been a five-round fight."

"From this day forward, as we speak right here, right now today, every fight that is a main event that is not a title fight will be a five-round fight."

There will be a couple of exceptions to this new policy, as the UFC on FX 2 and UFC on Fuel 2 main events have already been signed for three-round bouts, and the events are too close to change the terms of the respective fights. So that means Martin Kampmann vs. Thiago Alves, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Alexander Gustafsson, will only be three round fights, but all events after that will see main event bouts set for 25 minutes.

Penick's Analysis: It was disappointing when we found out that the FX and Fuel main events would only be three-rounders after the initial announcement last year, so this is definitely a good move going forward. Extra rounds for last night's fight would have been excellent, and could have led to an even better fight than what we got; and it's too bad this arbitrary policy for the FX and Fuel events meant that the fight ended earlier. Still, it takes things going wrong for changes to be made sometimes, and this will lead to stronger main event fights for these cards on FX and Fuel in the future.