How long are rounds in the ufc

Title fights, however, are extended to five five-minute rounds. A referee can stop a fight if a fighter taps out due to a submission, when a fighter is knocked out, or when a fighter is no longer intelligently defending himself.

In the UFC, three judges evaluate each fight from a different viewpoint of the ring and score each fighter with up to ten points per round. A fighter must get ten points and his opponent must get less than ten in order to win the round. Typically, MMA fights are 3 rounds, as already mentioned previously. However, championship fights are expected to not only demand a greater challenge from the fighters, but also a better viewing experience for the fans.

Increasing a fight from 3 rounds to 5 makes it more entertaining, and also lengthens possible viewership time. So whenever a UFC Championship title is on the line, the fight will be scheduled for five rounds. What about main events? The last fight on a UFC event, otherwise known as the main event, will usually also be scheduled for five rounds.

This is for the same reasons as before, such as challenging the fighters and increasing the entertainment value. This includes both pay-per-view events as well as other less watched UFC cards. Of course, there are exceptions to this 5-round rule, typically when the main event changes on short notice. Despite Adesanya vs Silva being made the new main event, the fight remained scheduled for 3 rounds.

So we know how long a fight can be scheduled for, a maximum of 29 minutes. But perhaps you came here looking for the average length of an MMA fight, including finishes.

Of course, the average length of a fight will be less when we take into consideration the fights that end early. 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. A recent example of this occurred at UFC Moscow in 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.