UFC

Many of you may or may not be familiar with the Ufc and what goes on in the ufc and perhaps you were unaware that the ufc is turning 25 next year and in celebration I am going to talk about what the ufc should change to become great again. I have been watching the ufc for a few years and got really excited for some fights but lately with the ufc putting on poor events such as ufc 208 and 210 I haven’t been able to get excited for upcoming ufc fights so in this presentation I will talk about what the ufc should change to become more fan friendly

My first main point is that the ufc should get rid of mma gloves and wrist wraps, if you don't know what mma gloves and wrist wrapping are, an mma glove is a glove that protects the top rowof your knuckles and goes back toward to wrist. The glove weighs only four ounces compared to boxing gloves which weigh approximately 12-20 depending on which ones you choose, wrist wraps are strips of cloth that wrap around your wrists and are attached with velcro. Wrist wraps restrict the movement of the wrist and the gloves protect the fingers and knuckles of fighters. The problem with mma gloves and wrist wraps is that they give fighters with superior striking an advantage over fighters who prefer to grapple and it also promotes dangerous techniques such as the hammer fists and hard punches to the head. If gloves were taken out of the ufc it would force fighters to throw more accurate punches because it would be much easier for them to break their fingers on their opponents foreheads and cheekbones. This would reduce concussions in the ufc largely due to the increased mass of the gloves since their would be fewer blind shots to the head and the reduced mass would decrease the amount of force per shot as proven by boxing who’s concussion rate is much higher than the ufc the only downfalls are it looks much more barbaric than it would with gloves

The second thing that the ufc should change how much the fighters are paid. currently the ufc does not officially disclose how much they pay their their fighter however many fighters have come out and stated that for a victory most non star fighters would make 50 000 thousand for a win and only ten thousand for a loss. Most ufc fighter only fight twice a year and sometimes three times a year If a fighter fights three times a year and wins all three fights it is still significantly less the what first year rookies make in leagues such as the nfl, nba and nhl which all have Minimum mandatory wages upwards of 400 to 500 thousand dollars a year. Fighters also have to pay for gym memberships to high class gyms and pay for multiple personal trainers for things like strength and conditioning, striking and grappling. All of these factors combined really take the fun out of a good knockout or TKO when you realize that he probably needs to work a regular job along with the ufc pay just to survive when rookies you have never heard of in something like the mlb make forty times as much.

The third thing the ufc much change is that they need to apply a universal rule set applied to mixed martial arts across the country as currently almost every state/ country uses a different set of rules. Usually this isn’t a problem until something goes wrong in the fight such as what happened between chris weidman and gegard mousai as their was great a great amount whether or not many of the strikes executed by gegard mousasi were legal or not and the referee was also unfamiliar with new york's protocol for situations like what had happened In new york. Due to all the confusion about what had happened and whether or not rules/ precautions had been followed the final decision had been highly controversial. This also happened in UFC 208 where Germaine derandimie landed multiple blows on her opponent After the bell signifying the end of the round causing confusion about whether or not those blows should have disqualified her.By implementing a universal set of rules stuff like this would never have happened and it would also provide the ufc the ability to get rid of many rules that are only detrimental to the ufc such as the 12-6 elbow which has become infamous for being the cause of jon jones only loss and knee and kicks to downed opponents which had been legal in the in the beginning of the UFC and in other organizations such as pride and pancras.

The ufc should also shrink the roster as there are currently 531 active fighters in the ufc making it impossible for fans to keep up with all the fighters and their records. By shrinking the roster it would allow people to become more invested into more weight classes making for more exciting divisions and fights. If the ufc decides to reduce the roster size it would give the ufc one less excuse for underpaying fighters. My final point is that they should eliminate the cage currently used in the UFC as it makes it almost impossible for fans to watch the fights if they were watching the event live in the arena. It also gives the larger fighter a distinct advantage over the smaller fighter as it allows them to push their opponent against the cage and fatigue them making it much easier for them to win the fight. The cage is in general a gray area for the rules, has the potential to ruin fights and makes the viewing experience much worse for the fans so it would be easier for the UFC to switch a more traditional style ring with ropes such as used in pride and Rizin. For the UFC to return to its former glory it must switch around some rules get rid of the gloves, eliminate the cage pay their fighters enough to live and shrink its roster, then maybe the Ufc could once again be hugely entertaining.