Dude literally came into a thread where there was nothing to argue and chose a hill to die on.
Remember when the UFC had a fight in-between the co-main and main event?
- Thread starter Evan_The_Kid_1
- Start date
Dude literally came into a thread where there was nothing to argue and chose a hill to die on.
Just to get this thread back on track to a more informative note and educate less informed posters such as @chinarice, swing bouts WERE a thing that happened in the UFC and still happens in other sports. I am actually surprised that not a lot of people know about or remember this because it always seemed to be common knowledge to me, especially in an MMA forum.
In short, it is a bout that is designated as having a flexible time slot. That way, if all the bouts ended too quickly, the UFC could still fill in the extra time with the swing bout. If all the bouts took up exactly enough of the broadcast time, the swing bout would happen after the main event and not be aired. Depending on how the promoter sees fit on the night of fights, it could be and has been moved between the co-main and main event, between title fights or even to the end of the event.
The UFC soon saw that it was more efficient and beneficial to do away with swing bouts and just replay a preliminary bout in its place should they need to fill time. The reason is that the UFC had a handful of fights to pick from where they knew exactly how much time it took, whether it was a good fight, and whether it was a fighter/fighters that they wanted to bring more attention to. Only hardcore fans would have already known the result beforehand or could even tell that it wasn't live.
I took the liberty to google swing bouts in UFC history but it is taking too much time. Here is what I got. I got as early as UFC 45 and as late as UFC 101 and probably even later. If you need to confirm, just google the event followed by a fighter and "swing bout".
UFC 45 - Lindland vs Vitale
UFC 46 - Newton vs Verissimo
UFC 47 - Lytle vs Ghosn
UFC 48 - Trigg vs Hallman
UFC 49 - Riggs vs Doerksen
UFC 50 - Franklin vs Rivera
UFC 51 - Sell vs Baroni
UFC 52 - Sobral vs Wiuff
UFC 53 - Serra vs Parisyan
UFC 54 - Sylvia vs Telligman
UFC 55 - Hinkle vs Gannon
UFC 56 - Gonzaga vs Jordan
UFC 57 - Vera vs Eilers
UFC 58 - Swick vs Vigneault
UFC 59 - Sherk vs Diaz
UFC 60 - Vera vs Silva
UFC 61 - Burkman vs Neer
...
UFC 100 - Fitch vs Thiago
UFC 101 - Nelson vs Riley
In short, it is a bout that is designated as having a flexible time slot. That way, if all the bouts ended too quickly, the UFC could still fill in the extra time with the swing bout. If all the bouts took up exactly enough of the broadcast time, the swing bout would happen after the main event and not be aired. Depending on how the promoter sees fit on the night of fights, it could be and has been moved between the co-main and main event, between title fights or even to the end of the event.
The UFC soon saw that it was more efficient and beneficial to do away with swing bouts and just replay a preliminary bout in its place should they need to fill time. The reason is that the UFC had a handful of fights to pick from where they knew exactly how much time it took, whether it was a good fight, and whether it was a fighter/fighters that they wanted to bring more attention to. Only hardcore fans would have already known the result beforehand or could even tell that it wasn't live.
I took the liberty to google swing bouts in UFC history but it is taking too much time. Here is what I got. I got as early as UFC 45 and as late as UFC 101 and probably even later. If you need to confirm, just google the event followed by a fighter and "swing bout".
UFC 45 - Lindland vs Vitale
UFC 46 - Newton vs Verissimo
UFC 47 - Lytle vs Ghosn
UFC 48 - Trigg vs Hallman
UFC 49 - Riggs vs Doerksen
UFC 50 - Franklin vs Rivera
UFC 51 - Sell vs Baroni
UFC 52 - Sobral vs Wiuff
UFC 53 - Serra vs Parisyan
UFC 54 - Sylvia vs Telligman
UFC 55 - Hinkle vs Gannon
UFC 56 - Gonzaga vs Jordan
UFC 57 - Vera vs Eilers
UFC 58 - Swick vs Vigneault
UFC 59 - Sherk vs Diaz
UFC 60 - Vera vs Silva
UFC 61 - Burkman vs Neer
...
UFC 100 - Fitch vs Thiago
UFC 101 - Nelson vs Riley
- Joined
- May 22, 2012
- Messages
- 13,005
- Reaction score
- 8,175
There seems to be some ambiguity as what counts as co-main. One interpretation is that it's the fight right before the main event. Another is that it's billed or advertised as the co-main.
Google brings up Sherk vs Diaz as co-main. mmascene.com from April 3, 2019 also describes it as co-main.
But mymmanews.com from 9 months ago, the Tapology page for the event, a bleacherreport.com retrospective from 2013 all describe Ortiz vs. Griffin as the co-main.
The only page I could find that was published before the event also has Ortiz vs. Griffin as co-main. But here are the exact words:
"Tito Ortiz vs Forrest Griffin – For the first time in a long time, Ortiz will not be in the main event. This fight is being billed as the co-main event, but will be the fight before the main event."
But it also expected Sherk vs. Diaz to go down earlier.
"Nick Diaz vs Sean Sherk – A good fight to kick off the night will see Sherk and Diaz do battle."
https://www.mmaweekly.com/ufc-59-main-card-and-prelims
If you want to get fancy, Law Insider offers this definition:
"Co-main event means a bout of the same importance as that of the main event."
By this "legal" definition, Ortiz vs. Griffin would be the co-main by virtue of it's prominent billing on the poster. (Of course, you could always appeal.)
- Joined
- May 4, 2016
- Messages
- 2,362
- Reaction score
- 1,809
This is an excellent point. I feel they've pushed the concept of a "co-main" way too far beyond it's actual purpose.
I interpret the intention of a "co-main event" to be a fight just as worthy as being the main event. Like two title fights.
In the (unfortunately common scenario) of a legit good main event having a meaningless no-body fight before it, IMO there is no "co-main" event at all and they should stop calling it that.
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2010
- Messages
- 48,763
- Reaction score
- 33,071
He's not wrong though lmao and he linked proof.
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2016
- Messages
- 236
- Reaction score
- 132
I remember the best prelim after the main event. classic
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2018
- Messages
- 5,004
- Reaction score
- 3,505
Thank you sir. I didn’t know all that.
That is just a program that automatically labels the second last fight of an event as "co-main". It is not that hard to distinguish facts.
Every event, at that time had a billed main event and swing bout. Sometimes it had a co-main event of significant or equal importance.
The swing bout was often flexed in to the slot between the billed main and co-main event. That doesn't automatically make it the co-main. The co-main is the second most important or equally important fight regardless of whether it was the second last fight or not.
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2018
- Messages
- 5,004
- Reaction score
- 3,505
There was no link, actually. And when I went to the UFC 59 page, it had the Tito fight second.
I guess he took a screenshot of something and posted it, but he didn’t include an actual source.
But I get your point. Apparently UFC is calling it the co main somewhere. Confusing.
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2013
- Messages
- 3,401
- Reaction score
- 3,435
At the end of the day, a lot of high end fighters in those swing bouts. Who’d have thought.
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2015
- Messages
- 18,593
- Reaction score
- 21,234
Fuck no I wouldn't want that now. There's women on the main card.
After a dreadful 15 minutes of watching 2 harmless amateurs roll around trying to burn 300 calories, sure as hell don't want to sit through another point fighting random match.
After a dreadful 15 minutes of watching 2 harmless amateurs roll around trying to burn 300 calories, sure as hell don't want to sit through another point fighting random match.
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2006
- Messages
- 2,935
- Reaction score
- 124
What proof? He posted a picture that was put online years after the event took place and didn't even check if it was true. Again, not only did I watch the card live, but just look at the poster. This stuff isn't that hard LOL come on
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2006
- Messages
- 30,327
- Reaction score
- 5,857
You know you've been watching MMA for a long time when there are people who don't know about swing bouts.
Just adding more info to this thread as more info comes up into my head. Don't quote me on this but I believe part of the reason why the UFC started designating swing bouts could be due to the aftermath of UFC 33.
The event was headlined by Tito vs Matyushenko and featured three 5 round title fights. Because of this, the UFC went over it's time slot and the main event was cut off in the middle the fight for PPV viewers. Combined with the fact that the main card resulted in all boring decisions, this may be considered the worst UFC event of all time.
I'd have to do more research in the timeline of when swing bouts began to confirm this though.
The event was headlined by Tito vs Matyushenko and featured three 5 round title fights. Because of this, the UFC went over it's time slot and the main event was cut off in the middle the fight for PPV viewers. Combined with the fact that the main card resulted in all boring decisions, this may be considered the worst UFC event of all time.
I'd have to do more research in the timeline of when swing bouts began to confirm this though.
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2006
- Messages
- 2,935
- Reaction score
- 124
I coincidentally just today received a taped vhs of the UFC 33 PPV broadcast. Has the pre show as well. Certain cable companies and/or satellite companies were lucky enough to actually have had the full card played and I'm hoping I'm lucky enough that it was taped from one of those.
Either way I couldn't pass it up. It has stuff that was edited out of the official vhs and UFC Fight Pass replay
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2009
- Messages
- 16,269
- Reaction score
- 12,842
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2013
- Messages
- 3,401
- Reaction score
- 3,435
Matyushenko like Vladimir? Fought at UFC 33 vs Tito? Damn. Some nice history in this thread.
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2003
- Messages
- 19,992
- Reaction score
- 8,381
TS is right. I remember how it was.
The UFC would put a fight scheduled between the main and co-main. It wasn't some audible that they called due to time ("postlims" like Fitch/Thiago).
They didn't always do this, but they absolutely did it. Ricco Rodriguez/Pete Williams didn't get a higher billing than Hughes/Newton at UFC 34. Ricco Rodriguez/Jeff Monson wasn't more important than Bustamante/Castillo at UFC 35.
The UFC would put a fight scheduled between the main and co-main. It wasn't some audible that they called due to time ("postlims" like Fitch/Thiago).
They didn't always do this, but they absolutely did it. Ricco Rodriguez/Pete Williams didn't get a higher billing than Hughes/Newton at UFC 34. Ricco Rodriguez/Jeff Monson wasn't more important than Bustamante/Castillo at UFC 35.
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2006
- Messages
- 4,695
- Reaction score
- 1,212
I’m sure someone has explained the concept of a ‘swing bout’ by now — I can think of Florian-Robinson at UFC 73 and Fitch-Thiago at UFC 100 that went on after the main event.
I would like to see the UFC switch things up a little bit with the PPV order as well. For example UFC 251 could have looked like:
Usman vs Masvidal
Rose vs Andrade II
Volkanovski vs Holloway II
Ribas vs PVZ
Yan vs Aldo
There are so many unwritten rules and customs in the UFC that could easily be changed.
I would like to see the UFC switch things up a little bit with the PPV order as well. For example UFC 251 could have looked like:
Usman vs Masvidal
Rose vs Andrade II
Volkanovski vs Holloway II
Ribas vs PVZ
Yan vs Aldo
There are so many unwritten rules and customs in the UFC that could easily be changed.
