Should champions fight at least 3x a year?

[Takes Two To Tango]

What do you think, should there be an incentive to fight at least 3 times a year?

I think champions should at least fight that much, barring injuries of course or other personal issues.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Five, minimum. There should also be penalties for champs who are blatantly sitting out

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

Five, minimum. There should also be penalties for champs who are blatantly sitting out

5? I don't know about that. lol

 

[RonDante]

How are they supposed to build deserving contenders when they need to give a champion 3 fights every year?

 

[loisestrad]

How are they supposed to build deserving contenders when they need to give a champion 3 fights every year?

More rematches ...

 

[Greyscale]

Absolutely. A belt should be worth something and actually worth defending. If you became a champion and then you pull out for a year, you should be stripped. If you win a belt and go up a weight class without a single defence you should be vacating.

 

[Pain4Pain]

In GSP's documentary he mentioned he would prefer to fight twice a year because it gave him enough time to work on improving his skillset between fights while preventing ring rust.

 

[Söze Aldo]

Yes, as deserving of props as Pereira is. Fighting 3 times as champ in one calendar year shouldn't be seen as this crazy thing to do.

It should be the baseline.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

How are they supposed to build deserving contenders when they need to give a champion 3 fights every year?

They don't build contenders as it is

 

[Darkavius]

Five, minimum. There should also be penalties for champs who are blatantly sitting out

Five is just funny and will never happen. However, I have said this numerous times and I'll say it again. Champions should be required to fight at least twice in a year's timeframe. If they do not fight twice as the champion in a year then they are stripped. In fact, I think this should not just apply to champions but anyone in the top 15 rankings as well.

If a fighter is not a champion and does not meet the criteria of fighting two times within a year then their ranking is stripped, and they will have to fight their way up the ladder again. For example, Chandler, Usman, and Covington would no longer be ranked. When they fought again they would not get a top 15 guy. They would have to beat someone on the lower ranks in the UFC again and then if they win they can get a top 15 fight.

 

[surgeyou1]

Ideally but this is a brutal sport. You need time to recover and improve your game. Minimum twice a year.

 

[usernamee]

Yes it's supposed to be hard work to be champ not a fucking vacation

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Ideally but this is a brutal sport. You need time to recover and improve your game. Minimum twice a year.

If only fighters were allowed to take things that help recovery...

 

[Iroh]

Every other weekend, IMO.

 

[Gamer2k4]

Twice a year is fine and already more than most fighters do it. Three title fights a year should be something we appreciate but not demand.

 

[ChickenBrother]

What do you think, should there be an incentive to fight at least 3 times a year?

I think champions should at least fight that much, barring injuries of course or other personal issues.

There already is an incentive to fight more frequently, as Dana loves a company man. Just Bleed champs like Volk, Adesanya, Pereira curry favor by accepting frequent fights vs. all comers. So when they inevitably lose, they get an instant rematch + preferrential treatment on who and when they fight next. Guys like BJ, Ferguson even Sam Alvey were allowed to lose 57 fights in a row before getting cut because of goodwill built up with the company.

Note I'm not defending this practice, merely pointing it out. Every fighter manages his own career and has to decide if the tradeoff of fighting injured, accepting a fight vs. a bad style matchup, etc. is worth it. Sometimes rank squatting makes sense.

 

[RockyLockridge]

I think 3 times in 16 months a is a good clip, Like once every 5 months.

3 times in one year though? there are hardly enough PPV cards to accommodate that if every champ fought 3 times a year.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Yes, as deserving of props as Pereira is. Fighting 3 times as champ in one calendar year shouldn't be seen as this crazy thing to do.

It should be the baseline.

It COULD be the base line, but the problem is you (the mma fanbase) will complain that the right fights aren't being made.

3 defenses is possible when you do match making fast and loose, but when you try to materialize "the perfect fight" it doesn't work. Because timelines dont always match up. Sometimes champs sit on the shelf for 3-5 months when they are ready to fight, because they are waiting for contenders to shake out. when you DON'T wait for the correct match up to materialize Thats how you get fights like Pantoja vs erceg, Pereira vs Rountree, O'malley Vs Vera and people complain about those fights.


personally I'd rather give less deserving contenders title shots once in a while then wait for both fighters to be healthy on the same timeline.

 

[sdpdude9]

Would be nice but there are a variety of things at play. Not always going to work out that way.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Would be nice but there are a variety of things at play. Not always going to work out that way.

For example, Right now people are upset that merab is "ducking" Umar but What the hell can merab even do about it??

The UFC already has November thru February booked. What is he even supposed to do?