Currently boxing has 4 to 12 3-minute rounds and MMA has 3 to 5 5-minute rounds. I think boxing clearly does it better, which is why people know what boxing is. I asked my grandad and didn't even know what MMA is, thus proving my point, objectively speaking. Just to further demonstrate the veracity of my claims, I put all those numbers above into a spreadsheet, attached below. To make MMA better than boxing I think we should try something like 120 10-second rounds. Give the fans more time to catch their breath after the action of each round. And give the fighters some beverage time. Beverage time is eminently desirable to push this sport to the next level.
The 5-minute rounds gets to a total to 25 minutes in 5 rounds. Increase the rounds to 6 minutes and decrease the rounds to four. Then it would get to the total of 25 minutes faster.
I'd be in favour of 5 3 minute rounds, and maybe 7 or 9 rounds for main events (technically 8 is closer to 24 minutes but you don't want an even number of rounds due to increased likelihood of draws).