Why UFC has no Grand Prix Tournament?

tkotom said:
If it is a Pride style GP it could be cool but I don't think it would work with the UFC model of doing things.

If it is a Strikeforce style GP then it is no good because.. well.. just look at what happened with the Strikeforce GP.
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What happened aside from the UFC poaching Overeem (and thus, bringing us Dan Cormier, which I think was about the best thing that could've happened)?

Injury delaying a round? Injuries delay fights regardless of tournament or not. There wasn't much different between the Strikeforce GP and Pride GP's aside from the regular Pride Rules/Unified Rules differences and not having the semi-final and final rounds on the same night.

The GP's bring a lot of hype and marketing power that I think can't happen normally. People LOVE tournaments. The NHL/NBA/MLB/NFL playoffs, the Olympics, Bellator. Hell, it's been 8 years since the last Pride GP and people still want more. Every year since, people ask "Why aren't there tournaments?"

The only REAL reason why they don't happen in the UFC is because Dana and company lose control about who eventually fights in the final.

The tournament format is what made Bellator stand out from the rest.

Because it's not safe for guys to fight multiple times a night. We're not trying to kill fighters. The old barbaric days of MMA are gone. Deal with it.
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Battlegrounds MMA is about to hold an 8-man one-night tournament.
http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/4/3...e-night-eight-man-tournament-at-battlegrounds

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...d-mma-revives-eight-man-one-night-tournaments

And it's sanctioned by the Oklahoma State AC.

Didn't Miesha Tate win a 1-night tournament in Strikeforce to get her title shot?

Even Pride only had them fight twice in one night (and only for the semi's and finals). Say that was adopted. You'd fight a potential of 6 5 minute rounds, which brings you to 30 minutes, and that's less than a 12 round boxing match. Maybe they make the finals a 5 round affair, for 8 five minute rounds at 40 minutes total (only a couple minutes longer than a 12 round boxing fight).

The dangers of fighting more than once in a fight are overblown, much like the dangers of kneeing or kicking the head of a downed opponent. The dangers do exist, yes, but I think the general attitude towards them are based more on appearance and assumption than actual fact.
 
DaviVasco said:
And Yet I see no fighters from that era complaining about " the barbaric" Pride.

PRIDE >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>UFC
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Kawijiri and Gomi both have complained in the past about how racked up their bodies were from Pride.
 
They can't even keep cards intact nowadays with all the injuries and tourneys require a bunch of guys to stay healthy or they become irrelevant. The UFC did one when they introduced LW and it ended in a draw. Kinda lame.
 
bubkusjones said:
The GP's bring a lot of hype and marketing power that I think can't happen normally. People LOVE tournaments. The NHL/NBA/MLB/NFL playoffs, the Olympics, Bellator. Hell, it's been 8 years since the last Pride GP and people still want more. Every year since, people ask "Why aren't there tournaments?"
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So much so that every fight promotion that runs one seems to wind up either out of business or with egg on their face when things fall apart. Also do people really love tournaments in combat sports? Is Bellator destination television for people because it has tournaments? Did the Super Six set the world on fire for Showtime? Is TUF's tournament format still drawing eyes?

Tournaments are great in traditional sports---but combat sports hasn't proven that the allure of the tournament can be turned into green.
 
Because none of the top fighters are dumb enough to fight three times in one night.

I would only be interested in a tournament but ONLY if there's a vacant title up for grabs.
 
I would love some tourneys, but PRIDE's style of having multiple fights for one night is too rough on fighters. At the same time, UFC's version of fighting once every four to eight months for some people is also pretty ridiculous. My wish would be that when you have a dormant or too injured champion, UFC would run a tourney between the top-8 ranked guys in the division with a few bubble guys on the ready to fill spots in case of injuries or whatever else. I don't know the length of time between fights, but I wouldn't make it more than a month.
 
Tournaments are very dramatic and highly entertaining.

Injuries or whatever other excuse people have be damned. People fight like it their life depended on it in the last few rounds of a tournament. Alternates work just fine if a guy can't go on. Winning a tournament is both a measure of skill and toughness.
 
bubkusjones said:
What happened aside from the UFC poaching Overeem (and thus, bringing us Dan Cormier, which I think was about the best thing that could've happened)?

Injury delaying a round? Injuries delay fights regardless of tournament or not. There wasn't much different between the Strikeforce GP and Pride GP's aside from the regular Pride Rules/Unified Rules differences and not having the semi-final and final rounds on the same night.

The GP's bring a lot of hype and marketing power that I think can't happen normally. People LOVE tournaments. The NHL/NBA/MLB/NFL playoffs, the Olympics, Bellator. Hell, it's been 8 years since the last Pride GP and people still want more. Every year since, people ask "Why aren't there tournaments?"

The only REAL reason why they don't happen in the UFC is because Dana and company lose control about who eventually fights in the final.

The tournament format is what made Bellator stand out from the rest.



Battlegrounds MMA is about to hold an 8-man one-night tournament.
http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/4/3...e-night-eight-man-tournament-at-battlegrounds

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...d-mma-revives-eight-man-one-night-tournaments

And it's sanctioned by the Oklahoma State AC.

Didn't Miesha Tate win a 1-night tournament in Strikeforce to get her title shot?

Even Pride only had them fight twice in one night (and only for the semi's and finals). Say that was adopted. You'd fight a potential of 6 5 minute rounds, which brings you to 30 minutes, and that's less than a 12 round boxing match. Maybe they make the finals a 5 round affair, for 8 five minute rounds at 40 minutes total (only a couple minutes longer than a 12 round boxing fight).

The dangers of fighting more than once in a fight are overblown, much like the dangers of kneeing or kicking the head of a downed opponent. The dangers do exist, yes, but I think the general attitude towards them are based more on appearance and assumption than actual fact.
Click to expand...

When the GP was announced everyone was so.excited, but when Fedor lost and Ubereem didnt look so Uber against Werdum, people lost interest. People wanted Fedor vs Overeem. When that wasnt happening people didnt care. Losing Overeem and having the finals delayed also cost them fan interest. How many months was it from start to finish?
 
neomage2021 said:
That's why PRIDE no longer exists. It was such a great product it folded under.
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That has nothing to do with that. Zuffa bought PRIDE to end competition.

Pride was more popular worldwide than UFC.

There was one PRIDE event in 2002 (can't remember which) that had higher ratings than the National Japanese soccer team playing on the 2002 World Cup in JAPAN
 
DaviVasco said:
Hi Guys,

As a big fan of the old and extinct PRIDE, I really do not understand why UFC has no Grand Prix Tournament. It is really fun to have 8 of the best fighters of the division fighting each other on elimination rounds to see who is the champion.

By doing a grand prix, you make sure that several fighters have a chance to win a belt without having to wait years for a title shot. And you also make sure that champions do not have to choose opponents, since whoever wins will face each other (Jon Jones anyone? )

Maybe UFC is trying to protect the legacy of some champions? Because I bet a Grand Prix would sell much more PPV than the watered down cards.

What are your thoughts?
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TUF is the UFC tournament.
 
neomage2021 said:
That's why PRIDE no longer exists. It was such a great product it folded under.
Click to expand...

A great product can still fail if those who manage it are idiots, and a poor product can succeed if handled properly. Look at mainstream music as a good example.

Point is, Pride FC held multiple tournaments (2000 GP, 2003 MWGP, 2004 HWGP, 2005 MWGP, 2006 OWGP plus a Lightweight and two Welterweight tournaments through the Bushido events).

Pride's failure had nothing to do with the fighters or the events themselves and was almost exclusively due to the mismanagement and shady deals of the executives.
 
A tournament like Pride GP should definetly be held at some point of time. Not necessarily every year or every other year.
Maybe like the olympics, they are held every four years and it would give different fighters chances to compete also. I think it would be good for the sport and maybe business also, true warriors like Korean zombie and Matt Brown would get their shot at being the best, even tho they might never capture the belt. Man that would be awesome to see.
 
SeattleFightFan said:
multiple reasons, but they all revolve around the same reason:

tourneys lock in specific bouts. Zuffa prefers the flexibility of choosing their own bout.
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You mean PRIDE didn't selectively put certain fighters against each other, even in their tournaments? Do tell! :icon_lol:
 
We'll how taking the tuf model, first 2 fights, 2 x5 minute rounds, last fight 5x5 minutes rounds...
 
As far as tournaments go, there was a tournament for the Flyweight title not too long ago.

Now if you're talking where fighters have to fight more than once in a single night, not going to happen. Even Strikeforce's HW "Grand Prix" didn't have fighters fighting more than once a night. Unified Rules of MMA won't allow a fighter to fight more than 5, 5 minute rounds a night.

Last time a US promotion tried a one night tournament, it didn't turn out so well . . .

yammafinalpostercopysmal.jpg
 
I think the reason they don't use the word "tournament" but still have tournament style match making for the most part is because of the risk of injury, totally taking away the point of calling it a tournament when someone who didn't have any fights in the tournament now has to be in the finals because he's the only one who would take a last minute fight because of injury.
 
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