World Cup of MMA

[Paolo Delutis]

An idea I've had for a while: a world-cup style MMA tournament spread out over a few months to a year. The winner is the Baddest Man on the Planet. Rules are UFC 1 style (no rounds, finishes only, openweight, etc.)

The main issues would be pull-outs, so there will be a bunch of alternates ready. Matches will be months apart so fighters get time to heal. Also, matches have no effect on MMA belts.

Example:
Round of 16: Sixteen fighters fight in 8 matches.
-3 months later-
Quarterfinals: The 8 winners fight in 4 matches.
-3 months-
Semifinals: The 4 winners fight in 2 matches.
-3 months-
Final and 3rd Place Match

Yeah, it's a pipe dream, but it's fun to think about. How many of you would watch?
--------------------------
Hypothetical tournament if they did it now (because I'm bored):
*** Suspended fighters brought back for extra fun

Round of 16:
1. Stipe/ Ngannou: Stipe
2. DC/ Volkan: DC
3. Cain/ Werdum: Werdum
4. JDS/ Minakov: JDS
5. Blaydes/ Hunt: Blaydes
6. Rockhold/ Romero: Rockhold
7. Rumble/Reem: Rumble
8. Jones/Gus: Jones
*** Rockhold brought in since he once wanted to fight Werdum

Quarterfinals:
1. Stipe/DC: Stipe
2. Werdum/JDS: Werdum
3. Blaydes/Rockhold: Blaydes
4. Jones/Rumble: Jones

Semifinals:
1. Stipe/Werdum: Stipe
2. Blaydes/Jones: Jones

Third Place:
Werdum/Blaydes: Werdum

Final:
Stipe/Jones: Stipe

Interesting concept i would only make a few changes..

Instead of open weight it will be 4 divisional teams representing any country who wants to participate with a full team of entrants.

16 hws ( 1 from each country)
16 mws
16 lws
16 wmma 135lbs

Contested over 1 year.

This would be more likely and better for the current sport it would be very hard now and days to convince guys 155 or 170 lbs to go into a tournament that could have them facing 255lbs ngannou lmao...this will also help bellator, Ufc to scout fighters from a broader source..kinda like olympic boxing for the pros

And my other change would be that the winners will be compensated greatly , as this will be the most wached event by the time you get to the finals.. probably looking at 10 to 15 mill per divisonal winner..this way best fightets will want in and sponsors will be heavily involved

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

Hmmmm, guess the world cup analogy doesn't work then haha.

Having one fighter per nation would be interesting, and mismatches like we see in international soccer are always fun. Which 16 nations would you pick, and who would represent them?

US- Stipe (Jones if Stipe chooses Croatia)
Brazil- Werdum
Sweden- Gus?
Canada- GSP
Mexico- Cain? (If he chooses to)

Challenge accepted!

(Edit: arranged with possible seeding)

1. Cameroon - Francis Ngannou
2. Croatia - Stipe Miocic
   
3. Brazil - Fabricio Werdum
4. Mexico - Cain Velasquez
5. USA - Daniel Cormier
6. Jamaica - Alistair Overeem
   
7. Sweden - Alexander Gustafson
8. Australia - Mark Hunt
9. Russia - Vitaly Minakov
10. France - Cheick Kongo
11. Switzerland - Volkan Oezdimir
12. Nigeria - Jimi Manuwa
13. New Zealand - Robert Whittaker
    
14. Netherlands - Rico Verhoeven
15. Cuba - Yoel Romero
16. Canada - GSP

Alternates :
Ukraine - Nikita Krylov
England - Darren Till
Bulgaria - Blagoi Ivanov
Turkey - Gokhan Saki

Hell we could probably make it 32 like the real world cup


Playing fast and loose with the nationalities a bit, just like they do in international soccer lol

 

[209NickDiaz]

So let me get this straight:

1. 16 fighter openweight tournament
2. fighters from anywhere,not limited by nationality
3. UFC 1 rules.

That happened in 1994 at UFC 2 bro haha, except they did it one night instead of one year.

If you want to see openweoght tournaments featuring The best fighters in the world try PRIDE 2000GP (32 man tournament) or PRIDE openweight GP 2006.

Agree it would be great to see another tournament with today's fighters, but I was more on board with 1 fighter from each country to be honest. Yes there would be mismatches but that's just like the real world cup then isn't it?

U dunno how much I wished the openweight tournament comes back!!! Please!!!!

 

[A.S. Deep]

Challenge accepted!

(Edit: arranged with possible seeding)

1. Cameroon - Francis Ngannou
2. Croatia - Stipe Miocic
   
3. Brazil - Fabricio Werdum
4. Mexico - Cain Velasquez
5. USA - Daniel Cormier
6. Jamaica - Alistair Overeem
   
7. Sweden - Alexander Gustafson
8. Australia - Mark Hunt
9. Russia - Vitaly Minakov
10. France - Cheick Kongo
11. Switzerland - Volkan Oezdimir
12. Nigeria - Jimi Manuwa
13. New Zealand - Robert Whittaker
    
14. Netherlands - Rico Verhoeven
15. Cuba - Yoel Romero
16. Canada - GSP

Alternates :
Ukraine - Nikita Krylov
England - Darren Till
Bulgaria - Blagoi Ivanov
Turkey - Gokhan Saki

Hell we could probably make it 32 like the real world cup


Playing fast and loose with the nationalities a bit, just like they do in international soccer lol

Oooh, I like that a lot actually. You could have world cup style qualifying where the Euro fighters have to fight each other to qualify, the African fighters fight other Africans, etc. It'd keep the tournament diverse and allow for funnier mismatches/ epic underdog wins.

32 fighters works too. You'd probably end up with a lot of Who the Fuck Is That Guy fighters in the tournament.

Also, who would you pick as the Japanese fighter if there had to be one? It's kind of depressing I can't think of a single current Japanese MMA fighter for this.

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

Also, who would you pick as the Japanese fighter if there had to be one? It's kind of depressing I can't think of a single current Japanese MMA fighter for this.

Ishii?