Current Events > Why doesn't UFC/fighting sports do tournaments?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Or do they?

Kinda seems like it's all just whatever the promotors think is the most hyped. Like I get that makes money but other sports don't just play fan favorites against each other

Like in a single night?

Fighters can sometimes require a long time to recover, and then subsequently train again to get back into peak shape after theyve recovered. Tournaments arent very effective with the unpredictable nature of when fighters will next be available.

J03can posted...

Like in a single night?

They used to do exactly this. The original UFC events were one night single elimination tournaments. In Japan they had a promo called Pride FC that did the same thing with even less rules. Shit was wild back then.

A tournament could takes years to complete.

They need a significant amount of recovery time after big fights before they're ready to take on another opponent. Top-tier fighters usually only have a couple fights a year, sometimes not even that.

Official tournaments in MMA rarely ever workout as intended. Fighters gets injured way too often to accurately schedule subsequent bouts and usually if a fighter gets hurt they get dropped from the tourney and end up having to find replacements.

Even when they did the one night tournaments they would still have the same issue from time to time. Just the nature of the sport.

People would die.

Heavy_D_Forever posted...

They used to do exactly this. The original UFC events were one night single elimination tournaments. In Japan they had a promo called Pride FC that did the same thing with even less rules. Shit was wild back then.

Yeah, but obviously that shit doesn't fly anymore

But it should also be noted that other MMA leagues like Bellator, PFL, Rizin, etc. actually do run tournaments quite often.

They frequently run into the same issues listed above however.

The UFC bases their business model off of scheduling big individual matchups to sell PPVs however, so its not something they are concerned with doing.

Occasionally though their are mini unofficial tournaments that pop up in the UFC. Like we have with the Oliviera/Gaethje, Islam/Dariush title scenario.