Change It Back

We’ve all watched them. Those classic UFC tournaments, either on VHS or downloaded online. Some of us are even old enough to remember the original PPV. The Ultimate Fighting Championship came to you in grainy, low res picture and featured a makeshift octagon with doors that popped open when anyone bumped into them, set up in venues the size of a high school gymnasium. Sure the announcers had hilarious 80s hair, and no one really knew what they were talking about – oh wait we’ve still got Mike Goldberg – but those events still had three big things going for them. Three things that if reintroduced into today’s MMA scene, would quickly catapult the UFC past boxing to the position of most popular fighting sport in the world.

1. MAKE IT A TOURNAMENT
To win the tournament, you have to win three fights in a row. That means that when you stand up to accept your belt and oversized novelty check, you have really whooped a healthy amount of ass. You’ve earned it. More importantly, if you’re going to go the distance, you have to be able to finish fights quickly and decisively. That means less Anderson Silva / Thales Leites and more Anderson Silva / Forest Griffin. Who doesn’t want more of that?

2. NO ROUNDS, NO JUDGES
There’s nothing a fight fan hates more than seeing a close match go to decision. How can you ever really know which fighter would have won if they’d had more time to go at it? Simple answer: go back to the old school one round system. You have three ways to win a match: Knock your opponent unconscious, hurt him so badly he quits, or hurt him so badly the ref quits for him.

3. NO COMBAT RESTRICTIONS
In PRIDE Vanderlei Silva proved to the world that a poor takedown attempt really does mean the end of a fight, because the guy who stuffs you is in perfect position to knee you repeatedly in the head. More importantly, in UFC 4, Keith Hackney submitted Odd Job from Goldfinger by punching him repeatedly in the nuts. I think it’s obvious to everyone that there’s a whole lot of combat tools not currently available in the UFC, and until we bring them back, the sport will lack true legitimacy.

Dana White, you know the arguments above are irrefutable. Be a man, and change it back.