Do we need a little spice added to MMA to shake it up a little? Just something different from the current norm which is the UFC with the Octagon and then everything else.

When I say a little spice I do not mean what they originally had planned for UFC 1 with razor wire around the top of the cage, electric wire for the cage wall and then top it off sharks in a moat swimming around the cage. These are all things that they thought would be good for tv but decided against it due to cost and danger. Imagine the bulls**t in trying to legitimise that as a sport with all that attached to the cage. Therefore I don’t think adding dangerous items to the cage and making it a death sport is going to do any good. What is needed is to create some interest outside the UFC, for me personally I don’t pay a lot of attention the UFC fight nights any more. The last two fight nights have taken 8 hours and I just don’t have the time the patience or desire to sit there and watch 8 hours of fights. It also seems like a lot of the fights are the same as everyone is so well rounded the fights are mostly on the feet as going for a takedown is a little dangerous so you end up with a tentative striking for the first round then second round it can change a little. But there has been some many fights where it looks like people are playing it safe, or trying not to lose. Then as I mentioned a few weeks back the UFC is in transition with only one champion having more than 3 title defences so the big draw cards are not there at the moment, that includes the biggest draw in MMA Conor McGreggor, no one is really sure what he is up to, when or if he will fight again in the UFC – it is all just rumours.

After watching the King of the Ring kickboxing tournament in the weekend it reignited the thought of an 8 man MMA tournament. This is how MMA started and as the UFC has no established champions wouldn’t it be a great injection to have a weight division 8 man tournament with the top 6 fighters in the division, then have two qualifying fights to fill the last two spots. Yes the event would go a little longer with 8 fights (one ‘super fight’) on the main card compared to the usual 5 fights on a normal card. However it wouldn’t be too bad as if you have two title fights on a normal card and assuming that all fights go the distance you have 19 rounds all up. Then with an 8 man tournament you have 21 rounds, then another three rounds for the super fight. I for one would love to see an 8 man MMA comp. The injury management would be very interesting compared to kickboxing, as you can win a MMA fight taking minimal damage if you do it right, where in kickboxing you are going to be sore after any fight outside of a first punch KO.

Even though you don’t get to see what a fighter does to prepare it would be a lot different as well. If you are training to fight one person then you have a specific game plan against that one person. Then when you are fighting anyone of the 7 other fighters it would be very difficult to prepare for them specifically. This means that you just have to make yourself the best you can be, maximise your strengths and minimise your weaknesses. I really like the thought of seeing fighters fight their preferred style compared to a beat that specific opponent style. Then to make it more unpredictable they could use the old K1 style for the sorting out the fight order. You have someone pull a name out of the hat and that fighter goes and stands next to the fight they want – eg fight 1 -2 -3 4 – as it is an 8 man. The first choice for most people will be fight one as that gives you most rest. In general the first four fighters take one side of the first four fights, then the next four people choose the opponent that they believe they have the best chance of beating. This is all done either two nights before the fight or can be done the weigh in. This all keeps the fight card unknown and adds a little intrigue to the night.

I would really like to see fighters from other organisations invited to a 8 man comp, but since the UFC more or less control the sport it is unlikely that they would risk their fighters being shown up by another organisation. To me this is something I would pay to see, just to see something different and see how the fighters deal with the change. Seeing a fighter win three fights in a night against elite competition is always an impressive sight. Regardless if it is kickboxing, boxing or MMA 8 man comps always through up a few upsets and some relatively unknown usually makes the name known. If I get the top 8 fighters in the Heavyweight, Middle Weight and Light Weight division check out the potential fight cards and tell me you are not excited about the thought.

Heavyweight

Champ – Stipe Miocic

1 Alistair Overeem

2 Frabricio Werdum

3 Cain Velasquez

4 Francis Ngannou

5 Mark Hunt

6 Derrick Lewis

7 Alexander Volkov

8 Marcin Tybura

Middle Weight

Champ: GSP

1 Robert Whittaker (Interim Champion)

2 Michael Bisping

3 Yoel Romero

4 Luke Rockhold

5 Jacare Souza

6 Chris Weidman

7 Derek Brunson

8 Anderson Silva

Light Weight

Champ: Conor McGregor

1 Tony Ferguson

2 Khabib Nurmagomedov

3 Edson Barboza

4 Eddie Alvarez

5 Justin Gaethje

6 Nate Diaz

7 Dustin Poirier

8 Kevin Lee 

Gareth Lewis

Head Trainer

http://www.Lockdown.co.nz/

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