The UFC does not have a season, a table or a bracket. It has a calendar of events, and the only two questions are what is on next and what happened last time. The schedule page answers both on one screen, with data from ESPN's public feed.
How the schedule page is laid out
Across the top there is a button for each month that has events, and the page opens on the month that holds the next card still to be fought. Three counters give the totals for the year: events, fights, and cards still upcoming. Every event is a block with its name, the date with the day of the week in US Eastern time, the venue, and a tag that reads Upcoming until every bout on the card has a result and Final once all of them do. While a card is in progress the fights that are over already show their winners, and the tag keeps reading Upcoming until the last bout is done. Because dates are in US Eastern time, a card that starts late on a Saturday evening there is already Sunday in Europe or Asia.
The card itself is a list of bouts. The main event comes first and the others follow in order, numbered downward so that Bout 1 is the opening fight of the night. On a card of 12 fights, for example, the main event is on top, the next fight down, usually the co-main event, is Bout 11, and the opening fight at the bottom is Bout 1. A finished fight shows its winner in bold with a check mark, and the ways a fight can end are explained below.
Numbered events and Fight Nights
Two kinds of event share the calendar. Numbered events are named UFC followed by a number, such as UFC 324, and Fight Nights are named UFC Fight Night followed by the headliners. Both sit in the same month-by-month list and are laid out in exactly the same way, so the name is the only way to tell them apart.
From early prelims to the main event
On the broadcast, an event is divided into segments. UFC's own event pages split a card into Early Prelims, Prelims and a Main Card, each with its own start time, and the main event closes the night. The schedule page does not split the card; it lists the bouts as one run from the main event down. The number of bouts varies from card to card.
Rounds, judging and how a fight ends
A round lasts five minutes, with one minute of rest between rounds. Most bouts are scheduled for three rounds, while title fights and main events are scheduled for five. That makes a three-round fight at most 15 minutes of fighting and a five-round fight at most 25, not counting the rests, so a main event can run up to ten minutes longer than the bouts before it.
A fight that nobody finishes goes to three judges, who score every round on the 10-point must system: the winner of a round gets 10 points and the other fighter nine or fewer, and a rare even round is scored 10-10. Judges weigh effective striking and grappling first; effective aggressiveness and control of the fighting area count only when that is even. A fight can end in these ways:
- Knockout: a fighter is knocked unconscious by strikes.
- Technical knockout: the referee, the ringside doctor or a fighter's corner stops the fight.
- Submission: a fighter taps out, physically or by calling it, or a legal hold leaves the opponent unconscious or injured.
- Decision: the judges' scorecards decide a fight that goes the distance. It is unanimous when all three agree, majority when two pick the winner and the third scores a draw, and split when two pick one fighter and the third the other.
- Draw or no contest: a finished fight with no winner marked on the page. A disqualification gives the win to the opponent.
Fighters compete in weight divisions. The men's divisions run from flyweight, with a 125-pound limit, through bantamweight (135), featherweight (145), lightweight (155), welterweight (170), middleweight (185) and light heavyweight (205) to heavyweight (265). The women's divisions start at strawweight (115).
Related reading
- How UFC fights end, and how long a fight card really is: the share of fights that go to the judges, by round, and what a card looks like.
- UFC rematch results: how often the winner of the first fight wins again.
- Does age matter in the UFC?: win rates by age and by age gap.
The MMA blog holds the rest. Nothing on the schedule is simulated or predicted, because a fight card is a list of fights, not a table that moves. How the simulators work for the leagues that have one is explained on the methodology page.
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