If you’re wondering how many rounds there are in a UFC fight, or if you’re curious whether there is a different number of rounds for Championship fights, and regular UFC fights, then this guide will answer all of your questions!
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How many rounds in UFC?
There are 3, or 5, rounds in a UFC fight. There are 5 rounds in any Championship title fight, and in any UFC main event. There are 3 fights in almost all other UFC fights.
This means that ordinarily there is only one 5 round fight on any given UFC fight night / PPV.
On a normal UFC fight night event, which takes place almost once a week every year (roughly 40 UFC events take place a year), there are about 14-15 scheduled fights. It starts off with the early prelims, then the prelims, then the main card.
All fights on the early prelims & the prelims are 3 round fights, without exception. After the prelims, comes the main card. The main card is where the biggest fights of the night take place.
Most of the fights on the main card will also be scheduled for 3 rounds, all except for the main event.
The main event is the final fight on the card. All main events last 5 rounds.
The only reason a main event will only last 3 rounds is if the main event drops out at the last moment, and the co-main event is promoted to the main event spot. This happened with Zabit v Kattar at UFC on ESPN + 21.
However, sometimes a single UFC fight card will have multiple 5 round fights scheduled. This will usually happen with one of the bigger PPV events, when multiple title fights are taking place on a single night, such as UFC 205 in November, 2016.
At UFC 205, there were 3 title fights on a single PPV, all scheduled for 5 rounds:
- Joanna Jedrzejczyk v karolina kowalkiewicz for the Women’s Strawweight title
- Tyron Woodley v Stephen Thompson for the Men’s Welterweight title
- Conor McGregor v Eddie Alvarez for the Men’s Lightweight title
This was not a one-off event, however. Other events have also had multiple 5 round fights, like UFC 217:
- Garbrandt v Dillashaw for the Men’s Bantamweight title
- Bisping v GSP for the Men’s Middleweight title
UFC 273:
- Yan v Sterling 2 for the Men’s Bantamweight title
- Volkanovski v Korean Zombie for the Men’s Featherweight title
There was one exception to the above rule and that was UFC 263, when Leon Edwards was facing off against Nate Diaz. This fight was the first ever co-main event in UFC history which was scheduled for 5 rounds, yet it was not a title fight.
Even better, the only reason this fight was made a 5 round fight was because “They wanted to fight 5 rounds” (referring to Edwards & Diaz).
How long does a UFC round last?
A UFC round lasts 5 minutes, without exception. Whether a fight is for a Championship belt, or a main event, or a prelim fight, every round lasts 5 minutes.
Back when UFC was just starting out, fights would last for one 25-30 minute round, with no breaks. However, this had a number of disadvantages.
Fighters would gas out from fatigue as they couldn’t have a break. It also encouraged fighters to conserve their energy, which made for less entertaining fights, which is bad for UFC business, as entertainment is their product!
Furthermore, with a single round which lasted 25-30 minutes, a fighter could take his opponent down and just lay on him for 30 minutes. Again, this is not good for a business.
So, UFC adopted a 5 minute round system, which is commonplace in most MMA organisations.
How many rounds in a title fight?
There are 5 rounds in a UFC Championship fight. The normal 3 rounds, with an additional 2 “Championship rounds”.
In order to get to a title, you have to be an elite MMA fighter who has climbed the UFC rankings. You have to have top conditioning, technique, skill, speed & cardio. Perhaps most important of all, you need to have a Championship mindset, if you are to become a UFC Champion.
Having a Championship mindset is necessary to be able to carry on fighting into the Championship rounds. Both fighters will be exhausted at this point. Their muscles will be aching, their bodies will be battered and bruised by 3 hard rounds of fighting. The final 2 rounds can determine who is mentally strong enough to call themselves a UFC Champion.
The additional 2 Championship rounds are there to decide who truly has all-round UFC Champion material in them.
When did the UFC decide to make all main events 5 rounds?
UFC hasn’t always had 5 round main events. Prior to 2011, non-title main events would sometimes be 3 rounds. However, as of 2011, all UFC main events are now 5 rounds.
From this day forward, as we speak right here, right now today, every fight that is a main event that is not a title fight will be a five-round fight…
Dana White
Does foul play make a round last longer?
In the Unified Rules Of MMA, it says that if a fighter is fouled, then they have up to 5 minutes to recover before continuing their fight.
If a contest… of mixed martial arts is stopped because of an accidental foul, the referee may order the contest… continued after a recuperative interval of not more than 5 minutes.
Unified Rules of MMA
So technically, yes, foul play can make a fight last longer, provided that the fouled fighter is fit to continue. However, the fight clock stops the second the referee calls a foul, so a foul does not run down the time.
Instead, the fight clock will remain paused until the fighter is ready to continue, or until the 5 minutes is up. When the fight continues, the fight clock will start again from whatever time the clock was at before the foul took place.
