[nershi]

That would be the way to do things in 2008. By January we should have the debut of Fedor (if he's coming) as well as the Liddell/Silva fight (if the UFC doesn't DUCK the fight by actually going through with the Jardine garbage and making Chuck unavailable before the year's end... it's clear that Silva is quite willing to fight Chuck in November.)

Set up 16 fighters in HW, LHW, MW, etc. and make that the cycle of UFCs for most of 2008, then you can really have a Superbowl of MMA at the end of next year. You would also truly have STACKED cards, and PPV sales would rise as casual fans become familiar with Pride fighters as they go up against the familiar fighters in the UFC. The depth of the UFC (especially if they sign some more Pride guys) makes this very possible to accomplish, and there is no better format for generating interest among the fans than a sequential tourney where we can anticipate fights from round to round.

You could spread out tournaments throughout the year, beginning with the first rounds of each weight class in Jan/Feb/March PPVs, and ride the tourney all year until ending up with a HUGE event in November/December to settle the finals for each class on the same card. You could keep the weight classes separate (and thus, each gets featured) for the first round. Then you could start making undercard fights out of the guys that lost in the previous rounds to round out the cards later in the year.

This would allow the UFC to keep their TUF fighters in the mix for a minute, while also giving fans the match-ups that have been speculated about for years. And unlike Pride, the belts should be on the line for each weight class at the end of the tournaments.

I know, I know: This makes way too much sense to actually happen...

[cool2007]

If they made GPs, we would never see great fights like Chuck vs Jardine, Chuck - Horn, Chuck -White ...

Just kidding, I agree with the TS, but it will never happen.

[DannyinDC]

GP's as entertaining as they are, are too risky.

Fighters triple the chances of getting injured and fights that would make perfect sense in the current system, might never happen. See what happened in PRIDE Randy vs Fedor CHuck vs Wandy.

In PRIDE they don't care much on how badly their fighters get beaten, see Saku and Athletic Commissions will never let fighters fight that often the GP would take two years. It will only take one fighter not to get cleared by an ASC to ruin the whole GP.

It makes no sense because we can have the best fights right now, why drag it out for 2 years and on top of that risking loses that can end postponing even more fights. Imagine if Fedor loses in the first round, the HW GP down the toilet when we can having fighting for the belt from day one.

Worked for PRIDE, won't work for the UFC.



.

[prontostar]

what would the NSAC say?

[Joe Jitsu]

great idea but it will never happen

[nershi]

Originally Posted by DannyinDC

GP's as entertaining as they are, are too risky.

Fighters triple the chances of getting injured and fights that would make perfect sense in the current system, might never happen. See what happened in PRIDE Randy vs Fedor CHuck vs Wandy.

In PRIDE they don't care much on how badly their fighters get beaten, see Saku and Athletic Commissions will never let fighters fight that often the GP would take two years. It will only take one fighter not to get cleared by an ASC to ruin the whole GP.

It makes no sense because we can have the best fights right now, why drag it out for 2 years and on top of that risking loses that can end postponing even more fights. Imagine if Fedor loses in the first round, the HW GP down the toilet when we can having fighting for the belt from day one.

Worked for PRIDE, won't work for the UFC.
.

I'm not saying to fight more than once an event. If Fedor got beat in the first round, you would still have Nog, CC, Randy, Silvia, AA, and many others around to keep interest going. If 16 is too many, then you can certainly complete a top-8 GP in a year's time... at the most then a guy may fight in January, June and November. No big deal there.
As far as injuries go, the prelim fights in the later rounds could serve to qualify replacement fighters. And if a favorite/star gets hurt and can't make it to the final, why couldn't they just be the first opponent for the winner after the GP is settled? The original UFC can't work as it was, but you can certainly stretch out these tourneys and generate a lot of interest in going this route.

Or we can look forward to more Jardine/Chuck main events. I would love to bypass this and just set up some true best vs. best fight cards, but that will never happen judging how the UFC is currently arranging their fight cards and basically promoting only specific fighters in their stable and trying to spread out their talent so ridiculously throughout their events.

We are getting minimal return from the UFC at the moment. At the least they have comparable talent now to Pride at it's peak (and many would argue more talent), so why are the fight cards for the UFC so bland as compared to Pride's? And if this (grand prix) doesn't work for you, what does?

[nershi]

Originally Posted by DannyinDC

It makes no sense because we can have the best fights right now, why drag it out for 2 years and on top of that risking loses that can end postponing even more fights. Imagine if Fedor loses in the first round, the HW GP down the toilet when we can having fighting for the belt from day one.

Worked for PRIDE, won't work for the UFC.
.

Fighting for the belt from day one? Are you watching the same UFC as I am? Seriously, how long will it take without an organized competition for Randy, Fedor, CC, Nog, GG, AA, etc. all to fight each other? You are talking way more than two years.

Look at the current LHW situation right now. We got Rampage (maybe top-5 in Pride when he left) beating Chuck. Now we'll get Hendo vs. Rampage in another few months. Then... Page/Chuck III? When will Shogun get a crack? Wanderlei? Arona? You really think we are getting the best fights right now? Or that we will under the current system any time soon?

I can be convinced that this won't work, but this argument doesn't do it for me.

[Submystic]

Grand Prixes require large purses, much more profitable to do it the UFC's current way.

[mahballz]

yes the price is a really high, but i dont want to see the fighters get injured badly and risk not fighting for a entire year

[VWoodzPusha]

it would be awesome but will never happen bec the NSAC wont sanction it