13 Fights at UFC 99: New Trends in UFC Event Planning and Roster Management

Promoted from the FanPosts by Kid Nate.

With news of the Rousimar Palhares-Alessio Sakara fight breaking today, the card for June's UFC 99 in Cologne, Germany has now grown to a staggering thirteen bouts, which makes it the largest card in UFC history.

The current rumored card includes:

MAIN CARD

• Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva
• Ben Saunders vs. Mike Swick
• Marcus Davis vs. Dan Hardy
• Spencer Fisher vs. Caol Uno
• Heath Herring vs. Cain Velasquez

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Dale Hartt vs. Denis Siver
• Rousimar Palhares vs. Alessio Sakara
  
• Denis Stojnic vs. Stefan Struve
• Peter Sobotta vs. Paul Taylor
• John Hathaway vs. Rick Story
• Justin Buchholz vs. Terry Etim
• Mustapha al Turk vs. Todd Duffee
• Roli Delgado vs. Paul Kelly

Now obviously the UFC was looking to stack their initial foray into mainland Europe with as much European and international talent as possible, but thirteen fights on a UFC card is truly mind-boggling, and it's part of a trend among recent UFC events.  Wednesday's UFC Fight Night 18 card and UFC 97 later in the month will both feature 12 bouts each.

I briefly calculated the average number of fights-per-card for major UFC pay-per-view events since UFC 50, and found the following:

UFC 50-60: 8.2 fights per card

UFC 61-70: 9.0 fights per card

UFC 71-80: 9.0 fights per card

UFC 81-90: 10.1 fights per card

UFC 91-99: 10.6 fights per card

Clearly, events with title fights will usually see fewer bouts than those with non-title main events.  And the rare events with multiple title fights will see significantly smaller cards, but nonetheless, the UFC has been steadily increasing the size of its cards. 

The European events tend to be larger than US-based events, as the UFC is trying to showcase their international talent in markets where they'll have the biggest appeal, as opposed to trying market the Paul Taylors, Terry Etims, and Dennis Sivers of the world in the U.S.  Thus, many of these international fighters see action only on the European cards, and these events end up featuring more fights since there are many foreign fighters "on deck", waiting for the call.

This still doesn't explain Wednesday's Fight Night card with its 13 fights, and the UFC 97 card in Montreal with its 12.  The Montreal event is loaded with Canadian talent for sure, but many of those fighters have also seen significant action on events that took place in the U.S. (e.g. Jason MacDonald, Sam Stout, Mark Bocek). 

My theory is based on the fluid nature of the UFC's roster.  Currently, there are approximately 210 active (my definition: they've fought within the last full year) fighters on the UFC's roster, based on the official listings at UFC.com (which also contains a few legends and retired fighters that I had to adjust for).  Over the past year or so, roster cuts have become a big news item following poor performances or repeated losses, and with more light being shed on the details of UFC contracts and their various clauses, it's now quite commonplace for MMA bloggers and writers to discuss upcoming fights as "lose and you're out" situations for certain fighters.

Based on various interviews and rumors, it's become common knowledge that matchmaker Joe Silva and the UFC brass want to keep the active roster around 180 or so, and that it is for this reason that we've been seeing more and more roster cuts and little contractual mercy shown to losing fighters in recent events.  I believe this is also the explanation for the growing numbers of fights-per-card we've seen on recent and upcoming events.  Despite my belief that the UFC wants to shrink its roster, we've certainly seen more and more new signings in recent months, but some of these fighters have been signed for "win your first fight or go home"-type deals, and the firing rate is still eclipsing the hiring rate.

Although certain "poster-boy" (or "yes men" depending on who you ask) fighters are nearly assured job security, despite their results in the Octagon (i.e. Forrest Griffin, Rich Franklin, Kenny Florian, Georges St. Pierre, Chuck Liddell), recent situations with Roger Huerta and Jon Fitch have shown that even ultra-popular fighters and title contenders are not safe from being let go, or at least punished for displaying their public disapproval of the UFC's fighter-relations strategies.

For the rest of the roster, the UFC is sending a message with these larger cards.  Dana White, Joe Silva, and Lorenzo Fertitta are giving the lower and mid-tier fighters more and more opportunities to show their stuff, and if they don't, they're gone... it's as simple as that.  Putting 12-13 fights on a card as opposed to 8-9, is a much more efficient method for not only trimming your roster, but also for clarifying the food chains within each weight class. 

Of course it remains to be seen if the UFC will actually get the roster down to 180, and if that number will remain static if it gets there, but for the meantime, I will certainly be enjoying the 12 and 13-fight cards, because if UFC 95 showed us anything, even a prelim fight between two British guys that you've never heard of can provide a hell of a lot of action and entertainment.