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well here i am again with a truck load of numbers to throw into the BE community pit. This set of research was set in motion by Mr Luke Thomas and hisspeech about Boxing. What Luke said hit the nail on many levels such as value in technique, kick boxing being a better comparison to MMA, but what got the gears in my head turning was what he said about stoppages. Luck said this such as number of weapons available, and number of methods to end the fight. What got me thinking was the lengh of rounds. In boxing the rounds last 3 minutes while in MMA they last 5. I set out to find out if those extra two minutes would have any impact on number of stoppages.

Before i get into my research i realize that the 10 second count used in boxing which in many cases allow a fighter enough time to get his head straight enough to stand and go back to battle. In MMA if a fighter is rocked the other fighter is allowed to finish the job. I also realize that in boxing they fight shorter rounds, but normally there are more rounds. What i hope to uncover is the extra 2 minutes give fighters that extra bit of time needed to finish the fight.

I handles things like DQ's and no contests as the minute the fight stopped. The three catorgies i split my data into were Decisions, Under 3 minutes (standred boxing round), and after 3 minutes. Also i considered a fighter not coming out of his corner as after the 3 minutes. So with that said off to my numbers.

  I coveredthe numbered UFC events from UFC 33 to UFC 112. In that time span the UFC have put on 743 fights. Out of those fights 35.3%  (or 263 fights) ended in a decision. 480 or 64.3% of the fights ended in a stoppage be it KO, TKO, submission, DQ etc. Out of the 480 stoppages 58.3% occurred before the first three minutes of the round were up. This leaves an impressive 41.6% of stoppages occurring in the last 2 minutes of the round.  Compared to the total number of fights number of stoppages under three minutes make for 37.6% of all the fights with stoppages after three minutes rounding out with 26.9%.

These numbers do not tell the entire story but its is a great indicator that the extra two minutes do contribute to the difference in the number of stoppages in MMA and boxing. Getting a rest and the 10 seconds does hurt the finish rate in boxing and also 12 ounce gloves does not help a fighter knock out the other. In MMA a fighter can stop the fight with a bare shin to the dome, punch with four ounce glove, and a number of submissions. BE what do think? Does the extra 2 minutes give fighters a better chance to end the fight, or does it have no effect at all?