If the fight “went the distance,” the winner would be decided by tallied scorecards. The event was also the first in which a boxing-like scoring system was introduced, where fighters would be judged on a 10-point system in each round. Preliminary bouts would consist of two five-minute rounds with a minute rest between main-card matches, three five-minute rounds and championships, five five-minute rounds. But there were still no formal periods until UFC 21 in 1999, when a round-based system was introduced. Over subsequent tournaments, time limits of fights were gradually reduced to a terraced structure that gave earlier rounds less time and grew longer as the fighters ascended via wins. Even then, watching it on grainy VHS or Pay-Per-View, it was obvious that the sport had to change. Ref John McCarthy even stood the fighters up for a fresh start, but it was no use: Gracie shot first, and though Shamrock clipped him with a right cross that blossomed a mouse below his eye, the fight continued in its established horizontal stalemate for another five minutes before being ruled a draw. The UFC, panicking, made a field-of-play call to extend a five-minute overtime. The two fighters remained prostrate for the next 29 minutes of regulation, jostling for position and glancing ineffectual blows off each other while Shamrock’s balloon-sized muscles grew sweatier. This lack-of-rounds philosophy showed its fatal flaw at UFC 5 in 1995, when a revenge-hungry Ken Shamrock shot in the first minute on past tournament champ Royce Gracie in a much-hyped Superfight. There were also no rounds, with fights, in very Fight Club style, lasting as long as they had to until one guy was either knocked out or submitted. It was only men, bare knuckles, no holds barred, and minimal rules. Held in Denver, Colo., on November 12, 1993, its structure was set up as a one-night March Madness-style draw, where winning fighters would advance through the bracket until a champion emerged. In the beginning, MMA visionary Art Davie created the UFC. So to answer the question of rounds in a UFC fight, you have to go back to the beginning. While the UFC specifically and mixed martial arts in general are growing year over year in participation, Pay-per-View buys, and ESPN livestreams, along with that growth has come refinements to its rules and structure over the past 27 years. It’s such a simple question, like quarters in football or periods in hockey: How many rounds are in an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight? The answer is harder to answer: It depends on what type of fight and when.
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