The UFC rolled out two big news items on Thursday. During Dana White's talk with the media following the UFC 131 prefight press conference, he revealed that the flyweight division is on the way some time before the end of 2011 and that all UFC main events, following UFC 133, will be five-rounders. That includes non-title fights.
The promotion has begun to sign 125-pounders. White said he's considering a long-form tournament to decide�the first UFC flyweight champion, but that concept is far from set in stone.
The five-round fights has long been a debated topic. The UFC toyed with the idea earlier in the year. The promotion considered making the Brock Lesnar-Junior dos Santos fight a five-rounder. They also looked at the Phil Davis-Rashad Evans fight at UFC 133 and Chris Lytle vs. Dan Hardy at UFC on Versus 4, but decided to push back the idea because three-round bout agreements had already been signed.
"You're mentally training for a three-round fight. To come back and say, 'Oh, it's five rounds now,' you can't do that to a guy," said White.
White said the time has arrived.
"I like it. I think there's some fights that aren't title fights that are main events, and it ends up being three [rounds], and it should have been five. I'm a big fan of it, and we're working on that right now."
-- White met with Roy Nelson, called the meeting productive, but there is still no official word on "Big Country's" future with the promotion. White said the time has passed for fat jokes and he's not buying Nelson's explanation that he was sick before the Frank Mir fight at UFC 130.
"I said, 'The fat thing was funny for a minute. It's not funny anymore,'" White said of the meeting.
"The thing with Roy is, Roy feels like he's an athlete that can perform. He says, 'If you look at my entire career, I've performed at this weight,'" White said. "There's talks of him being sick the week before the fight. I don't not believe him. I guess he had walking pneumonia, but Frank Mir did, too. Frank Mir was sick that week, too."
-- Denver will host UFC 135 on Sept. 24. Jon Jones will defend his UFC light heavyweight against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Diego Sanchez will also face former UFC welterweight champ Matt Hughes.
Quotes via MMAjunkie
Yves Edwards Justin Eilers Jon Olav Einemo Per Eklund Jason Ellis
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