That was quick

UFC fights tend to be short, I mean title fights can only go a maximum of five rounds anyway. But this one was over in the blink of an eye.

Less than 2 minutes in, Rampage Jackson nailed the Iceman with a solid roundhouse right to the face. Lidell went down and Jackson went to town on Lidell's face. That was it. And let's be honest, this can't exactly have been what the UFC was hoping for. UFC president Dana White was billing this fight as something that would kill boxing forever.

So this actually brings up an interesting question. Although mixed martial arts has already basically gone mainstream, will short fights keep it from becoming everything it could be?

It's definitely a possibilty. Two of the undercard fights ended in the first round as well. Also a UFC title fight can only go a total of 25 minutes (5 rounds of 5 minutes) while a boxing title fight can go for 36 minutes (12 rounds of 3 minutes). The bonus of course with mixed martial arts events is that the undercard is usually huge. UFC events normally have nine fights total.

The problem though is that as tonight showed, the main event can be over really quickly. And that was probably the main reason you paid $40 to get it on pay-per-view or it was the reason you bought incredibly expensive seats at the event.

Essentially, anyone who watched ESPN tonight saw the main event for free. Now of course the same thing can happen in boxing, which has always annoyed people. But just from having watched UFC a fair amount, the fights tend to be over quickly.

That has its pluses and minuses of course. The intense nature of mixed martial arts fights is what people like about it and what I like about it. Boxing can often be slow and tiresome as fighters circle around each other throwing weak jabs at one another. But boxing tends to be longer and more involved. Of course we've also seen how boxing has had a serious decline in viewership over the past few years.

I guess it's basically a personal taste question, but I can't help feeling like there could be something that could extend UFC fights to a degree (particularly non-title fights, which only go 3 rounds of 5 minutes) while also keeping them at the intense pace people have come to love.

-WCK