In MMA fights, the pre-fight workouts on occasion night time are so perfunctory that they’re nearly an afterthought. You see the fighters making the stroll from the backstage space to dramatic entrances, full with lights, fog machines (occasionally), and up to date music.
This, proper all the way down to the announcer introducing the fighter by giving their peak, weight, win-loss-draw report, nickname, (if they’ve one), and full title, is an element and parcel to the battle night time routine. And that’s earlier than their respective MMA mats see any motion. Nevertheless, relying upon the promotion, that is the place the uniformity takes a tough cease.
The enclosure through which an MMA or fight sports activities contest can and does typically range. Right this moment, we check out a few of these variations.
MMA: Dimension Issues in Cage Enclosures, Together with the Octagon
Any variety of MMA promotions use cages as their enclosure for battle nights. Let’s use the UFC for the primary instance right here. Even the famed Octagon isn’t uniform from present to point out anymore.
Previous to the UFC being compelled to go on hiatus as a result of COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the promotion had been utilizing a cage enclosure with a width of 30 ft for each present. Upon coming back from the COVID-19-enduced stoppage in motion (the primary time that the promotion needed to cancel occasions en masse as a result of causes aside from suspending a high-profile battle and being unable to safe an appropriate alternative), the Nevada State Athletic Fee granted the UFC permission to carry occasions within the Apex facility.
The Octagon on the Enterprise, NV property close to the UFC’s headquarters is smaller in measurement, solely being a 25-feet broad enclosure. This slimmed-down model of the Octagon has yielded to thrilling fights, and it’s good to be used in The Final Fighter tv collection and on Contender Collection each summer time.
MMA Struggle Enclosures: The ten-Sided PFL SmartCage
Transferring away from the No. 1 promotion of MMA, the PFL has had a protracted historical past. Initially often known as the World Collection of Preventing, the group rebranded because the PFL in 2017 with a collection of one-off occasions, starting in Daytona in June of that 12 months, earlier than going to its season format in 2018.
Forward of the 2019 season, the PFL introduced that it could be implementing a brand new enclosure often known as the SmartCage. This 10-sided equipment is one thing distinctive in that the SmartCage deploys sensors and know-how to assist viewers of PFL broadcasts higher perceive the place their favourite fighters stand at any given second of the bout by Cagenomics displayed on the underside of the display screen in the course of the spherical, together with how rapidly a punch or a kick was delivered by a fighter.
The ten-sided has additionally been utilized in Japan’s Pancrase.
MMA Struggle Enclosures: The XFC Hexagon
We now transfer alongside to XFC. Whereas it, too, makes use of a cage for its battle equipment, it’s often known as the Hexagon.
Given {that a} hexagon naturally has solely six sides to it, in comparison with the eight-sided Octagon or the 10-sided SmartCage, this has led to a rise in jaw-dropping finishes. With the XFC touting itself in varied promotional supplies as “The Way forward for MMA”, the Hexagon is a proving floor for must-see prospects seeking to take that essential step towards the large leagues of MMA.
MMA Enclosures: Get In The Ring
There are different occasions in MMA fights the place the promotion doesn’t use a cage as its equipment for competitors. Whereas ONE Championship has been recognized to make use of an MMA cage previously, more moderen occasions from the promotion have seen it go to a hoop enclosure.
If you happen to’ve watched ONE Championship occasions of their typical month-to-month timeslot on Friday evenings on Amazon Prime Video in North America, you already know that MMA is simply a part of what they provide as an entire. Along with MMA, ONE additionally provides fights in Muay Thai, kickboxing, and submission-only grappling.
Pancrase used a hoop as its equipment for fights till 2014 earlier than switching to a cage enclosure.
