Running your own UFC

[fballturkey]

I had wanted to do something like this for a while but put it off, but I decided to go ahead and start. I'm posting the thread in case anybody wants to increase their enjoyment of the game by doing what I'm doing, or laugh at the amount of time I'm willing to put into a UFC videogame . I may or may not keep the thread updated with results depending on if anyone is interested in seeing them.

Basically the idea is to run my own UFC universe. Keep the rankings and records from event to event, schedule my own fight cards, and play out all the fights. I'm one card in and it is a lot more engaging than just doing CPU fights, which is what I was doing. My skill level is such that I'm about even with the CPU on the second hardest difficulty if I don't cheese.

Here's how I set it up. First I put all of the fighters and ratings into a spreadsheet. Then I ranked the top 10 in each division, using the ratings as a guideline but with some editorial discretion. I did use the real life champions, but I'm not trying to keep my league in line with the real UFC going forward.

Setting up a fight card is pretty much whatever you want it to be. For my first one I scheduled two championship fights, with 5 total main card fights and 3 total undercard fights. I then flipped a coin to decide which fighter I would control in each fight, and looked at each fighters stats and abilities so that I could fight realistically for each guy's style.

Undercard:
Gray Maynard vs Joe Lauzon (me). I spent a lot of time going for takedowns and fighting for position to try and either gain a submission or GnP victory, but Maynard did a pretty good job of limiting my effectiveness on the ground. I came close to knocking him out once and wasn't in much danger myself during the fight.
Result: Joe Lauzon, split decision victory

Michael Chiesa (me) vs Diego Sanchez.
Chiesa looks extremely goofy when he fights. His arms and legs just swing around at weird angles. I took Diego down a few times but for the most part the fight stayed standing. He rocked me twice in the third round but I stayed alive, and I gained a knockdown in the first and second.
Result: Michael Chiesa, split decision victory (how a judge gave two rounds to Diego is beyond me.)

Dustin Porier (me) vs Dennis Siver
Lots of takedowns, lots of punching Siver in the head, and finally gaining a TKO victory in the early 3rd round. Siver took a ton of punishment.
Result: Porier TKO victory in 3rd

Shogun Rua (me) vs Rashad Evans
I tried to keep range and counterpunch, and Evans seemed to be doing the same thing in the first. It was not a very active round. He got more aggressive in the second and late in the round caught me with a solid kick to the head off of a counter that rocked me, then got me with a right overhand to finish me.
Result: Rashad Evans KO victory in 2nd.

Miesha Tate (me) vs Liz Carmouche
I dominated the first and most of the second round, taking Liz down and landing good elbows from side control multiple times. She wound up reversing me toward the end of the second and held me on my back for over a minute, doing some good damage. In the third she got on top again and did more damage before I escaped, but she followed it up with a flurry of punches that knocked me out toward the middle of the round.
Result: Liz Carmouche KO victory in 3rd.

Conor McGregor (me) vs Clay Guida
Tough fight all around. For the most part I felt like I won the striking battle, but not by a lot. I landed some good kicks to Clay's head although he worked on my body quite a bit and overall won the ground game somewhat decisively.
Result: Clay Guide, 29-28 unanimous decision.

TJ Dillishaw (C) (me) vs Dominick Cruz
I gained several takedowns in the fight but failed to do much damage. Cruz won the stand up decisively and knocked me down three times, twice in the 4th and once in the 5th. I got the spinning backfist going and thought I had a shot at one point of getting the KO but Cruz wouldn't go down.
Result: Cruz with the unanimous decision, 48-47, 48-47, 49-46.

Chris Weidman (C) (me) vs Vitor Belfort
After losing four straight I was ready to take out some aggression, and Vitor complied by letting me GnP him heavily in the first. In the second he landed some nice kicks to the legs and body, but I took him down again and got the TKO victory from full mount, dropping hard elbows.
Result: Weidman with the TKO victory in the 2nd.

So yeah, that's how I spent my evening last night. It's more fun for me to be playing with something on the line; knowing that if I lose this fight the guy I'm controlling is going to drop in the rankings, or if I win he's that much closer to a title shot. It takes some time and patience, but I really do think it's worth it. Don't know how many cards I'll do before EA UFC 2 comes out (and I really hope the new offline mode is an event mode so I can set the whole thing up at once) but I had a great time.

And for the curious, the second card is going to be
Main Anthony Pettis (C) vs Benson Henderson (1)
Co-Main Ronda Rousey (C) vs Cat Zingano
Anderson Silva (1) vs Nick Diaz (5)
Stipe Miocic (4) vs Roy Nelson (5)
Frankie Edgar (3) vs Chan Sun Jung (4)

Undercard BJ Penn (8) vs Ricardo Lamas (5)
Mark Munoz (10) vs Chung Le
Mike Easton (9) vs Brad Pickett

[mosdef328]

Re: Running your own UFC

Cool, I do something similar but way less in depth.

[Fall_DIFH]

Re: Running your own UFC

Have you heard of the World of Mixed martial Arts games? They are essentially text based MMA management sims where you as a promoter schedule events, run matches, etc. I think using that for organization coupled with the actual ability to play out fights in EAMMA (as opposed to a text simulator, though it's pretty good) would create a near perfect combination

[PhiPsi1]

Re: Running your own UFC

I had wanted to do something like this for a while but put it off, but I decided to go ahead and start. I'm posting the thread in case anybody wants to increase their enjoyment of the game by doing what I'm doing, or laugh at the amount of time I'm willing to put into a UFC videogame . I may or may not keep the thread updated with results depending on if anyone is interested in seeing them.

Basically the idea is to run my own UFC universe. Keep the rankings and records from event to event, schedule my own fight cards, and play out all the fights. I'm one card in and it is a lot more engaging than just doing CPU fights, which is what I was doing. My skill level is such that I'm about even with the CPU on the second hardest difficulty if I don't cheese.

Here's how I set it up. First I put all of the fighters and ratings into a spreadsheet. Then I ranked the top 10 in each division, using the ratings as a guideline but with some editorial discretion. I did use the real life champions, but I'm not trying to keep my league in line with the real UFC going forward.

Setting up a fight card is pretty much whatever you want it to be. For my first one I scheduled two championship fights, with 5 total main card fights and 3 total undercard fights. I then flipped a coin to decide which fighter I would control in each fight, and looked at each fighters stats and abilities so that I could fight realistically for each guy's style.

Undercard:
Gray Maynard vs Joe Lauzon (me). I spent a lot of time going for takedowns and fighting for position to try and either gain a submission or GnP victory, but Maynard did a pretty good job of limiting my effectiveness on the ground. I came close to knocking him out once and wasn't in much danger myself during the fight.
Result: Joe Lauzon, split decision victory

Michael Chiesa (me) vs Diego Sanchez.
Chiesa looks extremely goofy when he fights. His arms and legs just swing around at weird angles. I took Diego down a few times but for the most part the fight stayed standing. He rocked me twice in the third round but I stayed alive, and I gained a knockdown in the first and second.
Result: Michael Chiesa, split decision victory (how a judge gave two rounds to Diego is beyond me.)

Dustin Porier (me) vs Dennis Siver
Lots of takedowns, lots of punching Siver in the head, and finally gaining a TKO victory in the early 3rd round. Siver took a ton of punishment.
Result: Porier TKO victory in 3rd

Shogun Rua (me) vs Rashad Evans
I tried to keep range and counterpunch, and Evans seemed to be doing the same thing in the first. It was not a very active round. He got more aggressive in the second and late in the round caught me with a solid kick to the head off of a counter that rocked me, then got me with a right overhand to finish me.
Result: Rashad Evans KO victory in 2nd.

Miesha Tate (me) vs Liz Carmouche
I dominated the first and most of the second round, taking Liz down and landing good elbows from side control multiple times. She wound up reversing me toward the end of the second and held me on my back for over a minute, doing some good damage. In the third she got on top again and did more damage before I escaped, but she followed it up with a flurry of punches that knocked me out toward the middle of the round.
Result: Liz Carmouche KO victory in 3rd.

Conor McGregor (me) vs Clay Guida
Tough fight all around. For the most part I felt like I won the striking battle, but not by a lot. I landed some good kicks to Clay's head although he worked on my body quite a bit and overall won the ground game somewhat decisively.
Result: Clay Guide, 29-28 unanimous decision.

TJ Dillishaw (C) (me) vs Dominick Cruz
I gained several takedowns in the fight but failed to do much damage. Cruz won the stand up decisively and knocked me down three times, twice in the 4th and once in the 5th. I got the spinning backfist going and thought I had a shot at one point of getting the KO but Cruz wouldn't go down.
Result: Cruz with the unanimous decision, 48-47, 48-47, 49-46.

Chris Weidman (C) (me) vs Vitor Belfort
After losing four straight I was ready to take out some aggression, and Vitor complied by letting me GnP him heavily in the first. In the second he landed some nice kicks to the legs and body, but I took him down again and got the TKO victory from full mount, dropping hard elbows.
Result: Weidman with the TKO victory in the 2nd.

So yeah, that's how I spent my evening last night. It's more fun for me to be playing with something on the line; knowing that if I lose this fight the guy I'm controlling is going to drop in the rankings, or if I win he's that much closer to a title shot. It takes some time and patience, but I really do think it's worth it. Don't know how many cards I'll do before EA UFC 2 comes out (and I really hope the new offline mode is an event mode so I can set the whole thing up at once) but I had a great time.

And for the curious, the second card is going to be
Main Anthony Pettis (C) vs Benson Henderson (1)
Co-Main Ronda Rousey (C) vs Cat Zingano
Anderson Silva (1) vs Nick Diaz (5)
Stipe Miocic (4) vs Roy Nelson (5)
Frankie Edgar (3) vs Chan Sun Jung (4)

Undercard BJ Penn (8) vs Ricardo Lamas (5)
Mark Munoz (10) vs Chung Le
Mike Easton (9) vs Brad Pickett

THis is awesome man...And something I was thinking about doing...Please keep us posted on your virtual UFC fight cards! Great stuff!

[Hayman19]

Re: Running your own UFC

I do this and really enjoy it. Ive started a spreadsheet on my Note 3 and 10.1 with polaris office(lets me sync my files from my 2 devices).

I started with the real UFC rankings and bumped up guys if someone isnt in the game and started at UFC 1. I started doing every fight that was upcoming in real life and make my own UFC cards. Each UFC card has 5 fights and I try to make them realistic by not stacking them. I will also do UFC on FOX or Fight Night cards which have 3 fights each and are usually lesser popular fighters.

After each card I update my rankings accordingly, and make note of each fight with the decision, ko/tko/submission, make note of the round and time of the finish, and also make a note if needed like the winner is the number 1 contender, or fight was a BS decision, etc...

I wish they would add a mode like this with rankings, title holders and everything and keep track of fighters records in your "universe". To me this is the only way to play and I really enjoy it. Ive had the game for months now and I haven't even played online or the career mode.

[fballturkey]

Re: Running your own UFC

I like your set up Hayman. That's the hidden upside to not having a universe mode; you can set yours up however you like (except for things like regression/progression.)

Since a couple people were interested here's my results:

UFC 2
Undercard
Mike Easton #9 (me) vs Brad Pickett
I felt like I controlled most of the fight but looking at the stats afterward I probably would have lost a decision. My and the game's definitions of 'significant strikes' vary pretty wildly. It was late in the third when I rocked him and knocked him down and I finished from mount for the TKO victory.
Result: Mike Easton with a round 3 TKO victory.

Mark Munoz #10 (me) vs Chung Le
I was glad to draw Munoz because I like him, but the first round of this fight just did not go my way. My gameplan was to go for takedowns, hold position and GnP Le. Unfortunately that plan sort of falls apart when you can't land a takedown so I got to the end of the first round getting beaten badly and rocked once. The second round went much better. I landed a takedown right away and did some good work from side control before he kicked me off. Around the midpoint of the round I got another takedown and wound up in the standing guard position after already damaging him badly, and after I rained down some punches the ref stopped the fight.
Result: Munoz with the round 2 TKO victory.

BJ Penn (8) vs Ricardo Lamas (5) (Me)

Penn took a beating from the opening bell. I knocked him out about 3 minutes into the fight and honestly was surprised he lasted that long.
Result: Lamas 1st round KO.

Main Card
Frankie Edgar #3 vs Chan Sun Jung #4 (me)
A closely contested fight all around. Edgar held the advantage on the ground while I held a small advantage on our feet. I felt like I won the first and lost the second, and in the third I knocked him down once and he took me down three times.
Result: Chan Sun Jung split decision (28-27-27) victory. Felt about right. I wouldn't have been too upset had I lost the decision.

Stipe Miocic #4 vs Roy Nelson #5 (me)
This fight went... poorly. I tried to get my right hand going but for the life of me couldn't. Stipe landed shot after shot as I tried to generate any offense, and late in the round he caught me with two hard punches and I was out.
Result: Stip Miocic 1st round KO

Anderson Silva #1 vs Nick Diaz #5 (me)
I really did stack this card at the top and I sort of regret not making this a 5 round fight headlining its own card. I made sure to taunt plenty, and the CPU returned a lot of the taunts. Neither of us were in serious danger through most of the fight, and there was a lot of standing at range and picking strikes. As is probably expected Silva was more proficient at this than Diaz. I knew I was losing in the 3rd so I get very aggressive but really couldn't generate much offense.
Result: Anderson Silva with a unanimous (30-27) decision

Ronda Rousey (C) (Me) vs Cat Zingano
I wanted Zingano in this fight but the coin flipped heads so Rousey I was. I haven't been very good at submissions in the past so I was worried about how I was going to finish the fight until late in the second round when I got mount and initiated the armbar. After passing the first couple gates I got very excited and when when I hit the last gate and saw Zingano tap I was pumped! The ref pulled me off, I stood up in real life and did a little fist pump, and... Rousey returned to her corner? Zingano got rubbed down with an ice bag? The ref started the 3rd round?

Watching the replay what happened is simultaneously I locked in the armbar, Zingano tapped, and the round ended. I guess whatever order things go in the round ending happened first, so off we went to the third. I was angry now and determined to get the armbar. I took her down pretty quick, worked my way back to mount, initiated the sub and this time finished it in time.
Result: Rousey with a round 3 submission victory (and a round 2 submission victory grumble grumble.)

Anthony Pettis (C) (Me) vs Benson Henderson (1)

This one was a bit of a letdown after the controversy of the last fight. Pettis just outclassed Henderson. I landed kick after kick, punch after punch, and with about :30 left in the first round landed a hard elbow to the head that staggered him against the fence and then a head kick that truly finished him.

Result: Pettis 1st round KO victory.



So yeah, a pretty action packed card. I was very happy to land a submission and I hope to be able to do that regularly with submission fighters.

[fballturkey]

Re: Running your own UFC

Fight Night 1

This was my first smaller 'Fight Night' card. Going forward I'll probably drop two fights off my PPV and FN cards because I like sitting down and playing them start to finish and it just takes a long time to do 8 fights, depending on how they go. Anyway, off to the action!

Undercard
Jake Ellenberger #10 (me) vs Martin Kampmann
Lots of takedowns, lots of striking, not a lot of damage. I don't recall either of us really being in danger at any point and I really didn't know which way the decision would go.
Result: Ellenberger with a split (29-28) decision victory. Probably due to all the takedowns.

Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Josh Thomson (me)
Now, to be honest, I thought I subtly dominated this fight. That is to say, I didn't do a lot more that Khabib, but it didn't seem like he did anything. I landed takedowns and some good punches, he... kicked my legs a few times? Held me in clinch and did nothing with it? I expected a unanimous 30-27 victory.
Result: Read this one carefully. A 29-28, 29-28, 27-30 victory for Khabib. Yup, that's right, a split decision where the losing fighter had a 30 point scorecard. Weirdest thing.

Main Card
Antonio Rogerio Noguiera (9) vs Ryan Bader (me)
This was a pretty even fight for the most part. I got a little chippy in the second round and started trying to go for takedowns and get into mount so I could GnP, because my standing game wasn't working out very well (though neither was his.) I would up in bad position after a sweep with no stamina left and sure enough he locked in a triangle choke for the victory.
Result: Nogueira with the 2nd round submission victory.

Tim Kennedy (6) vs Gregard Mousasi (8) (CPU)
This was a great fight and we went back and forth the entire thing. We were both rocked multiple times, both knocked down at least once, and there was a ton of blood. It was one of the most fun fights I've had against the CPU (although not the most fun I had on this card, but more on that later.) Going to the judges I felt like I had an edge but couldn't have been upset with any decision.
Result: Mousasi with a unanimous (29-28) decision.

Joseph Benavidez (2) vs John Dodson (1) (me)
This one was much more chippy than the previous fight. Still some good striking but a lot of clinch and some ground work that amounted to basically nothing.
Result: Dodson with the 29-28 Unanimous Decision.

Nate Diaz (5) (me) vs Donald Cerrone (4)
This was a brawl. I mean a brawl. We were back and forth the entire fight, slipping strikes, taking strikes, punching till we were gassed and then punching some more. By the fifth we each had been knocked down 3 times and I lost track of the number of rocks. We were both pretty close to the bottom of our stamina and had each absorbed a ton of head damage. I rocked him with about 2 minute left and almost got the finish but whiffed on a head kick. He recovered and rocked me straight away. I tried to get away but couldn't, and a left hand to the chin finished me.
Result: Cerrone with the 5th round KO. This was my favorite fight I've had in this game. So much fun the whole way.

I liked the shorter card, and I'm going to start doing 6 fight PPV cards and maybe 5 fight Fight Night cards. It's just tough to find enough time to do a big 8 fight one. Here's the UFC 3 lineup:

Jon Jones (C) vs Daniel Cormier (2) LHW
Robbie Lawler (1) vs Hector Lombard (2) WW
Junior Dos Santos (2) vs Travis Browne (3) HW
Wanderlei Silva vs Uriah Hall MW (created fighter 86 OVR)

Ian McCall (4) vs Timothy Elliot (5) FLW
Takea Mizugaki (5) vs Eddie Wineland (8) BW

[bballshawn24]

Re: Running your own UFC

Have you heard of the World of Mixed martial Arts games? They are essentially text based MMA management sims where you as a promoter schedule events, run matches, etc. I think using that for organization coupled with the actual ability to play out fights in EAMMA (as opposed to a text simulator, though it's pretty good) would create a near perfect combination

if only they dropped the price to 15 dollars

[fballturkey]

Re: Running your own UFC

I haven't kept up with posting results, but I've been running this thing in my spare time between other games since I started the thread. I just finished my 21st event and the dual spreadsheet (one for events, one for fighter records/rankings) system works really well.

My craziest fight so far has been Gustafsson v Jones in the immediate title rematch, where Jones was narrowly winning the fight throughout before Gus dropped Jones with an uppercut and finished him with GnP with less than 10 seconds left in the 5th round.

For the curious the champions are:
WBW: Ronda Rousey (3-1, lost to Alexis Davis and won the immediate rematch)
FlW: Timothy Elliot (4-0, just took the belt from Dodson, defending against 2-0 Guadnoit in his next fight.)
BW: Dominick Cruz (4-0 with 3 straight title defenses. Will face the winner of Mike Easton and Brian Bowles as his next defense as both are 2-0 right now.)
FeW: Jose Aldo (2-0. I tried to push McGregor toward the title fight because he's fun but he's 1-2 now. Aldo will face 2-0 Lamas next.)
LW: Anthony Pettis (Pettis beat Cowboy and Henderson, so he's fighting 2-0 Nurmy next as I try to get someone I like to win the belt.)
WW: Johny Hendricks (Lost the belt to McDonald, then won it back two fights later. Facing 3-0 Ellenberger next.)
MW: Luke Rockhold (Just won the belt from Weidman. Will defend against Dan Henderson, who is his only loss, in his next fight.)
LHW: Alexander Gustafsson (beat Jones twice. Will face 3-0 Phil Davis next. Little Nog is also lurking at 3-0 and will get the next shot if he wins against Cormier)
HW: Fabricio Werdum (The least developed class because I hate fighting HW, Werdum is 2-0 and facing 2-1 JDS next. Lesnar came back but lost to Werdum so it'll take a couple wins to get a rematch.)

[Slyone14]

Re: Running your own UFC

I do this and really enjoy it. Ive started a spreadsheet on my Note 3 and 10.1 with polaris office(lets me sync my files from my 2 devices).

I started with the real UFC rankings and bumped up guys if someone isnt in the game and started at UFC 1. I started doing every fight that was upcoming in real life and make my own UFC cards. Each UFC card has 5 fights and I try to make them realistic by not stacking them. I will also do UFC on FOX or Fight Night cards which have 3 fights each and are usually lesser popular fighters.

After each card I update my rankings accordingly, and make note of each fight with the decision, ko/tko/submission, make note of the round and time of the finish, and also make a note if needed like the winner is the number 1 contender, or fight was a BS decision, etc...

I wish they would add a mode like this with rankings, title holders and everything and keep track of fighters records in your "universe". To me this is the only way to play and I really enjoy it. Ive had the game for months now and I haven't even played online or the career mode.

IM doing the exact same thing and loving it. I have done career mode so many times, im burned out on it. I set it up six months in advance. I do 6 fights per card, 3 Main events and 3 undercards. And UFN have only 5 cards and rarely have championships, and UFC fox has 4 fights, but tend to be good fights.


I usually do 1 UFC and 1 TV card per month. I plan out all cards for 6 months ahead of time, and TRY to put each fighter to fight every six months. Once this six month cycle runs, THEN I update the rankings and ill do the next round of fights.


It is a lot of fun, BUT I do CPU vs CPU and play the role of Dana WHite and run it. FInally, I made own injury rules up, which will keep off a couple fighters from fighting every 6 months. I put the legends in there, but they only fight on rare occasions (Minus Brock Lesnar, cause hes back)

[Slyone14]

Re: Running your own UFC

For those of us doing this, trying to come up with an Injury system. Lets put our brains together and find a system, if everyones interested. Here is my idea:


After the end of every fight Card, use random number generator for each fighter, Can do 1 to 12, or 10. If they roll a 1 or 2, then are injured. Next, we can do a roll from 1 to 6 (ON number generator), to determine how long they could be out for. Not sure, injuries are a big part of the UFC, and somehow we should do it.

[aholbert32]

Re: Running your own UFC

For those of us doing this, trying to come up with an Injury system. Lets put our brains together and find a system, if everyones interested. Here is my idea:


After the end of every fight Card, use random number generator for each fighter, Can do 1 to 12, or 10. If they roll a 1 or 2, then are injured. Next, we can do a roll from 1 to 6 (ON number generator), to determine how long they could be out for. Not sure, injuries are a big part of the UFC, and somehow we should do it.

The only problem I have with this is that we have a limited roster. For example, lets take the Women's bantamweight division. There are only 9 fighters in that division. If even 2 of them get injured it severely limits your ability to to make fights in that division. Especially since you cant create female fighters.

[Slyone14]

Re: Running your own UFC

The only problem I have with this is that we have a limited roster. For example, lets take the Women's bantamweight division. There are only 9 fighters in that division. If even 2 of them get injured it severely limits your ability to to make fights in that division. Especially since you cant create female fighters.

True, you make a very good point bro. I just figure it would add to realism. Maybe do something like make injuries rare, but leave them out alittle longer. Not sure, that's why im bringing it here.


I figure we can brain storm to add even more realism to our leagues. Also, another idea poped into my head. Of once a year creating a fighter and adding him to the league, for like someone who won the Ultimate fighter.


SO any ideas we can add or thoughts?

[pimpinpidgeon8]

Re: Running your own UFC

What spreadsheet do the majority of you guys use and how do you go about determining who fights who and when?

[aholbert32]

Re: Running your own UFC

What spreadsheet do the majority of you guys use and how do you go about determining who fights who and when?

I just book fights based on my rankings and I keep my schedule close to the UFC's actual schedule. For example, this weekend is UFC 188 in the real UFC so its 188 in my UFC.

I also book fights like the UFC. UFC 188 is in Mexico so Cain, Gilbert, Diego and Erik Perez are all on the card. I also tend to book title fights at least 4 mos apart.

I just redid my spreadsheet using dpmx21's spreadsheet. I added a few things like a winning streak section and past opponents.