An odd number of total rounds are obviously necessary for judging purposes, especially since there are a lower number of total rounds compared to boxing.
Using five rounds instead of three would not limit the number of matches shown on the broadcast, since just as many fights would end via stoppage as is happening now. The UFC usually finishes with 15-30 minutes left in the pay-per-view broadcast anyway, so time should not be an issue. A couple of undercard fights that ended early could still be shown.
Decisions would result in five more minutes of action, which means that judges are then better able to see the full range of abilities on display and come-from-behind victories are even more possible.
The chances of a stoppage would also increase and with a longer match one man can start to slowly pull away thus rendering scoring the later rounds a touch simpler.
Sometimes a fifteen minute fight is still inconclusive, and fans have proposed that 10-10 rounds be scored more often, though of course this will lead to problematic draws if there are only three rounds.
With five rounds, 10-10 scores become more feasible since there is less of a probability of there being a draw, based on how the rounds are split (i.e. three rounds to one fighter and a draw round or four rounds to one man with a draw round, etc.).
Thus I think this solution offers the best of both worlds as we can still have 10-10 rounds without shoveling every close match into the draw column.
Then again, the ideal situation would see the use of a single twenty minute round, but that idea would not currently fly with the athletic commissions, as the instigation of rounds was historically necessary for the legitimization of the sport.
For a seven round title fight of four minutes each, only three more minutes of fighting would be added compared to the current five-by-five system, so fatigue should not be an issue here either.
And that proposition is certainly much more viable than using seven rounds of five minutes each, since thirty-five minutes is far too long for an individual bout.
Plus, in the interests of aesthetic symmetry, five rounds coincides well with using five judges for regular fights, while seven judges could be reserved for all-important title fights.
The UFC is trimming down its roster and nobody wants to see a fighter cut because of a poor decision and yet we still have plenty of instances of poor scoring and something certainly has to be done to resolve the situation.
Like I insinuated above, a single round would be ideal since it's easier to score a fight in its entirety, which is how combat engagements were meant to be evaluated.
Thus here I would like to mention a secondary proposition, controversial though it may be, whereby the judges score an overall winner for the match independently of who they have winning on a round-by-round basis.
If this overall winner differs from the winner as determined by the current round format, then the overall winner ought to be the official pick of the judge for who won the fight.
However, in the interest of equality, all the judges would have to pick the same overall winner in order for that man to win the decision, otherwise there is no need for round-by-round scoring.
As an example I will use the contest between Rich Franklin and Yushin Okami at UFC 72. Franklin “won” the first two uneventful rounds with a slightly superior display of striking; Okami dominated the third round on the ground and was very close to submitting Franklin.
While some fans clamored for the third round to be scored 10-8 for Okami, this merely would have ended up in a draw: not good for a No.1 contender fight.
Under the round system, Franklin won, but under my proposition above, if the judges re-evaluate the fight as a whole and come up with a different winner, then Okami would have been handed the decision.
Of course, the idea of scoring a match in its entirety is nothing new and has been utilized in Japan for years.
But what I am proposing is a dual-format where the current system is still used, but can be overridden if each judge determines an overall winner that differs from who they have originally listed as the victor in the more traditional format.
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