Commissioner's Update #2

The sophomore UFFC season is heating up, with expansion teams Bisping Right Eye, Shara Right Eye and My Balls Was Hot leading early. Perhaps the AFL could take a leaf out of the Commissioner's book when it comes to successful expansions?

Sydney was buzzing over the weekend, with the Sailing GP and Luke Combs coming to town - but it was the UFC that reigned supreme with another monster event at Qudos Bank Arena. Dana White celebrated breaking the record for highest grossing event at any arena in Australian history. Let me re-word that one for you, boss - 'Our ticket prices are at an all-time high and we don't even need to stack the card to raise them!'. 

UFC 312 saw young Aussie talent make their debut (hello 2026 draft), and reigning champions cement their position at the top of the pile. The main event was dubbed the inaugural battle of the expansion teams with Dricus du Plessis (My Balls Was Hot) beating the breaks off Sean Strickland (Bisping Right Eye, Shara Right Eye), who was unable to get any offense going. DDP started the fight surprisingly technically before pouring the heat on Strickland late to cruise to a 50-45 win. 

Fortunately for Bisping Right Eye, Shara Right Eye (we're putting character limits on team names in 2026), his second-round draft pick Magnum Zhang Weili cemented her legacy as one of the greatest to ever step foot in the Octagon, with a dominating victory over the undefeated Tatiana Suarez (Dangerous Rangerous). Suarez showed promise for roughly 3 minutes before Weili took over with one of her finest wins to date. With that loss, it might be curtains on Dangerous Rangerous for 2025. Back to drafting from trading cards next year?

In other UFFC news, the Dagestani Smesh Bros suffered a tough defeat at the hands of Gabriel Santos as Jack Jenkins lost by third round submission. The early season favourites are fading early.

It wasn't just the likes of Quillan Salkilld and Jonothan Micallef who made their debut at UFC 312 over the weekend, but also the Deputy Commissioner and inaugural champion coach of Don Bones Jones who made their first trip to a UFC event. The Commissioner chalked up his 8th event.

With another PPV in the bank, we get another update to the standings and it's all celebration in expansion land early in 2025.

I'll remind you all of a couple rules that are at your disposal:

Free Agency

• Each team can access free agency twice throughout the year. It can only be used if your fighter is long term injured, suspended due to drugs, retires or faces a long layoff.

• Free agency must be approved by the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner collectively, if the claim is made by the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner, it must be a majority vote by the league.

• Your scores to date stand via departing fighter.

• Free agency is only available until September 30.

New Signings

• Each team can sign one new fighter per year from a waiver wire, held reverse ladder order.

• The fighter must be a new signing to the UFC.

• The team must delist a fighter in that fighter's division to replace them.

• In practice, a team would message in the UFFC chat stating they would like to nominate to sign X fighter who has recently been signed by the UFC. The Commissioner will confirm their signing before inviting other teams to nominate to sign this fighter. We will commence at the top of the ladder, with each team nominating their interest. With each nomination on the ladder as we move down, the teams above are removed from the opportunity. Ultimately, the last team on the ladder has the final say.

If you require any clarification on the above rules, reach out to the Commissioner directly.

Now... for those who have made it to the bottom of this update, have a look at what I returned home from Sydney to...

Looking forward to presenting this bad boy to 2024 champion Don Bones Jones very shortly.

Don't forget to protect ya neck.

The Commissioner.