Ideas for UFC 6: Multiple Rulesets and Owner Mode

I know there's supposedly a new Fight Night coming out, but I feel like they could just pool their resources into a more 'unified' fighting game and then have distinct career modes for the different rulesets and even allow for some crossover (imagine being an MMA pro then take an exhibition fight in boxing). I think it would legit take this game franchise from a tier 2 sporting game to tier 1, along with the likes of Madden, FIFA, etc.

The other major thing they would need to add to complete this tier 1 transition would be some sort of owner mode for a training academy. This academy would specialize in one particular ruleset (boxing gym, MMA trainers, etc), but they could still train athletes in multiple sports. The point is that you'd build a roster of your students, and you'd enter tournaments with them. You'd face off against other training academies, so you wouldn't just have one fight. You'd have maybe 5 or 6 fights to determine the team winner of the night. You could license real academies, including those in UFC, famous boxing clubs, international teams (for olympic boxing and wrestling), and some sort of pro jiu jitsu circuit.

While boxing and UFC promotions are ran as individual sports, I think what's really missing from these games modeled off of pro athletes is that they only look at it from an individualist perspective. At the amateur level, it's typically a team game. This fits in better with a modern video game context. I'd find it much more interesting to build a team of fighters who have the strengths/weaknesses to take on other teams. There's probably a decent amount of strategy in that. I'd imagine that striking arts would struggle at lighter weights, but they'd potentially produce a majority of champions at heavier weights. Meanwhile, wrestling gyms might be more balanced across weight classes, and Muay Thai might be the most dominant art under 150 pounds. I don't know how you'd combine all of those things to make a compelling franchise and 'ultimate team' mode, but I'm sure it can be done.

Here's a further idea for how you build out your roster: you have a set of coaches that in combination can give your fighters a set of moves. You build chemistry in your fighters when the move combinations created by the coaches, or by team strategy settings, are effectively used in fights (ie things that go well together like boxing and ground 'n' pound have chemistry, whereas karate + olympic wrestling might be more awkward). I think you'd have strategies you can give all fighters in your club equally, and then those fighters would have natural abilities that would either take advantage of these sets of moves or not. So, a boxing club could set a strategy to train better and faster combinations for punches, as well as provide all of their fighters with a particular fighting stance, and they could try to roster guys with longer reach and maybe heavier builds for their weight class.