EA Sports UFC 5 Interview: Producer Raman Bassi on How Ratings are Determined

Sherdog’s Tyler Treese spoke to EA Sports UFC 5 producer Raman Bassi about the new mixed martial arts video game, which is now available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The experienced producer discussed how the team at EA determines ratings for fighters, its new Alter Ego versions of Ultimate Fighting Championship veterans and more.

Tyler Treese: When we get a legend version of a fighter, like Daniel Cormier or Rashad Evans, is that generally them at their peak in the weight class?

Raman Bassi: On EA Sports UFC 5, we added new versions of fighters called “Alter Egos.” Each Alter Ego will be based in a moment of time, whether it is from a specific event or organization and have their attributes, moves and perks match that specific fight. We truly want to emulate the best vs the best in any time frame of MMA history. The "Legend" tag indicates a fighter that is from their last fight in the UFC before their retirement. These are not "peak" versions of a fighter, they mostly represent the retiring version of a fighter from when they put their gloves down in the Octagon.

An Alter Ego with a UFC, PRIDE, or Fight Night event-specific tag indicates the fighter at that specific fight in their career, whether it was at their origin, peak, debut or a championship run. These Alter Egos will look and feel like the fighter during that specific fight, with attributes, moves and perks based on that specific moment in the Octagon. You can probably look at fighters tagged as Legends in our game and think of some amazing Alter Egos we could possibly do for them, bringing back their peak forms from iconic fights will be at the forefront of our DLC plans.

The UFC keeps incredibly detailed stats. Is that taken into consideration when coming up with attributes for fighters?

First and foremost, our development team are all MMA fans through and through. Some members of our team have followed the sport for over 20 years, some have BJJ and Judo black belts, others are kickboxing specialists or have experience as high-level athletes on our team. So our UFC development team takes a holistic approach, factoring in how these detailed fight stats influence the in-game experience and, more importantly, the way each fighter feels to players when the controller is in their hand.

To achieve this, not only do we watch every single UFC fight (yes, even the prelims), but we also closely collaborate with our EA Sports UFC Design Council, which consists of a diverse group of UFC, MMA and gaming enthusiasts that help inform every stage of the EA UFC 5’s development – authenticity, realism, aesthetics, overall gameplay and more. They actively participate in testing and fine-tuning our fighter roster through our community feedback test environments.

All of these individuals play a vital role in ensuring that fighters in the game accurately reflect their real-life counterparts. They will provide us essential feedback on whether fighters like Dustin Poirier truly feel like themselves, or if any adjustments are needed in terms of the fighters movesets, idles, perks or attributes. Our development team maintains an ongoing dialogue, holding weekly discussions to determine attribute upgrades, decreases or to introduce moveset adjustments after every UFC event.

So over the past two years, we've worked to refine movesets, tweak attributes and adjust AI styles for over 330 UFC fighters through community feedback testing for UFC 5. This process extends to all aspects of our ratings, including footwork and head movement ratings. For example, fighters with exceptional head movement, like Anderson Silva from UFC 101, should emulate their real-life counterpart, using his Matrix-like evasions to dodge damage from his Forrest Griffin fight. We gave this Alter Ego of Anderson Silva “100” for his head movement attribute. Using this holistic approach ensures that the in-game experience accurately reflects the diverse skills and attributes of each fighter in our roster.

One of my favorite inclusions in UFC 5 is getting the past versions of fighters, like Fedor Emelianenko in Pride or Forrest Griffin at UFC 148. How was it going back in time and comparing those past greats to the current fighters in terms of stats?

This was one of those moments where we really had to think about the evolution of MMA over the past thirty years and try to emulate the nostalgic feeling of these fighters, rather than emulating them 1 for 1 with attributes against today’s MMA super athletes. Today’s MMA athletes are not the fighters from 20 or even 10 years ago, they are much more well-versed and have enhanced well-rounded approaches to combat sports. For example, the thought behind Fedor’s 5 Star OVR was how we wanted the legend to feel in the game.

We all know that at this moment in MMA’s substantial growth and mastery, a 30-year-old Fedor from 2006 would probably have trouble with the Jon Jones or Tom Aspinall’s of today, but if you were watching PRIDE in 2006, Fedor was unstoppable and was the heavyweight "GOAT." The same process was taken for “Big Nog.” We wanted him to represent himself at a peak version at Pride Shockwave 2006 before his run at the UFC heavyweight title. We want to emulate that feeling in UFC 5 where it feels like you are back in 2006 when playing with Fedor and “Big Nog.” At the end of the day, we want to ensure these legends are fun as hell to use and players can utilize them day to day.

There are a few fighters with multiple versions, like Conor McGregor at from 2013 to his title win over Jose Aldo in 2014. You can really see the evolution of fighters this way. There's been a lot of "eras" for fighters, where they peak or fight styles change, are you hoping that in the future, we could see this more often?

Absolutely. This is exactly what makes our Alter Ego feature great for fans of MMA and UFC of the past. The conversation is open for any version of any roster fighter we have in the game. We will be reaching back, far back, into the history of MMA and the UFC to pull together the best Alter Egos we think our fans will enjoy. I am not going to spoil who is coming up, but I have read some of the names being thrown out there and let’s just say, there will be some that are expected, but also plenty of great surprises coming down the pipeline. We want the fans to also get involved… tell us who you want as an Alter Ego.

Related » EA Sports UFC 5 Review

As for Conor, you will see with his Debut Alter Ego from the UFC Sweden 2 event in 2013, his stance will be different from his lightweight and welterweight models. His Karate stance is much more utilized at range and in-close at featherweight, while his welterweight model has a boxing-oriented stance from his post-Mayweather return in 2018. This is what our Alter Ego feature will allow us to customize per fighter going forward. As a fighter progresses in their evolution, we can take past versions and build them as they were in that specific moment in time.

Fighters are very vocal, and the UFC has housed a lot of strong personalities over the years. Have any taken affront to their stat ratings in the past?

The moment we added Daniel Cormier to our Design Council on UFC 4 to help review and finalize ratings amongst all the inputs we utilize, we haven’t had too many complaints from fighters directly. That being said, we always love to hear the feedback, especially during post-fight interviews or media commentary right after a fighter has accomplished something special such as winning a big fight. I absolutely want fighters calling their ratings out and proving us wrong, that makes it fun for us and the fans.

Every month, UFC 5 will introduce a PPV Fight Week where the upcoming fights will be available in-game. Players can predict the outcomes with correct picks being rewarded with in-game prizes. Along with this, we also update attributes, moves and perks after every PPV event, so if fighters tell us what they think should be improved ratings-wise, and they go out there and prove it with a big statement – we will 100% update it. We all know UFC and MMA rankings and storylines change rapidly (there are 10 new champions in 2023 already) so this means star ratings, moves, attributes and perks will dynamically adjust to ensure maximum authenticity throughout our DLC calendar.

Some newer fighters, like Bo Nickal for example, are incredible prospects but aren't proven in all areas since they've run through competition. How is it deciding upon stats for factors we haven't seen a lot in fights, like his chin and stamina?

Great question. A lot of inputs go into informing a fighter’s attributes to help best represent one’s skill sets – even if unproven. In Bo Nickal’s case, reviewing his overall MMA fight history, along with calculating the attributes of his opponents is a key measure for informing his attributes off his opponents’ skills, but we also know that Bo Nickal is one of the best well-rounded fighters UFC has today with some of the highest wrestling credentials seen in any UFC prospect ever. We must take his background and history into consideration, even looking at his BJJ match up against Ryan Gordan.

That being said, we haven’t seen Bo take considerable damage or even go past the first round of a fight, so until we do, you should expect his chin to be pretty good since he has made it this far into his career and it still has never been tested. Right now, our team believes that Bo Nickal is one of the best up-and-coming UFC prospects, with credentials to match, and is deserving of his 4.5 Star OVR. It’s just up to his opponents to prove us wrong.

How was it determining stats for some of the more fun inclusions like Dana White and Bruce Buffer?

For Bruce, we actually sat down with him and talked about his fighting background in 2017 when we first introduced him into our franchise on UFC 3. When we spoke to Bruce Buffer about his fighting style, he spoke about his love for Donald Cerrone’s boxing and Lyoto Machida’s kicks. Bruce even sent us videos of him kicking a certain 80's martial arts movie star so we could see how good he really was in his Prime (young Bruce could move!). Bruce is an icon and a legend across all sports, and we are lucky to be the vessel for which fans of Buffer can take him into a fight and learn more about his fighting background and history. It is a great way to interact with a fan favorite human being, especially with his custom Bruce Buffer taunts.

Dana is a great sport and understands that his inclusion in our game isn’t necessarily to show off his fighting ability or to dive deep into his boxing background from his time in Boston. Of course, Dana has good boxing in UFC 5 (remember, he almost fought Tito once in a boxing match), but Dana also understands what fans want first and foremost, even at his own expense. He truly just wants to ensure everyone is having a great time playing UFC 5. He is one of the most passionate, dedicated and driven individuals we have ever met, and we work closely with Dana and his team to ensure we have the best possible representation of the sport he helped build in our game. Also, Dana is no longer a heavyweight in UFC 5, have you seen him lately? He’s in the best shape of his life!