When EA Sports UFC 5 launched back last October, fans of the mixed martial arts sport were disappointed in the number of fighters on the roster. Many notable fighters were absent, and EA listened to your feedback.
Over the past couple of months, EA has worked to add new fighters to the roster every month. Since December, we've seen the additions of Ian Machado Garry, Bryce Mitchell, Maycee Barber, Joe Pyfer, and more.
But EA isn't done yet. The developer has plans to introduce 30 additional fighters to EA Sports UFC 5. Between April and June of this year, new fighters will be added to the game. And when it's all said and done, the game will reach 98% parity with current UFC Top 10 Athlete Rankings.
The first major update will arrive on April 4, just in time fr UFC 300. 9 new fighters will be added to the roster:
- Movsar Evloev (#5 FEATHERWEIGHT)
- Brendan Allen (#6 MW)
- Marina Rodriguez (#6 WSW)
- Muhammad Mokaev (#7 FLYWEIGHT)
- Serghei Spivac (#9 HW)
- Geoff Neal (#10 WW)
- Umar Nurmagomedov (#10 BW)
- Tracy Cortez (#11 WFW)
- Diego Lopes
EA shared the rating for each of the new fighters. Movsar Evloev, who is the highest-ranked fighter in his respective division among this first batch, has a 95 rating for Takedowns, 95 Ground Striking, and 95 Top Game. Brendan Allen will check in with 94 Punch Power, 95 Top Game, and 97 Submissive Offense.
Coinciding with these new arrivals is a brand new patch featuring numerous gameplay updates. Accordign to EA:
We’ve tuned stamina recovery between rounds, adjusted evasion properties while ducking, and re-balanced the speed and power for various strike types. The grappling and ground game has been updated with notable changes to the range and speed of double and single-leg takedown entries and we have increased the short-term stamina cost for muscle-modified transitions, among a slew of other adjustments
The April 4th patch will release at 10:00 a.m. PT. You can read the full patch notes here.
In late April, another nine fighters will be added:
- Matheus Nicolau (#5 FLYWEIGHT)
- Virna Jandiroba (#5 WSW)
- Manel Kape (#6 FLYWEIGHT)
- Natalia Silva (#8 WFW)
- Nassourdine Imavov (#8 MW)
- Marcin Tybura (#8 HW)
- Stephen Erceg (#10 FLYWEIGHT)
- “MVP” Michael Page (#13 WW)
- Drew Dober (#15 LW)
An update in May will see Roman Dolidze (#9 MW), Benoit Saint denis (#11 LW), and Anthony Hernandez (#12 MW) added to the game.
And finally, the last major roster update will come in June. It will see the following fighters added to the roster:
- Pannie Kianzad (#9 WBW)
- Loopy Godínez (#10 WSW)
- Norma Dumont (#11 WBW)
- Tagir Ulanbekov (#12 FLYWEIGHT)
- Alexandr Romanov (#13 HW)
- Mario Bautista (#13 BW)
- Chris Curtis (#14 MW)
- Jonathan Martinez (#14 BW)
- Caio Borralho (#15 MW)
- Kayla Harrison
- Michel Pereira
- Joaquin Buckley (#11 WW)
- Randy Brown