See here's the thing though....US MMA rules as they are allow fighters to play it way too safe, and fights end up being glorified grappling/point sparring matches. By all means keep your guard up and have a strategy, but at the same time, take some fukking risks to try and finish the cot damn fight every once in a while, shyt. This is why a lot of PRIDE FC matches were more exciting than most UFC matches even till this day IMO. That 10 min first round gave fighters an incentive to actually finish the fukking fight, else they'd risk being fukked over by gassing out. Also, knees and kicks to grounded opponents would definitely shut down a lot of these wrestlers who want to pull that lay and pray shyt or rely on doing just enough to grind out boring ass decisions. Yes this is martial arts but it's still a FIGHT. Finish that shyt.

Its a catch 22, sadly if the fighters opened it up more and go for the big highlight reel knock outs and subs, and then start trading more in the bouts, it will lead to more KOs but also lead to more fighters being hurt and unable to fight as often. Also the lifespan of some of these fighters will decrease. Take a guy like Shogun, he was a wrecking machine in Pride, but he's 31 now and his knees are all but gone. He isn't half the fighter that he was before, all those brutal fights have taken its tool on him. While you have a fighter like Randy Couture, he lasted so long maybe due to the style of his fighting.
Also, the hard part of me sometimes is, after watching these guys spill all this blood, sweat and tears in the ring for my entertainment, its hard to see them at the end of their careers and they are physically messed up. Wandy in Pride was my boy, but he can barely talk properly now, hes so messed up. Even Chuck sounds messed up sometimes. Then you have a guy like Chael who uses his strong wrestling base to control the fight,k yea its not always the most exciting, but he can still walk and talk like a normal person.