The following questions were originally answered on March 8th, 2015 and November 15th, 2015.
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Answers by Ramiro Ruiz, pro MMA fighter:
Q: How many hours a week do serious amateur and professional MMA fighters train?
Around 24 hrs a week.
An example of the week can be:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday:
2 or 3 sessions a day, 5 hrs total.
These days are more about technique, so the workouts tend to be longer while learning new things.
Tuesday and Thursday:
2 sessions a day, 3 hrs total.
These are sparring days, with strength and conditioning after. The workouts are more intense and shorter.
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Saturday:
1 session, 3 hrs total.
Last day can be technical, sparring, or technique, finishing with an intense and short workout for conditioning-like intervals workouts.
Now, this is just what many professional fighters do. You have to consider that no athlete is the same and some can/like to do more. Some love to run every morning so that would add more hours a week; others don't but can do more or longer sessions.
Still, nowadays fighters focus more in quality than quantity.
Q: How do UFC fighters not get seriously injured every fight?
They do -- even if you got a fast win in the first round, the next day you start feeling punches that you don't remember receiving. Is very common for MMA fighters to break their hands, ribs, and on rare occasions as with Anderson Silva's case, the tibia.
There's also a referee looking out for the fighters' safety to end the contest if one is not defending properly, but the main thing is that they are professional athletes and fighters. They trade punches, takedowns, slams, and submissions on a regular basis. The worst injuries usually happen in training, and they also get their bodies used to that kind of abuse. They can absorb pain better than regular people, but they do get injured quite often.
Q: Was Ronda Rousey's loss bad for MMA?
Bad for the UFC business but good for the sport, at least for the future.
Casual fans were getting the wrong idea of how invincible Ronda was by finishing opponents that fought below her game, saying that she could beat Floyd Mayweather, Cain Velasquez, and any UFC guy in her division. It was only matter of time until she faced a natural bantamweight with good striking and focus on mantaining distance. With this win, Holly shook her division and is now more interesting than ever.
And it is always inspiring to see a huge underdog dominate the previously untouched champion.