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| MMARR Features | |||||
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| 155 pound division where art thou? |
| MMA News Written by Arnold "The Sushiboy" Lim | |
| Monday, 12 December 2005 | |
 From the standpoint of making the divisions as deep as possible the UFC let the 155 pound division go and instead decided to concentrate on the other 4 divisions. August 21st, 2004 was the last lightweight 155lb contest in the UFC and featured Josh “The Punk” Thomson losing to uncrowned UFC 155lb champion Yves Edwards. Since that fight took place over a year ago, the question is, have we actually seen a more concentrated deeper UFC in their remaining 4 divisions? The question here is not whether the lightweight class is the most exciting or if the lightweight fighters deserved better, that is another article all together. The question we will look at here is, what effect if any, did dropping the 155 lbs weight class have on the remaining 4 active UFC divisions? The welterweight 170 lbs class There is no doubt that this division has seen major growth in the past year and a half or so, and the most growth arguably in any division in any organization. A division that boasts, Matt Hughes, Sean Sherk, BJ Penn, Georges St. Pierre, Karo Parisyan, Nick Diaz, and Diego Sanchez is deep by any standards. Add fighters such as Joe Riggs, Jonathan Goulet, Jon Fitch, Drew Fickett, Josh Koscheck and now the newcomers to the division such as TUF participants Joe Stevenson, Luke Cummo, among others, it is probably the deepest division in the UFC. On any given night any of these guys can win and there is NO doubt that this division has seen significant growth since the UFC dropped 155, much of it due to the success of the Ultimate Fighter TV show which has seen many of it’s fighters compete at 170 pounds despite competing at middleweight on the TV show. Despite only season two having a welterweight “division” Most of the middleweights that competed on the TUF 1 show moved straight down to welterweight at the conclusion of the show including eventual TUF 1 winner Diego Sanchez and runner up Kenny Florian. The second season featured a dedicated welterweight division and the winner Joe Stevenson and runner up Luke Cummo will also be competing at welterweight for the foreseeable future so they actually got two sets of finalists competing in the 170 lbs class from the popular TV show. Other welterweights include, Kenny Florian, Nick Thompson, Thiago Alves, Drew Fickett, Chris Lytle, Melvin Guillard and Spencer Fisher who round out this stacked division. Recent losses: Frank Trigg, Renato Verissimo Potentially available recruits: This division is the deepest in the UFC, no new fighters are needed at this time although both Trigg and Verissimo are still considered threats. The Middleweight 185 lbs Class The 185 pound division has had a few wrenches thrown their way in more ways then one. The Nathan Marquardt vs. Ivan Salaverry fight at Ultimate Fight night 1 was supposed to help isolate a potential challenger for the MW title, with even the loser of that fight having potentially interesting match-ups on the horizon based on having been the main event on the popular free T.V show. Had the fight been anything other then quite possibly the worst free UFC fight shown on live T.V ever, it could have cleared things up considerably. In the aftermath of that fight, things were much more muddled then they were before. Ivan Salaverry was subsequently dropped, and Nathan Marquardt is still in limbo with his subsequent positive performance enhancing drug test. The division now boasts popular Champion Rich Franklin and apparent #1 contender David “The Crow” Loiseau, Jeremy Horn is undoubtedly one of the top 185 pound fighters in the world and despite a razor thin victory over Prangley is clearly one of the top dogs. The big problem with the fact that Jeremy Horn is a potential title contender is the fact that he has such a close affiliation with Rich Franklin, that he will not fight the champion! That may lead to him jumping in between weight classes at 185 and 205. I think having Nathan Marquardt back in the division will help round things out but I don’t think it would hurt to have a top contender such as Anderson Silva in the mix. Silva does have a victory over Horn and is considered by most to be a very exciting fighter to watch. After those fighters they have Dave Terrell who has been inactive for a variety of reasons since February of this year, Trevor Prangley, Evan Tanner, and potentially BJ Penn down the road if he continues his weight class ascension with TUF veterans, Mike Swick and Chris Leben coming on. If all the MW stay healthy and can come back from the various problems this division too could be considered very deep, however with the conflict of fighters not fighting each other and some match-ups already having been played out such as Loiseau vs. Horn, adding an Anderson Silva or Joey Villasenor might add a little jump to the mix especially with the ejection of top contender Matt Lindland. Recent losses: Joe Riggs dropped down to 170 pounds, Matt Lindland was released, Ivan Salaverry was released Potentially available recruits: Joey Villasenor, Anderson Silva. Light Heavyweight 205 lbs Class The problem in the past with this division in the UFC was that all the marquee match-ups between the big 4 had already all been played out. Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz and Vitor Belfort had all fought each other and the division was beginning to look stagnant. Vitor Belfort is now out of the picture but Renato “Babalu” Sobral is in. With the rubber-match between Couture and Liddell happening you have to think that Couture who is over 40 now doesn’t have too many fights left and Liddell has already defeated Babalu. The problem right now is the same as it was befor, and we are going to see another rematch with Ken Shamrock taking on Tito Ortiz. The fight is a big potentially very marketable rematch but still, more of the same. Liddell is fighting Couture in the rubbermatch and Tito Ortiz’s next few matches appear to be locked in with Ken Shamrock coming back into the fold. Even with that rematch happening it seems that rematch after rematch is all we have been seeing with the big boys in this division. Couture has fought Belfort 3 times. Couture will have fought Liddell three times. Couture defeated Oritz already. Ortiz defeated Belfort, lost to Liddell, and Couture. Babalu is a top fighter and should find himself in the mix for a title shot very soon but after him who is in line for the shot? The problem with this division is the fact that the top guys are so far ahead of the rest it makes for dead storylines. It wouldn’t hurt to bring someone in or cultivate some of their talent althought Forrest Griffena nd Stephan Bonnar are coming on, they are not considered to be in the same class as the above mentioned, and in fact are probably going to see a rematch with each other at some point in the future. They have some very exciting top level talent but no apparent contenders for the belt. Who does the winner of Liddell vs. Couture fight? Chances are good it will be a rematch. Others in the division include, Sam Hoger, Forrest Griffin, Stephan Bonnar, Rashad Evans, Keith Jardine, Mike Whitehead, Renato Sobral, , Alessio Sakara, Justin Eilers, James Irvin, Mike Van Arsdale, Brandon Vera, and Ken Shamrock. Jeremy Horn could potentially find himself in this division again. Recent losses: Vitor Belfort Potentially available fighters: I don’t know of his contract status but Quinton Jackson would be a great addition to the fold and his victory over Liddell could add some spark to the division and open up some interesting storylines. However, he may not fight Tito Oritz based on the fact they train together. Heavyweight 206+ lbs Class By far the weakest division in the UFC, and all of MMA for that matter. The only top match-up that remains at this point for the UFC appears to be Frank Mir vs. Andrei Arlovski. Tim Sylvia is fighting Assuerio Silva and the winner of that fight could be the title contender again but after that who else is in the mix? Paul Buentello is coming off a loss to Arlovski and the rest of the fighters don’t appear to be ready for a title shot yet. This division is in desperate need of new blood, and based on the last fight with Gonzaga and Jordan they need it now. Pride has locked up the remaining top fighters and doesn’t appear to be willing to let them go and to be honest this is not a UFC problem per se, the heavyweight division as a whole is notoriously thin and the exception of maybe the top 10 guys the drop off in talent is steep. Even with the Ultimate fighter show having heavyweights in the last season it appears that they will not be getting too much help from the show contestants. Heavyweight winner Rashad Evans appears ready to make the cut to 205, and it is rumored that others such as Keith Jardine and Mike Whitehead will follow suit. It is unclear at this point whether earlier cuts in the TUF 2 heavyweight campaign such as Dan Christison, Seth Petruzelli, Rob MacDonald, Kerry Schall, Tom Murphy or others will be brought in to round out the division and as unlikely as that seems with their less then impressive showings on the show, with the dearth of talent at heavyweight, it doesn’t appear to be out of the question. Other fighters in the division include TUF 2 runner up Brad Imes, Tim Sylvia, Assuerio Silva, Gabriel Gonzaga, Paul Buentello, Brandon Lee Hinkle, Marcio Cruz, Frank Mir. Recent losses: none Potentially available recruits: This division as a whole is very thin, maybe Ricco Rodriguez could try his hand at Arlovski again?. UFC 49 was the last event to have a lightweight bout on it. Since that event there have been 7 Pay Per view events as well as 2 Ultimate Fight night events and the “Ultimate Fighter” 1 and 2 T.V programs. The seven PPV events previous saw 10 lightweight bouts spread over 7 PPV events. If you take away those potential lightweight fights and spread them out over the other 4 divisions helps develop more fighters into potential contenders into the remaining 4 divisions AND take out one champion that needs to be marketed you open the remaining divisions up to be deeper. Here is a look at the breakdown of fights for the events in question. It must be remembered that there were other events in between those UFC such as the Ultimate Fight Night events and the Ultimate Fighter TV show fights but for the purposes of comparison it would be unfair to compare PPV events with non PPV events. In fact some of the fights were even meant to be in different weight classes such as Carlos Newton’s fight with Renato Verissimo was originally scheduled to be a Welterweight contest but due to Newton being unable to make weight for a variety of reason’s the bout was changed to 175 pounds at MW. Here is the breakdown. UFC 43-UFC 49 10-Lightweight Bouts 57 Total Bouts over 7 PPV Events UFC 50-UFC 56 0-Lightweight Bouts 56 Total Bouts over 7 PPV Events Champions, whatever division they reign in, MUST be marketed and marketing 5 champions was probably going to be a challenge with only the 6 PPV events per year that the UFC had at that time. That has changed and I would expect at some point that the 155 pound division will make it’s return to the UFC, how soon it will be is anyone’s guess. It could be one year it could be 10 years no one knows at this point except the UFC but I would expect it to be sooner rather then later. I would also expect at some point that they will even introduce a 145 pound division as well although that is probably not even in the thinking process at this point and could be quite a while away. With the explosion of the sport the champions and fighters finally seem to be getting the attention they deserve. While it stunk for the 155 pound fighters and understandably so, in the mind of the UFC it was for the betterment of the company that the UFC axed the division and ironically it will probably be that axe that cut the division, that will help pave the way for it’s eventual return. -MMARR- |
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