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Your favourite and least favourite weightclasses


jimufctna24

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Keeping to the current landscape, what are your favourite and least favourite divisions? I will start by giving mine, with my favourites first.

 

Middleweight

 

My personal favourite. An orgy of contenders. You have Weidman, Romero, Rockhold, Jacare, and Mousasi all fighting at the same weight, and in their prime. It's utter madness. None of them are boring fighters either.

 

The current Champion, while a sitting duck in the long-run, is also one of the most entertaining figures in MMA. Bisping's 2016 will go down as one of the greatest stories in MMA history. You also have Anderson still sniffing around, who brings even more name value to the division. The division doesn't really have any weaknesses. It has high level operators, unpredictability, and name value. 

 

Lightweight

 

A very close second favourite. They currently have the biggest star in MMA history as their title holder, which adds to the title's value in terms of public perceptions. With McGregor involved, it's always an immense spectacle. Below the Champion, there is again an impressive array of contenders. Including Khabib, Ferguson, RDA, Alvarez, and Diaz. It seems likely that Khabib will eventually get a stranglehold on the division, but who the fuck knows? RDA, Pettis, and others were touted for long title reigns. It's an ever-evolving division, and one that naturally produces fresh batches of talent.

 

Honourable mentions

 

While the Heavyweight division hasn't evolved like most thought it would when JDS and Cain burst onto the scene, the top tier of the division is still enthralling. You have Stipe as Champion, with Cain, Overeem and Werdum just beneath him. Like with the top contenders at Middleweight, there's an "any given day feel" You could easily imagine Stipe being slayed by Cain, then losing out to Overeem next time round.

 

Featherweight could become juicy if Aldo sticks around, even if McGregor vacates. They have Pettis, Max, and Edgar at that weight - all of whom are usually a joy to watch. I would be up for seeing the first two take on Aldo. Women's Bantamweight also deserves a mention. The division has evolved nicely over the past 3 years. 

 

On to my least favourite

 

Light Heavyweight

 

As we've discussed elsewhere, it's looking grim without Jones. He's the one who's involved in the most wanted fights - Jones vs Rumble and Jones vs Gusty. Like Heavyweight, the division has barely evolved in recent years, but not in a good way. D.C vs Rumble will be good in a few weeks, but then what? Without Jones, the only fight out of the top contenders that gets the juices flowing in any way is Gusty vs Rumble 2. Glover has faced everyone and come up short, Bader is Bader, Shogun is well passed it, and the emerging talent are all a "flawed bunch". This is one of MMA's signature divisions, so it's held to a higher standard that other weightclasses. 

 

Here's a great article discussing the division at length - http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/The-Bottom-Line-The-Sad-Fall-of-the-Light-Heavyweight-Division-113933

 

Flyweight

 

You would have to be the most ardent lover of the sport of MMA to really get a buzz out of this division. Mighty Mouse is an exceptional talent - perhaps one of the best fighters in MMA history - but he's already beaten all the top contenders. The only buzz around Mighty Mouse is that he's open to superfights with Bantamweight talent.

 

There's some great talent in the division, but where's the show? We talk about the likes of Romero, Wanderlei, and Kimbo at length for a reason, while the Flyweight talent often get ignored. There's just nothing there for fans to get invested in. One day, either an influx of fresh faces, or a single individual will save the division from the white noise it has become. However until then, it's just there. Great action, but little else. 

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Good post.

 

I don't think i have a "favorite" per se, ive always liked fighter in each division, it's a tough question to answer. I think depth wise the better divisions now different to just a few years ago, everything changes so quickly.

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From a title perspective, historically I'd say it was Light-Heavy. Guys like Ortiz, Liddell, Rampage, Griffin, etc used to have the fights I had to see. These days, the Middleweight division has that feel. Champ is a great story and the depth is out of this world.

 

From a fight perspective, I think Welter always delivers. Hughes, Penn and Serra would have great fights when I first got into it, GSP had some incredible opponents who he beat and throughout you've got a Robbie Lawler having fight of the night any time he's in. Right up to that awesome Woodley vs. Thompson fight on the MSG show. Just great names in this division down the years. The Diaz's, Hardy, Koscheck, Sanchez, MacDonald and loads more.

 

I think its the perfect weight because you get the attritional fights, you get the pace and the trading shots but you do get the spectacular KOs too as well as all the usual stuff. Just a really interesting weight.

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I think its the perfect weight because you get the attritional fights, you get the pace and the trading shots but you do get the spectacular KOs too as well as all the usual stuff. Just a really interesting weight.

Dana once said this about the Middleweight division. Light Heavyweight and Welterweight are indeed the UFC's signature divisions. Even during Pride's heyday the UFC fielded the best Welterweight division, with their Light Heavyweight class being their money division with Ortiz, Chuck and Randy. 

 

Welterweight was superb under Lawler's reign, and as we saw at MSG, there is still a lot of upside to the division. While it's an ageing division, most of the divisions fighters are at their peak. It's the home of Woodley, Lawler, Wonderboy, Maia, Cerrone, and possibly still Condit. There are plenty of viable match-ups to be drawn from that line-up. 

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For me, the best are the middle three - Middle, Welter and Light. I've no interest in Flyweight as it's becoming increasingly evident that there's no-one who can touch DJ at the moment, and my interest in Bantam went when Barao got taken out by Dildoshaw; Cruz is great to watch, but he's just so slimy. Nobody else seems to be close in BW.

 

Featherweight used to be awesome, but it's been hit pretty badly in the last couple of years.

 

The only fights I have any real interest in at LHW is Rumble vs. Jones, and DC vs. Jones 2, although my interest could be rekindled if any of the big Middleweight Four moved up.

 

HW is just rubbish now - if Werdum had held on to the belt, it would still be worth watching, but Miocic is boring, Overeem is a choke artist, Dos Santos and Bigfoot are shot, Hunt's pretty much gone, Nelson and Rothwell aren't contenders, Browne is completely unlikable, and Velasquez is exasperating. I enjoy watching Barnett and Arlovski, but the former fights too infrequently and doesn't seem able to put together a run to challenge for the belt, whilst the latter's chin means his game is too unstable. The only ones I'm intrigued by are Lewis and Ngannou, but I don't think we'll see them in the title mix any time soon - the UFC seem to be really reluctant to introduce new elements to any of their divisions' title scenes.

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Featherweight used to be awesome, but it's been hit pretty badly in the last couple of years.

I think Featherweight's only really lost steam since McGregor won the title, odd as that sounds. If we'd had this thread a year ago I'd probably have said Featherweight was my favourite. You had the dominant king in Jose Aldo. You had the cocky superstar contender McGregor nipping at his heels. Then under that you had serious depth with Edgar, Mendes, Holloway, Swanson, Bermudez, Stephens etc. You'd think having the title on McGregor now - the biggest star in the sport - would elevate the whole division but 145 has actually been a victim of McGregor's success. He's become so big a star that one division can't contain him and the knock on effect of how he beat Aldo has left a rematch there unlikely as well. So in the space of 12 months we've gone from Featherweight being probably the most exciting and talent rich division in MMA, to a division in tatters. McGregor's probably not coming back down. Aldo's been on about leaving the UFC altogether. Edgar's beating every contender but he's 0-2 to Aldo already. Mendes' chin might be going. It's a bit of a shambles. You've got some new life in there with the addition of Anthony Pettis. Korean Zombie will hopefully be back soon and there's exciting up and comers like Yair Rodriguez and the Korean Superboy. So it's definitely not all doom and gloom. It's far from the worst division but it's a division in transition.

 

I'm going with Middleweight as my current favourite. For all the reasons Jim gave in the OP. No need to parrot it.

 

Worst I'd say is Flyweight. And it's not for a lack of talent or skills. There's just no spark in that weight class whatsoever. Mighty Mouse is a fantastic fighter and I actually really enjoy watching him do his thing. But it's just a nothing happening division. And while Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight are probably actually more shallow divisions than 125, at least they have one or two big fights each that are possible. At Heavyweight you have fights like Miocic vs Cain, Miocic vs JDS 2, Cain vs Overeem, JDS vs Werdum 2 and the upcoming Werdum vs Cain 2, to name a few. Light Heavyweight has Cormier vs Jones 2, Jones vs Rumble, Jones vs Gustafsson 2 and the upcoming Cormier vs Rumble rematch. Now what does Flyweight have? There's really nothing I'm very interested in at all. DJ has already beat all the top contenders convincingly. He's beat both Benavidez and Dodson twice. They were considered the two biggest threats. He beat Cejudo with ease as well. He's just miles and miles ahead of the pack. And I don't see an end in sight. There's no-one coming up in the division who I see giving him much bother and Mouse takes hardly any damage in his fights so I could see him doing this for a long time yet.

 

Plus what HW and LHW have over Flyweight is at least they have the fight finishing power. That obviously diminishes greatly as you go down the weight classes. And you just don't see too many 125lb KO artists. And most of the guys are so technical on the ground that there aren't really that many submissions either. So even if you're watching a HW fight between two guys you're not arsed about and the fight isn't very good, the silver lining is it's probably not lasting long. With the Flyweights it's almost a certainty that it's going the distance.

 

I actually feel a bit sorry for Mighty Mouse. Yeah, I know he's not exactly Johnny Charisma but he's also got nothing to work with. It's a division full almost entirely of polite and respectful fighters. None of them stand out, none of them really do anything spectacular in the cage and none of them have any personality.

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It's a tie personally between Middleweight and Lightweight.

 

Middleweight mainly because of how stupidly tight those spots are in the rankings. It's ridiculous. The depth in quality in that division is unlike any other in the company, it's truly mad. And what a variety of fighters you have in there to boot! You've got Bisping ripping the piss out of everyone, smug cunt Rockhold, all American Weidman, ground master Souza, no-nonsense Mousasi, the GOAT in Anderson Silva, and THE SOLDIER OF GOD. How many other divisions can boast such a wealth of characters within their top 10? The fight standard as well is almost always an extremely high level. Just in the past few months alone, we've had Bisping and Henderson go to war, Romero nearly knee the brains out of Weidman's head, Mousasi looking extremely confident against Belfort and Hall, then you've got Brunson/Whittaker in a couple of days which stands to be a tremendous fight. 

 

Lightweight is in some shape at the moment as well. The biggest star in combat sports as the champion, having dethroned Alvarez in a dominating showing. Similarly to middleweight, you've got a lot of differentiating styles involved, and unlike middleweight perhaps, a lot of fresh, new match ups within that top 10 ranking. Rematches can be incredible (see Bisping/Rockhold 2 or Bisping/Hendo 2 just this year) - but not much beats the intrigue and anticipation of a new clash. We're still to see Conor/RDA, you've got Khabib/Ferguson to determine the #1 contender, Conor against either of those guys, stuff like Barboza/Alvarez, or Chiesa/RDA. You've also got the return of Nate to the division to shake shit up a bit. 

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Without question, going into 2017, the divisions with the most compelling options are lightweight and middleweight. Both have champions that are masters at creating drama and a top 5 that features zero fat.

 

I think heavyweight has improved dramatically since Velasquez arse broke because he was training like a tit. Out of those two years you've got Werdum, Stipe, Ninjareem and a rejuvenated JDS. There are few fights I'm salivating over more than Stipe v Werdum/Velasquez. Hopefully Cain doesn't ruin the fun thereafter again.

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