Assuming WSOF survives, who will be next WSOF MW/LHW champions?

TheBrownRanger

TheBrownRanger

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With the next WSOF event having no fights so far, would it be a good time to crown new MW/LHW champs? I believe a tournament would be the right move for Middleweight. WSOF Light Heavyweight is completely starved, even in comparison to Bellator's and the UFC's infamously bad LHW divisions.

For Light-Heavyweight, there's:
Smealinho Rama - Decent talent. Former WSOF Heavyweight champion and is most likely to take the belt soon
Ronny Markes - Last WSOF fight was in 2014. Was originally booked to face David Branch in the original WSOF LHW tournament but pulled out. Possible contender.
Teddy Holder - Holds KO win over Thiago Silva. Has dropped two straight to David Branch and Shamil Gamzatov.
Tyrone Spong - Undefeated at 2-0. Was booked for a couple of fights back in 2015 but kept getting injured. Last MMA fight was in 2013. Probably won't be returning.

With this field, you can maybe have a 4 man tournament at best. Not much else to say about this division. I had to make a bit of a stretch to include Spong and Holder as possible contenders. One of the worst divisons in major league MMA.

For Middleweight, we have:
Louis Taylor - Just lost to David Branch. Was on an impressive streak before that fight. Should still be in contender status.
Krasimir Mladenov - Had a 3 fight win streak in the WSOF prior to losing to Clifford Starks. With Branch and Starks now gone, Mladenov could be still be up there in the division.
Bruno Santos - Beat Vagab Vagabov in December. Bellator and UFC veteran. Should be in good standing in the division
Phil Hawes - Was on a four fight win streak prior to getting beat by Louis Taylor last year.
Rex Harris - Currently on a 6 fight win streak. Certainly not the most exciting fighter in the division.
Shamil Gamzatov - Beat former WSOF title challenger Teddy Holder. Seems to have cut down to 185. Should be on the contender side as well.
Tyler Manawaroa - Undefeated. Has not fought since 2013 but he's very young at 22. May not be ready for shitle tot. Kinda racist too.
Cory Devela - Was riding a 4 fight win streak before getting subbed by Louis Taylor about a year ago. Okay record and could get in the mix with a couple of wins.

For Middleweight, you can do a 8-man one night tournament with these fighters. WSOF seems to have been wanting to book a tournament for awhile. With the HW one falling through, they can do this division instead.

What say you?
 
Mw I pick a gp for sure that because there is no clear #1

Bruno vs gamzatov are the top 2 guys along with starks...gp makes sense..


Lhw is super thin Rama vs...... I don't know

-Markes doesn't deserve it imo 1-1 outside the company, loose in shoots Brasil via sub in the first round

-holder has looked horrible recently...


If I was them I'll bring back Thiago silva to face Rama! That fight will sell more than the others at that weight
 
Tournament format would probably be a good way to differentiate themselves from the competition. They need to gimmick their show up to give fans a reason to tune in.

I always found the Bellator tournmanets boring as hell and hard to follow which is why I gave up on watching them. WSOF needs to really step up and do something to get attention for their company or they are toast.
 
The best thing WSOF can do right now is to sell out to the UFC or partner with RIZIN. In regards to crowning new champions they need to tap into the regional scene to find prospects.
 
They just need to sign more talent in both weight classes, the talent is out there. Plus they need to try and build more guys on the prelims. They did a better job at heavyweight. I mean signing a promising prospect or two would help. They also got a lot of good Russian fighters they could keep snagging. Signing some UFC vets or fresh cuts would help too, but right now both are struggling pretty badly. Currently, I think Rama takes it at LHW and Gamzatov takes it at MW.

P.S I would love for them to bring Sponge back, but I don't think he wants to anymore. :(
 
Didn't WSOF just get some big investors recently to help keep them from folding? I think they will stay around a bit longer and hopefully make some big moves sooner than later; whether it be partnering with another promotion or acquiring new talent. Also not sure if Gaethje will stick around for much longer. Fuck, Moraes is practically gone too. WSOF needs help badly.
 
Glad WSOF signed Tyler Manaworoa, kid is super young and very talented. He was the favorite to win that season of TUF and beat Nordine Taleb. Manaworoa posted an offensive race filled meme on Instagram when he was like 16 years old...get the fuck off it, the UFC should have asked him to the delete the post and possibly issue some sort of apology.

Badr Hari has crippled people, beaten civilians to near death on several occasions and no one seems to object to him fighting? Alexander Gustafsson had a violent past as a youth too...Shit Mark Walhberg blinded an Asian man in a hate crime and has used every racial slur in the book growing up. Guys like Anthony Johnson have several charges of domestic abuse against women (a lot of men convicted of domestic abuse in MMA, Boxing, NFL etc). People change, pay their debts to society, there's justice systems to handle such things etc. This is a sport, it's fighting, people shouldn't be labelled a racist for 1 social media post as a teenager. There's plenty of racists everywhere, in every country of the world, in every sport, in every organisation. Destroying a kids career isn't the kind of social justice and education we need on the matter.
 
MMALOPEZ said:
Mw I pick a gp for sure that because there is no clear #1

Bruno vs gamzatov are the top 2 guys along with starks...gp makes sense..


Lhw is super thin Rama vs...... I don't know

-Markes doesn't deserve it imo 1-1 outside the company, loose in shoots Brasil via sub in the first round

-holder has looked horrible recently...


If I was them I'll bring back Thiago silva to face Rama! That fight will sell more than the others at that weight
Click to expand...
Middleweight is perfect due to the amount of fringe contenders. Better division than Bellator's Middleweight, in my honest opinion. Clifford Starks is now gone, I think.
I'd do:
Louis Taylor vs Bruno Santos
Krasimir Mladenov vs Rex Harris
Vagab Vagabov vs Tyler Manawaroa
Shamil Gamzatov vs Cory Devela
Have Phil Hawes and a new signing as alternates.

I never knew that Tee-yago Silva is on a 3 fight win streak. Good catch.
HuskySamoan said:
Manaworoa posted an offensive race filled meme on Instagram when he was like 16 years old...get the fuck off it, the UFC should have asked him to the delete the post and possibly issue some sort of apology.
Click to expand...
That was just a bit of a joke on my part. I don't agree that the UFC should have removed him from TUF for that Instagram pic. If I was that offended by it, I wouldn't have listed Tyler as a possible contender lol.
 
I second the idea of having tournaments, might as well, it might give WSOF a shot in the arm as well and help differentiate them a bit from other promotions.
 
Half the guys you mentioned arent in wsof anymore.
They dont have enought roster to even think about tournaments atthis point.
Vagab Vagabov is fighting in ProFC today and Samil Gamzatov has fought Rodney Wallace in ACB so I dont know if they will fight for wsof again but these two, along with Rama and Phil Hawes are material to become legit champs in wsof.
wsof is so weird though you can´t predict anything with them. Also they dont even make 10 events a year so hard to build a division that way
 
pankrat said:
Half the guys you mentioned arent in wsof anymore.
They dont have enought roster to even think about tournaments atthis point.
Vagab Vagabov is fighting in ProFC today and Samil Gamzatov has fought Rodney Wallace in ACB so I dont know if they will fight for wsof again but these two, along with Rama and Phil Hawes are material to become legit champs in wsof.
wsof is so weird though you can´t predict anything with them. Also they dont even make 10 events a year so hard to build a division that way
Click to expand...
I made the list according to the fighters listed on the WSOF website. Honestly, there isn't many sources out there keeping tabs on who's still signed to the WSOF and who isn't. It's weird to keep up with.
 
pankrat said:
Half the guys you mentioned arent in wsof anymore.
They dont have enought roster to even think about tournaments atthis point.
Vagab Vagabov is fighting in ProFC today and Samil Gamzatov has fought Rodney Wallace in ACB so I dont know if they will fight for wsof again but these two, along with Rama and Phil Hawes are material to become legit champs in wsof.
wsof is so weird though you can´t predict anything with them. Also they dont even make 10 events a year so hard to build a division that way
Click to expand...
Vagabov and gamzatov are Ali guys and they can fight in both companies
 
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