Change my mind... Middleweight is the premier division of UFC

[MMA_enthusiast]

The middleweight division for me is the best division out here in the game today. i know most will argue that lightweight is better. For me there are like 2 top candidates with amazing fighters behind them in lightweight.
I feel middleweight right now will be what the light heavyweight division was when Rampage dethroned Liddell. Timeline from UFC 71 to UFC 128 Pretty title becomes hot potato. Champions at the time included Rampage > Griffin > Evans > Machida > Shogun > Jones. In this time there were killers in belfort, wanderlei, thiago silva (4 fight winning streak with 13-0), strategists in RIch Franklin, Hendo, and Jardine (underrated at the time). It was a glorious time where even if the title wasn't up for grabs a mixture of these matches would main event and no one was upset over it. Things changed with Jones obviously

Looks at the monstrous killers in this division in the middleweight division now. They also seem to match up regularly enough which is amazing in this day and age of the WME era.

Current champ:
Robert Whitaker - The Reaper
He has to contend with all these mofos, narrowly survived against the soldier of God fair play to him

Kelvin Gastelum -
Retired bisping and narrowly defeated Jacare

Israel Adesanya - Stylebender
Has won 4 fights this year alone including his first legit test in brunson

Yoel Yomero - Soldier of God
He has beaten three of the guys here however his fight with jacare is incredibly close, could not get the job done against Whitaker but i would argue he can beat him if they met for a third time. Forever old, forever dangerous

Paulo Costa - The Eraser
Has dispatched four fighters in a row by ko, only John McCarthy has knocked him down

Ronaldo Souza - Jacare
One of the all time great BJJ practitioners, coming off highlight reel win over Weidman

Chris Weidman
Despite having some brutal losses, they are not losses where he is completely outclassed, in fact they are fights where his winning or drawing and he seems to make a fatal error. He beat Gastelum

Luke Rockhold
One of the best grapplers in the game, can beat anyone here except maybe Yoel

Gegard Mousasi (in bellator but can always come back, doesn't seem to have much left in bellator unless he goes LHW)
One of the best complete fighters in the game today

At lightweight i feel like Khabib and Ferguson are above the rest. For some reason fights against GSP, Aksren (welterweight) and Conor rematches are more important to WME. So whats the point of having two great fighters but not having them fight. Because it keeps getting cancelled is the excuse.

I love Poirier, Gaethje, Alvarez (in ONE FC now for good it seems) and Diaz fights. They are incredible but i just don't see them touching the belt soon or beating Khabib or Ferguson. Kevin Lee seems most likely to give those two trouble (he had staph against Ferguson and was doing very well or this could be Ferguson just waiting to get his groove). There is a solid prospect in Dan Hooker, let's see how far he goes. Also let us remember that the main 3 of this division Khabib, Ferguson, Conor fight infrequently. Tony is looking to have 4 fights in three years. Khabib somehow was blessed with an Islamic miracle fighting 5 times in 3 years. Let us not forget how easy it is for him to pull out and how infrequent he once was. Conor does whatever he wants.

So change my mind what division is better and why?

 

[UFCBlackbelt]

Middleweight is the most stacked its ever been

 

[Willek]

A blind man sees what he wants to see.

 

[executionermma]

Lightweight is much better, not even comparable in my opinion. Middleweight is looking very old btw.

- Gastelum is a bloated welterweight. He's short and the only reason he is at 185 it's because he's not professional enough to fight at 170.
- Romero doesn't even make weight anymore. Missed weight the last 2 times and recently has been calling out Anderson Silva (?). Honestly, he's a fucking joke and should be forced to move up if he misses again.
- Rockhold is always injured and after Bisping exposed his awful defensive issues i think more people will take advantage of this. A matter of time until he's forced to move up to see if he can get more resistant to strikes in general. Also killing himself to make 185.
- Jacare is certainly past his prime, he's looking slower and will be 39 soon. Although he's still able to crack and i gave him the Gastelum fight, he never closed the holes in his stand up game. Don't see him beating Rob (he still deserves a shot, same stuff as Poirier).
- Weidman is probably done at 185, moving up to 205 according to his coach.
- Mousasi left UFC, looked good against Carvalho but looked terrible against Shlemenko (lost 29-28 to me), who hasn't performed well since and is on 3 fight losing skid.

Adesanya and Costa are great and the most dangerous guys to Whittaker. They need one more big win to earn a shot though.
Shoeface and Cannonier are some promising ranked guys.

Also let us remember that the main 3 of this division Khabib, Ferguson, Conor fight infrequently.

In the last year, Khabib - LW champ, fought 3 times. Whittaker - MW champ, fought just once.
Rockhold, #2, is also very innactive. Since losing his title he fought just 2 times. Since then Ferguson fought 3x. Conor 3x too if you count the Floyd boxing match.

 

[MMA_enthusiast]

Lightweight is much better, not even comparable in my opinion. Middleweight is looking very old btw.

- Gastelum is a bloated welterweight. He's short and the only reason he is at 185 it's because he's not professional enough to fight at 170.
- Romero doesn't even make weight anymore. Missed weight the last 2 times and recently has been calling out Anderson Silva (?). Honestly, he's a fucking joke and should be forced to move up if he misses again.
- Rockhold is always injured and after Bisping exposed his awful defensive issues i think more people will take advantage of this. A matter of time until he's forced to move up to see if he can get more resistant to strikes in general. Also killing himself to make 185.
- Jacare is certainly past his prime, he's looking slower and will be 39 soon. Although he's still able to crack and i gave him the Gastelum fight, he never closed the holes in his stand up game. Don't see him beating Rob (he still deserves a shot, same stuff as Poirier).
- Weidman is probably done at 185, moving up to 205 according to his coach.
- Mousasi left UFC, looked good against Carvalho but looked terrible against Shlemenko (lost 29-28 to me), who hasn't performed well since and is on 3 fight losing skid.

Adesanya and Costa are great and the most dangerous guys to Whittaker. They need one more big win to earn a shot though.
Shoeface and Cannonier are some promising ranked guys.
In the last year, Khabib - LW champ, fought 3 times. Whittaker - MW champ, fought just once.
Rockhold, #2, is also very innactive. Since losing his title he fought just 2 times. Since then Ferguson fought 3x. Conor 3x too if you count the Floyd boxing match.

I disagree champions but some valid points here, Whitaker was injured twice against Romero, no one does quick turnarounds after a romero fight but in general



but my main point is the MW division is way more competitive, i dont see the lightweight division as that competitive. Khabib and Ferguson seem to be on a higher level than the others. At middleweight everyone is trading wins and losses. The fights are all still amazing though in both divisions

 

[MMA_enthusiast]

A blind man sees what he wants to see.

 

[Evangelion]

I disagree champions but some valid points here, Whitaker was injured twice against Romero, no one does quick turnarounds after a romero fight but in general



but my main point is the MW division is way more competitive, i dont see the lightweight division as that competitive. Khabib and Ferguson seem to be on a higher level than the others. At middleweight everyone is trading wins and losses. The fights are all still amazing though in both divisions

Whittaker hasn't lost to anyone at mw. How is he trading wins and losses?

 

[Portland8242]

HW and LHW are a barren wasteland. FLW's done and BW's got some killers but isn't that deep.

FW, LW, WW, and MW honestly all have a good cut of talent all around. OP's right, there's tons of good fighters at MW. It's a hard sell calling it better than LW though, FW is insanely stacked nowadays too.

 

[drbolony]

Bantamweight.

Middleweight has a lot of names now, and a very legit 2nd tier, but Bantamweight has 6 guys who can be champion right now: TJ, Cruz, Rivera, Moraes, Garbrandt, and Assuncao.

The issue with BW is that it's top heavy. MW's overall top 15 is better.

1. BW
2. MW
3. LW
4. FW
5. WW
6. HW
7. LHW
8. WSW
9. FlW
10. WBW
11. WFlW
12. Cyborg

 

[MMA_enthusiast]

Whittaker hasn't lost to anyone at mw. How is he trading wins and losses?

ffs not pinpointing whitaker exactly, i meant the division in general

 

[Evangelion]

ffs not pinpointing whitaker exactly, i meant the division in general

LW is like mw but with 2 unbeatable fighters at the top and 25 good fighters instead of 10.

Gregor Gillespie isn't even ranked at lw and he's a savage. Yet Uriah Hall is ranked at mw.

 

[FreddieRoachsVoice]

LW is a tad bit overrated right now in that many people think it's miles ahead the best. There are a bunch of "top" guys but really, none of them have really fought each other so it's tough to distinguish who is actually elite or not. Anyone who racks up a streak of journeymen wins and adds a win over a gatekeeper like Barboza seems to get hyped to the moon but it's a bit premature IMO.

Bantamweight and middleweight are both just as good if not better than lightweight IMHO. Splitting hairs though as all 3 are way better than any of the other divisions which are subpar right now

 

[MMA_enthusiast]

LW is like mw but with 2 unbeatable fighters at the top and 25 good fighters instead of 10.

Gregor Gillespie isn't even ranked at lw and he's a savage. Yet Uriah Hall is ranked at mw.

i dont see Whitaker as unbeatable, hes a great fighter and honestly proud my australian boy survived Romero. But to say the best MW in Romero and Whitaker are unbeatable when you have Adesanya, Costa, Weidman/Jacare Gastelum and potentially Mousasi breathing down their neck is quite the statement. It's less of a challenge in my eyes for Khabib and Ferguson to beat Poirier, Diaz, Lee/Conor and Gaethje.

Would you not agree?

 

[Evangelion]

i dont see Whitaker as unbeatable, hes a great fighter and honestly proud my australian boy survived Romero. But to say the best MW Romero and Whitaker are unbeatable when you have Adesanya, Costa, Weidman/Jacare Gastelum and potentially Mousasi breathing down your neck, its quite the statement. It's less of a challenge in my eyes for Khabib and Ferguson to beat Poirier, Diaz, Lee/Conor and Gaethje

Mousasi isn't even in the Ufc. You believe 39 year old Jacare is a better fighter than Lee, Gaethje or Poirier, what?

 

[MMA_enthusiast]

Mousasi isn't even in the Ufc. You believe 39 year old Jacare is a better fighter than Lee, Gaethje or Poirier, what?

I believe jacare would give Romero the 2nd best MW a tougher fight (he already did) than those three guys would give Khabib or Ferguson. You really seem to place emphasis on a fighters age when you have the LHW/HW champ at 40. Bisping who was former champ at 39 and Romero who is the consensus 2nd best MW at 41. WW champ T-wood is 36 years old and i don't see him losing anytime soon

I honestly think Moose comes back late next year or 2020

 

[thobra]

It is a division with a lot of potential, but it has been at an all time low for a while now. After the good guys got old,and Andersons reign was over, the division has been a mess, with WWs exploiting a weak division, going directly into top 5, and guys that normally would be lower top 10, move to the top 3. Jacare and Romero are old, but blossom in a weak division, and Weidman is not that great...

.... but we got a lot of new, good prospects.. so it is exciting.

 

[Pascal Bergeron]

MW has an ex WW that was cutting too much and a fat WW fighting for the belt how is that the most stacked division ?

 

[DLX]

Another guy to look out for, who the UFC would be stupid not to keep, is Jordan Johnson. He's coming down from LHW and he's undefeated. Just submitted his last opponent.

 

[MMA_enthusiast]

MW has an ex WW that was cutting too much and a fat WW fighting for the belt how is that the most stacked division ?

LW had an ex FW that was cutting too much weight and a a champ who’s missed weight twice at LW and was originally a WW and fought for the belt, how is that a stacked division.

 

[Pascal Bergeron]

LW had an ex FW that was cutting too much weight and a a champ who’s missed weight twice at LW and was originally a WW and fought for the belt, how is that a stacked division.

Because connor should have never get a title shot to begin with eddie should of fought khabib at the time and khabib should of fought tony instead of connor