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

[Noraaq]

LW has always been the premier division in UFC

 

[Koro_11]

Sure, we can keep pretending Yoel is a MW and didn't miss weight in 2 consecutive title fights

In one he was stepping in on short notice to save the card, and in the other it was by .2 lbs. Dont exaggerate.

 

[Ideanudge]

MW is the best. No longer it is reigned over by Silva who was defeated by japanese bums in other orgs. (Sarcastic response to drooling idiots calling mw weak).

 

[Ideanudge]

Outside the new additions of Adesanya and Costa, the MW division is stagnant in UFC, it's the same guys of 3 years ago on top (Romero, Rockhold, Souza, Weidman, Mousasi) + Whittaker & Gastelum (170er who can't get his shit together).

At 155, a much more competitive division, 3 years ago the top guys were RDA, Pettis, Cerrone, Bendo, Gil and Eddie.
Now, they're all gone. Eddie was the only one remaining in the top 5 but now going to ONE, the division is totally different.
Khabib, Ferguson, Conor, Poirier, Kevin Lee, Gaethje - new faces in that weight class.
Hernandez, Hooker, Teymur, Makhachev, Gillespie are all promising prospects on hot streaks.

The top 5 of MW is competitive between them, but the division itself? It's not. Lacks depth.

It's not really fair to compare smaller weight classes to big ones. Smaller classes will always be much deeper, but as we see with 125, they get less attention. People know middleweight prospects better than LW prospects.

 

[Tearjerker]

In one he was stepping in on short notice to save the card, and in the other it was by .2 lbs. Dont exaggerate.

He was booked to fill in against Rockhold almost a full month in advance

 

[Nightwish]

WW is better than both LW and MW.

 

[DatSamboKid]

How did you decide that?

I took just the top 10 category, of each category (minus wins outside of the UFC) and compared them to one another, statistically - just on ranking (1-5) LW and MW and extremely similar.

I don't know, I'm not statistician. How do you see that LW is by far the most competitive on these numbers? I'm probably just looking at it the wrong way lol..

I didn't really decide it, I just followed a point system.
I had 8 different rankings; Most wins in MMA/UFC, least losses in MMA/UFC, highest winning rate in MMA/UFC, most amount of finishes and finish rate.
If a division ranked 1st, it earned 5 points, 2nd 4 points, 3rd 3 points, so on a so forth.
All these points were added up for a final ranking.
I didn't only compare divisions, but also the top 3,5,10 and 15 ranked fighters.
I was curious to see how a Khabib, Ferguson, McGregor would match up stats wise versus a top 3 like Holloway, Ortega and Aldo.
I didn't count fights/wins/finishes against ranked opponents, the research would take too long, but that statistic would be the most telling out of all.

check out my thread:

http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/most-competitive-ufc-divisions-full-of-interesting-stats.3863787/

So to answer your question why LW? For a couple reasons:

.Top 3 & 5 rank highest for most MMA AND UFC wins.
.Top 10 & 15 rank 2nd highest for most MMA and UFC wins.
.Top 3 ranks highest for least amount of UFC loses (3).
.Top 3 ranks highest for MMA winning rate, top 5 ranks 2nd highest.
.Top 3 & 5 rank highest for UFC winning rate. <---- (This statistic is very telling)
.Top 3, 5, 10 & 15 rank highest for amount of finishes.
.Top 15 ranks highest for UFC finishing rate.

Honorable mention:

.Top 10 & 15 ranks almost last for least amount of loses.

Khabib, Ferguson, McGregor, Poirier, Lee and Barboza is a solid fucking gang of fighters and they have the numbers to prove it. Put these 6 fighters against any other division, compare the stats, LW will always prevail.

However, if you include the other fighters part of the top 15, the LW division doesn't always rank highest. For Top 10 fighters, LW ranks 2nd, tied with BW, the MW division actually ranks 1st. For Top 15 fighters, LW ranks 1st but very close to BW.

If you take my point system in consideration, the top 15 fighters of each division are actually very close in terms of competitiveness.

 

[Ghostoftheville]

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

But if Barboza is a journeyman, what would that make a fighter like Jacare who has now lost to Rockhold, Romero, Whittaker and Gastelum? His only wins over anybody relevant are against Weidman and Gegard, who's not even in the same promotion.

 

[executionermma]

It's not really fair to compare smaller weight classes to big ones. Smaller classes will always be much deeper, but as we see with 125, they get less attention. People know middleweight prospects better than LW prospects.

Not true. People know MW contenders, but outside the top 15? They couldn't come up with 5 names.
Many users here know who Makhachev, Teymur, Taisumov, Gillespie are.. at least the ones who follow the sport, how many people know MW prospects? I do, but i know i'm in the minority.

 

[Ghostoftheville]

There's also GSP, do you know why they placed him there? Winning vs Bisping can grant you top5 p4p UFC list...
LW had 3 champions last year: Tony, Conor, Khabib and you have to promote them all via p4p, because they are small guys.

GSP was constantly ranked near the top of the p4p list without ever leaving 170, any fight he took was going to put him back on that list as long as he won. Case in point, Gastelum has been competitive in both divisions, where is he ranked?

 

[executionermma]

But if Barboza is a journeyman, what would that make a fighter like Jacare who has now lost to Rockhold, Romero, Whittaker and Gastelum? His only wins over anybody relevant are against Weidman and Gegard, who's not even in the same promotion.

Jacare's loses to 3 of these 4 guys (except Whittaker) were close enough that you could make a case for him winning every single one. I love Barboza, he's one my favorite fighters, but he got dominated by Khabib and finished by other members of LW elite like Ferguson, Cerrone (coming back to LW) and Lee.
Jacare is a better fighter, and tbf the guy you quoted called Barboza a gatekeeper, not a journeyman.

 

[FreddieRoachsVoice]

But if Barboza is a journeyman, what would that make a fighter like Jacare who has now lost to Rockhold, Romero, Whittaker and Gastelum? His only wins over anybody relevant are against Weidman and Gegard, who's not even in the same promotion.

Jacare is absolutely overrated and has not beat anyone really of note in his UFC career which is pretty astounding actually. That being said, the rest of the division is still > quality than LW imo.

 

[Koro_11]

He was booked to fill in against Rockhold almost a full month in advance

Still short notice, and it was two lbs. the guy made weight in every fight prior to that, and against Whittaker the commission stopped him when he was .2 lbs away. It’s funny how many people are still crying over .2 lbs and blowing it out of proportion.