155lbs: Issues at Lightweight, Including Arman's Weight

[Kwic]

View attachment 1113379
Image credit: ITP MMA video titled "Arman Tsarukyan Wasn't Injured."

Lightweight in MMA has always been a shark tank due to it being the spot where the most average sized men can cut weight to. Well, almost always, but even when they axed it from the UFC, Gomi was still running shit overseas.

Over the last few years, we have had an absolute rat race with the title being passed around by the Two Princes of Dagestan before Islam vacated due to his love of baked goods growing with age.

Arguably, it is easier than ever to get a title shot at LW, yet we are seeing it enter an inactivity slump which we haven't seen in ages. No hunger, no one begging for a title shot outside of a small handful.
For a long time, seemingly the entire division wanted to add "Khabib/Islam's Skull" to their belt wall, perhaps as it's weight at the time was more than the gold itself (huge brow bones).

Now, while our new, flamboyant, German-Georgian-Spanish champion holds the belt while dropping bodies...there seems to have been a wall hit in fighters wanting to fight upwards at 155, and you people don't even have Dustin Poirier to blame anymore.

Let's go down the list and pick apart the issues in the division.

View attachment 1113368​

C. Topuria - Ilia and his brother announced earlier that while one was in camp, the other never would be. As an older brother, I respect it, as a fan of the sport, I hate it. He's guaranteeing inactivity. Won't see him till 2026, will be lucky to see him twice next year. Probably going through some emotional stuff after being BTFO by Crawford. 2 fights a year tops for Tops.

1. Islam - isn't even a LW anymore

2. Arman - More interested in grappling with 50 year old Ben Henderson, trying to find Nina onlfans, and blogging about/consuming copious amounts of food rather than fighting

3. Max Hollaway - Coming off of a brutal KO loss to Tops then retiring Dustin. Days as a top contender are probably done. Would rather he takes fun fights. Blessed vs Hooker?

4. Chucky Olives - coming off a brutal KO loss to Topuria, lost to Arman, still somehow back in there before either of them

5. Justin Gaethje - Has beaten Fiziev, with Ali ducking other fights for him demanding title shots. JG is in a weird spot, I've been pushing him to fight Hooker forever. They were scheduled, Hooker was injured, Justing boxed up Fiziev again. I feel like Justin might be wanting to go out on his shield against Topuria in one last title fight and retire. He's 36 and getting brutally slept isn't sustainable, but he's got another go in him. LET JUSTIN SLEEP

6. Dan Hooker - Speak of the devil. Hope his hand heals up and they can rebook him and Justin or Max in a FOTY.

7. Paddy - The Baddy has been on a roll, but he could use another big name to fight. Ferguson, Bobby, and Chandler are shop worn and held together by duct tape. Wouldn't mind seeing him against anyone ranked above him or Gamrot. He is large for the division, but I need to see him get one more serious win before I can confidently say he is a true contender. I learned my lesson with Darren Till.

8. Gamer Gamrot - The fight which Arman is actually ducking with his pasta consumption, Gamrot may be boring to watch much of the time (though not all at all) he has a plan in his head (allegedly) and he sticks to it. Two split decision losses and a single UD loss, he is the wrestling boogeyman of the division as long as his chin stays uncracked, he'll be a consistent issue. That and not dinging any judges cars in the parking lot.

9. Benny Dariush - Beat up Moicano (embarrassing for Money). Benny isn't even a once a year fighter. He is the only one to clearly beat Gamrot with a UD, yet that was three years ago, with 3 fights since for Benny.
Think he's winding it down.

10, 11, 12 - Fizzy, Moicano, and Chandler have all lost to guys above them, and should be taking any fight offered to get back in the green and try to climb while there is room.
Chandler is done for, he's already shop worn and old.
Fizzy might be able to keep himself mid ranked with a few wins as long as we keep him away from Gaethje, while Moicano has fumbled his position with the loss to Benny completely when it comes to title fights, guy will never be near gold again, so he probably doesn't really care how often he fights at this point.

13, 14, 15 - BSD just won a fight where I was picking against him by absolutely thrashing Ruffy whose room temperature fight IQ in that scrap allowing BSD to get back to his feet for no reason led directly to the finish.
Grant Dawson...guys I will be completely honest and tell you I have forgotten about Grant Dawson's existence since Bobby "King of CTE" Green put his lights out.

Outside of the top 15, we have a few people who I believe will be making splashes in the top 15 soon enough in Myktybek Orolbai (who is, I shit you not, a lawyer) strong as all shit with servicable grappling and an incredible fighting spirit, famous for his eye swelling to a grapefruit in a barnburner against Rebecki, Chris Duncan, and Nazim Sadykhov.

What do you guys think? I believe the lightweights really need to step up to the plate.

NO ARMAN NOT LIKE THAT!

I enjoyed and loled during reading that post quite a bit, salutes to you sir

 

[JBJ was here]

I think the modern LW is actually bigger than your typical man. I've heard a lot of them are 180-200. Average man is 160-170.

LWs tend to cut the lowest percentage of weight of any UFC men's division excluding HW because of all the bouncing around between LW and FW, which are the divisions closest together by percentage of weight.

 

[Mike]

Yes, that figure is actually correct in terms of averages, the 160-170 pounds. The average male size in the US that stated 5'9" and 199 weight came from a study that also averages a 40 inch waist, which for most guys that height is carrying substantial extra weight. UFC LWs are naturally bulkier than your average man at that weight; Illia looks pretty big as does Islam.

Yeah the joke was that American men are fat

 

[joy2day]

Yeah the joke was that American men are fat

Gotcha.



There are some on these boards who have a girly level of sensitivity around the weight issue, which really surprised me when I got attacked by a number of posters for saying something similar in another thread.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

TS , do you know that Arman is asking to fight Topuria but Ila doesn't have any interest.

yes, you do know but acting like you don't know

I already said that Topuria's plan to not camp while his brother camps is disastrous. He does not, to me at least, seem like he has any reason to duck Arman.

I wouldn't have any interest in Arman either since it seems Arman has no interest in fighting. 500 days and 20 events inactive

Topuria also being choosy. No-selling the Arman fight and talking about moving up already to chase Islam, or a boxing match.

This I also don't like, I'm sick of guys moving up in general. Don't fight at the lower weight if you're killing your kidneys full stop, but I'm aware weight cutting is an issue we'll have for the foreseeable future.

Add all this up and it's easy to see why we're not getting many of the matches that would actually make sense and keep things moving. LW is, and historically has been, quite deep. But, we went from a log jam of established stars who were still good enough to turn away the up and comers, to what we have now. Still a kind of log jam.

Unfortunately true! We need some seismic matchups!

 

[Tweak896]

I hate how much discussion fans have to do with matchmaking, LW is really horrible. Everyone is being babied and treated like a star, but getting old for LW. Atleast Dustin dipped out when he decided he was done. We haven't had a normal functioning division in a while. UFC needs to put boots down and make them fight if they want to go forward.

Paddy/Hooker/Gamrot are really the only guys who can take fights, but fighting each other puts their rank behind the divas no matter what. Topuria isn't helping by waiting until 2026. There's really no chance for anyone to do anything. Atleast Arman will fight he's the only one with a resume to deserve a shot, but was given one and sat around all year buying bots to hype up a fake ass Topuria/Arman rivalry.

It's infuriating watching a division stall out. Maybe UFC is going to pull out Topuria/Islam at LW after he destroys JDM to make it right, but right now it's fucked. Islam/Topuria should've been the biggest fight of 2025. This is what is hurting boxing dragging these matches out too long.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

Maybe UFC is going to pull out Topuria/Islam at LW after he destroys JDM to make it right, but right now it's fucked.

I have bad news friend...JDM has a motivation the likes we have not seen before...


On your other points, I agree. It's frustrating seeing everyone just sitting around.
Olives vs Gamrot is the only fight booked in the top 15 ffs.

 

[Tweak896]

I have bad news friend...JDM has a motivation the likes we have not seen before...
View attachment 1113456

On your other points, I agree. It's frustrating seeing everyone just sitting around.
OLIVES VS GAMROT IS THE ONLY FIGHT BOOKED IN THE TOP 15 FFS

Just saw they booked it, thank God LW is finally healing a little bit. Hey maybe I'm wrong about JDM, I just see Islam as a better Belal and even Belal kept the scores close. I have a feeling if Islam even performed the same they might smudge a round in his favor with an equal performance.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

Just saw they booked it, thank God LW is finally healing a little bit. Hey maybe I'm wrong about JDM, I just see Islam as a better Belal and even Belal kept the scores close. I have a feeling if Islam even performed the same they might smudge a round in his favor with an equal performance.

The difference between Belal and Islam is that Islam is a much more traditional striker which plays into JDM's hands better.

I rewatched JDM vs Belal and man, the mid fight adjustment of JDM was beautiful.
Realizing every time he hits Belal, Belal would swing back no matter what (the pressure which made Belal crumble other guys before) so he switched up from the 1-2 to the 2-1 to force Belal to take the more powerful shot coming in. Jdm's follow up was the actual weaker shot, so missing it was less consequential. Slowly broke Belal down beautifully over the last 3 rounds.

Belal fights that way because even if he sees himself like this in his dreams and mirrors


he is fully aware that he is a short armed pressure fighter.
Islam is fine with fighting at range, fighting tall, and using his striking to set up the TD when he wants. Usually.
While he blasted short notice Moicano, no Islam fan can say they were really happy with how long it took him to get Dustin out of there.

 

[Mike]

Gotcha.



There are some on these boards who have a girly level of sensitivity around the weight issue, which really surprised me when I got attacked by a number of posters for saying something similar in another thread.

Nah the weight of the average woman here is 170 lbs now. And the look a helluva lot more like Roseanne Barr than GSP I can tell you that much.

 

[Tweak896]

The difference between Belal and Islam is that Islam is a much more traditional striker which plays into JDM's hands better.

I rewatched JDM vs Belal and man, the mid fight adjustment of JDM was beautiful.
Realizing every time he hits Belal, Belal would swing back no matter what (the pressure which made Belal crumble other guys before) so he switched up from the 1-2 to the 2-1 to force Belal to take the more powerful shot coming in. Jdm's follow up was the actual weaker shot, so missing it was less consequential. Slowly broke Belal down beautifully over the last 3 rounds.

Belal fights that way because even if he sees himself like this in his dreams and mirrors
View attachment 1113461

he is fully aware that he is a short armed pressure fighter.
Islam is fine with fighting at range, fighting tall, and using his striking to set up the TD when he wants. Usually.
While he blasted short notice Moicano, no Islam fan can say they were really happy with how long it took him to get Dustin out of there.

I'm glad there's a group of people who know their shit that keep telling me how good this fight will be. Maybe eventually I'll cave in and give JDM a chance. Still I don't see it. JDM had a great fucking gameplan and came ready to do it to a tee, he probably has something up for Islam.

Islam looked bigger than Belal while fighting LW. I don't think he's going to be forced to pressure his way in the same way Belal does. Islam has more tools to get anyone down especially compared with Belal. The only times we've seen Islam get tagged a bit is when he's taking a later round off. On the feet, Islam has a wider arsenal and is very defensively sound.

I won't pretend that I'm able to predict every fight correctly, I'm just generally right. I think it's only a close fight if he keeps Islam standing, but even then I think he does better than Belal.

 

[Cletus Fertitta]

TS - next time paste your post into ChatGPT and ask it to shorten it by 90%. Then it will be a reasonable length for a forum post, with a chance someone will actually read it.

I’m taking longwinded Sherbro essays over chatGPT cocktails every time.

 

[agibmxmma]

Topuria also being choosy. No-selling the Arman fight and talking about moving up already to chase Islam, or a boxing match.

Tbf to Arman, he was blackballed for pulling out and spent a lot of time waiting for another TS opportunity.

Chucky and Gaethje have become choosy in their later years. I think they're both just trying to maximize and squeeze every last bit of juice out of the good faith that they accumulated over the years for being exciting.

Paddy's career is actually being managed correctly as opposed to throwing him to wolves. I do believe he's at the point though where there's no more softballs for him. I'm not mad at this strategy, but it certainly has impacted matchmaking. He has beef with Arman and Topuria and those matches have yet to be made.

Gamrot has become that dude that no one wants to fight. Olives just ducked him. I believe BSD declined a fight with him as well.

Fiziev keeps getting injured.

Chandler been waiting for Conor.

Add all this up and it's easy to see why we're not getting many of the matches that would actually make sense and keep things moving. LW is, and historically has been, quite deep. But, we went from a log jam of established stars who were still good enough to turn away the up and comers, to what we have now. Still a kind of log jam.

+1

 

[Pequeño Corey]

+1

Need to correct this; Olives apparently did not duck Gamhoch.

 

[Pequeño Corey]

The difference between Belal and Islam is that Islam is a much more traditional striker which plays into JDM's hands better.

I rewatched JDM vs Belal and man, the mid fight adjustment of JDM was beautiful.
Realizing every time he hits Belal, Belal would swing back no matter what (the pressure which made Belal crumble other guys before) so he switched up from the 1-2 to the 2-1 to force Belal to take the more powerful shot coming in. Jdm's follow up was the actual weaker shot, so missing it was less consequential. Slowly broke Belal down beautifully over the last 3 rounds.

Belal fights that way because even if he sees himself like this in his dreams and mirrors
View attachment 1113461

he is fully aware that he is a short armed pressure fighter.
Islam is fine with fighting at range, fighting tall, and using his striking to set up the TD when he wants. Usually.
While he blasted short notice Moicano, no Islam fan can say they were really happy with how long it took him to get Dustin out of there.

Canelo hands Belal is real!!!!!

 

[HuskySamoan]

165lb division has been needed for a long time

Just push 170 to 175 and it's perfect

Bro 155 and 170lbs both struggle to even generate relevant contenders. Ilia is the LW champ, he has an undeserved Paddy and Arman...besides that its a bunch of old foggys on a retirement tour that Oliveira and Islam already wrecked.

At 170? It's been dead for years, that Colby vs Usman circle jerk and ring around the failed 155lber moves up rosey with Masvidal and Burns was shit and youre an ignoramus if you dont see that. Shavkats injured, god knows if he ever recovers at this rate. Belal is 37 years old, Usman is 40. Theres really not many rising fighters with title shot aspirations, maybe Morales.

What do you see at 155 and 170 that makes you think diluting both is a good idea? Almost every division in the UFC is stale, we cant add more right now. They don't sign good talent as it is.

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

They’re just gonna have to cancel the division and send these guys to get their lunch money stolen at 170

 

[Trabaho]

Title : issues at LW

Content : Assessment of the ranked LW fighters

Well written.

But nothing to answer here.

Do you got any proof that Arman missed weight and lied it was his back ?

People are getting bigger. The new average sized man is +30 pounds. Depends on the part of the world.

Islam also gained weight due to age. 99% of man will be heavier once they are mid 30ies compared to mid 20ies.

 

[Alpha_T83]

Do you got any proof that Arman missed weight and lied it was his back ?

We will never get 100% proof at this point. But if I'm not mistaken, there was video of Arman moving around and his back didn't look that bad.

Certainly his back injury was not as bad as the one DC had when he fought Derrick Lewis. There is a reasonable expectation that fighters should be showing up and honoring their contracts if they have minor injuries. You don't get to pull out just because you're not at 100%, and might have to fight with a slight disadvantage.

 

[Trabaho]

We will never get 100% proof at this point. But if I'm not mistaken, there was video of Arman moving around and his back didn't look that bad.

Certainly his back injury was not as bad as the one DC had when he fought Derrick Lewis. There is a reasonable expectation that fighters should be showing up and honoring their contracts if they have minor injuries. You don't get to pull out just because you're not at 100%, and might have to fight with a slight disadvantage.

So total bullshit and speculation. Not even anyone claiming it. Just Sherdog making shit up. Conspiracy.