do LW have the best top 15 right now

[Pem123]

LW top 15 according to Tapology.com.

C. Khabib
1. Ferguson
2. Poirier
3. Gathje
4. Cerrone
5. AL
6. Felder
7. Barboza
8. Oliveira
9. Gregor Gillipse
10. Hooker
11. Hernandez
12. Makhachev
13. Dariush
14. Trinaldo

probably the best top 15 in any weight class ever.

 

[avenue94]

Top 15 right after the SEC merger was even stronger.

 

[Sweater of AV]

WW is just as strong imho.

Usman
Covington
Woodley
Masvidal
Edwards
RDA
Nate
Till
Ponzinibbio
Wonderboy
Maia
Askren
Pettis
Lawler
Luque

 

[Iroh]

They have had it for a while now.

 

[Iroh]

WW is just as strong imho.

Usman
Covington
Woodley
Masvidal
Edwards
RDA
Nate
Till
Ponzinibbio
Wonderboy
Maia
Askren
Pettis
Lawler
Luque

Till moved up though.

 

[ExitLUPin]

It almost always has had the best top 15. This isnt new

WW is just as strong imho.

Usman
Covington
Woodley
Masvidal
Edwards
RDA
Nate
Till
Ponzinibbio
Wonderboy
Maia
Askren
Pettis
Lawler
Luque

A third of that list is struggling LWs that moved up lmao

 

[Sweater of AV]

Till moved up though.

Good point, hopefully it's permanent. Throw Magny or Gunnar in there instead.

 

[Hotora86]

LW is the deepest division.

 

[Sweater of AV]

It almost always has had the best top 15. This isnt new



A third of that list is struggling LWs that moved up lmao

RDA, Nate, and Pettis have had success at both weights. Masvidal moved up a long time ago.

I could also counter with a bunch of the LW's are cutting a ton of weight because they don't want to deal with the top WW's

 

[ExitLUPin]

U can make it top 20 to 25 and its not even remotely close

Ferreira, Taisumov, Teymur, Klose, Khabilov, Jim Miller, Santos, Tsarukyan, Lando etc

And u have dudes like Benson, Chandler, Pitbull bros, Primus, Abdulvakhabov, Bagov, Khaliev etc outside the UFC too

 

[ExitLUPin]

RDA, Nate, and Pettis have had success at both weights. Masvidal moved up a long time ago.

I could also counter with a bunch of the LW's are cutting a ton of weight because they don't want to deal with the top WW's

Jorge was still a LW before he moved up

U can make that weight cutting argument for damn near every division besides HW. Usman, Woodley, Till (moving up now), Maia etc cut a shitload of weight to make 170

 

[Pem123]

U can make it top 20 to 25 and its not even remotely close

Ferreira, Taisumov, Teymur, Klose, Khabilov, Jim Miller, Santos, Tsarukyan, Lando etc

And u have dudes like Benson, Chandler, Pitbull bros, Primus, Abdulvakhabov, Bagov, Khaliev etc outside the UFC too

also One FC LW division that is stacked too.

 

[Sweater of AV]

Jorge was still a LW before he moved up

U can make that weight cutting argument for damn near every division besides HW. Usman, Woodley, Till (moving up now), Maia etc cut a shitload of weight to make 170

I'm saying it's not that simple, people perform better at different weights at different points in their careers. Speaking of which, what happened with Poirier and Oliveira? Couldn't hack it at FW?

 

[AndyMaBobs]

Lightweight always does.

 

[ExitLUPin]

It's not that simple, people perform better at different weights at different points in their careers. Speaking of which, what happened with Poirier and Oliveira? Couldn't hack it at FW?

Dustin was always a LW. He has 21 fights in his career at the weight and started 8-1

He was 8-3 @ FW and finished the current FW champ. The weight cut was obviously rough on him. Only reason he even made the cut to stay was b/c Aldo pulled out of the Grispi fight and they offered him it and he thought itd put him closer to the title there

Aloe Vera dropped down after losing b2b @ LW. And its not like hes beaten any top ranked guys @ LW in this streak. Also most of his fights @ FW were against LWs anyways (Jury, Pettis, Frankie, Lentz, Stephens etc). Hell he rematched @ LW fight with Lentz @ FW lmao. Not to mention he missed weight 4 times @ FW

 

[Sweater of AV]

Dustin was always a LW. He has 21 fights in his career at the weight and started 8-1

He was 8-3 @ FW and finished the current FW champ. The weight cut was obviously rough on him. Only reason he even made the cut to stay was b/c Aldo pulled out of the Grispi fight and they offered him it and he thought itd put him closer to the title there

Aloe Vera dropped down after losing b2b @ LW. And its not like hes beaten any top ranked guys @ LW in this streak. Also most of his fights @ FW were against LWs anyways (Jury, Pettis, Frankie, Lentz, Stephens etc). Hell he rematched @ LW fight with Lentz @ FW lmao

You can make these arguments for all of them, it's basically why I'm saying it's complicated. Also the weight cut is rough on everyone, that's generally why they move up. Some have success, some don't.

Anyways, we have different opinions when comparing the top 15 of the two weight classes. If you're not as big of a fan of WW that's fine, I think it's very solid at the moment.

 

[Noraaq]

WW is just as strong imho.

Usman
Covington
Woodley
Masvidal
Edwards
RDA
Nate
Till
Ponzinibbio
Wonderboy
Maia
Askren
Pettis
Lawler
Luque

The fact that LW rejects are moving up and filling the WW ranks is proof that LW is a much tougher division.

 

[Jimleeds]

The average height for European and American males is around 5ft 9 and around 160-170 pounds is the weight that an athletic male of that height would be, so lightweight is the nearest weight that the average guy can cut 10-15 pounds to achieve. So therefore there are likely to be more guys competing for that division so it makes sense that it would be the strongest division.

 

[grapplingod]

WW is just as strong imho.

Usman
Covington
Woodley
Masvidal
Edwards
RDA
Nate
Till
Ponzinibbio
Wonderboy
Maia
Askren
Pettis
Lawler
Luque

How the fuck is that a strong weight class when a one-dimensional jobber like Usman is on top?