So it turns out that MW journeymen Smith and Santos are legit LHW contenders after all.

Phisher

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After seeing what happened to former MW champs Rockhold and Weidman, I think it's fair to say that Smith and Santos are very good fighters who were in the wrong weight class.

Both guys have finished all of their LHW opponents except for Jones, whom both went the distance with.

Santos has two LHW top ten wins, and he finished Jan, who nearly took Luke's head off.

Smith has three top ten wins at 205, two against former title challengers, and he finished Oezdemir, who many people think beat Reyes.

...and no, this ain't MMA math. MMA math is making inferences about how two guys will match up superficially based on outcomes versus mutual prior opponents.

This is an observation about ability to compete at the highest level at 205. Santos and Smith have proven that they're legit upper level 205ers. Rockhold and Weidman couldn't mount any offense at all in their LHW fights besides cage humping.
 
>Upperlevel 205’ers


Requirements: Know basic striking techniques and have a somewhat mediocre chin


<mma4>
 
FAILED MIDDLEWEIGHTS
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Chris and Luke were beaten down and broken well before going to LHW.

Santos and Smith are legit though.
 
And Rumble went from being a Journeyman ww to being a beast at 205! It is almost as if some people benefit from not cutting absurd amounts of weight.
 
lol Smith's wins over Volkan and Gustafsson are very underrated.

Reyes had all kinds of trouble with Volkan.
 
It's even more amazing considering how small Smith is. When he and Reyes were standing next to each other, all I could think was, "Reyes would annihilate this guy." And yet Smith finished Gus.
 
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DC was a failed middleweight?
 
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What's it like to have autism?
 
Santos agreed, Smith still on the fence
He beat Gustafson and Volkan. That is legit for a 205er. If anything the entire division was looking weak after those results but with Rockhold and Weidman getting destroyed. The division got their prestige back. You can claim that they were past it to try to excuse it but they are current top 5 MW who got finished by top 10 LHW. Those are facts
 
He beat Gustafson and Volkan. That is legit for a 205er. If anything the entire division was looking weak after those results but with Rockhold and Weidman getting destroyed. The division got their prestige back. You can claim that they were past it to try to excuse it but they are current top 5 MW who got finished by top 10 LHW. Those are facts
Hell and when you think about it. Cannonier would be a "failed LHW" now in the top 5 of the MW division. The "positions" between the 2 divisions have changed.
 
Well grapplers going up in weight is different than strikers doing so.
 
He beat Gustafson and Volkan. That is legit for a 205er. If anything the entire division was looking weak after those results but with Rockhold and Weidman getting destroyed. The division got their prestige back. You can claim that they were past it to try to excuse it but they are current top 5 MW who got finished by top 10 LHW. Those are facts
both are on their way out and also undersized for lhw.. along with the fact that striking defense is more and more important the higher the weight class (lhw and hw being the biggest jumps in weight). Their LHW fights are misleading. MW is still a slightly better talent pool than lhw is.
 
After seeing what happened to former MW champs Rockhold and Weidman, I think it's fair to say that Smith and Santos are very good fighters who were in the wrong weight class.

Both guys have finished all of their LHW opponents except for Jones, whom both went the distance with.

Santos has two LHW top ten wins, and he finished Jan, who nearly took Luke's head off.

Smith has three top ten wins at 205, two against former title challengers, and he finished Oezdemir, who many people think beat Reyes.

...and no, this ain't MMA math. MMA math is making inferences about how two guys will match up superficially based on outcomes versus mutual prior opponents.

This is an observation about ability to compete at the highest level at 205. Santos and Smith have proven that they're legit upper level 205ers. Rockhold and Weidman couldn't mount any offense at all in their LHW fights besides cage humping.
I agree they are really good. Weidman and rock hold have nothing to do with it though . I think it's the wins they've piled up since moving up
 
I feel that Santos and Smith would get KO'd by Reyes/Jan as well. These guys are some heavy and technical hitters. They deserve way more credit.
 
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