Current State & Future of The Middleweight Division

JoeRowe

JoeRowe

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Champ: Adesanya, 32 years old. Doesn't seem like he is going anywhere anytime soon.

#1 contender: Whittaker, 30 years old. Been in some wars & had some surgeries but has seemingly put that behind him & is still getting better.

6 Experienced vets whose ceilings we know, that can still test younger talent: Cannonier(37), Kelvin(29, should move down to WW), Brunson(37), Hermanson(33), Hall(37), Tavares(33)

10 Young contenders/Possible future contenders: Costa(30), Strickland(30), Vettori(27), Till(28), Muniz(31), Imavov(26), Allen(25), Du Plesis(27), Muradov(31), Holland(28), & Shahbazyan(23, 2 Ls in a row but looked improved vs Hermanson imo).

Overall I would say the division is heading in a very good direction. I'm not sure if Whittaker or any of the younger contenders can beat Izzy, but there are some fun & unique fighters. The days of Yoel, Luke, Jacare, Mousasi, Weidman, Anderson etc are long gone & its ok.
 
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I feel like Kelvin can be future champ. Allen looks like welterweight.
 
GSP_37 said:
I feel like Kelvin can be future champ. Allen looks like welterweight.
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I feel like Kelvin could make a run at 170 but not 185. I actually thought Allen looked bigger than normal & bigger than Soriano. At 6'2 he reminds me of a young Alan Belcher, w/out the Cash tat.
 
JoeRowe said:
I feel like Kelvin could make a run at 170 but not 185. I actually thought Allen looked bigger than normal & bigger than Soriano. At 6'2 he reminds me of a young Alan Belcher, w/out the Cash tat.
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Yesterday the Bellator commentators said McKee was bigger than Pitbull, but I think the word they needed was taller. Bigger refers to muscled, not height, necessarily.
 
GSP_37 said:
Yesterday the Bellator commentators said McKee was bigger than Pitbull, but I think the word they needed was taller. Bigger refers to muscled, not height, necessarily.
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Tbf I think McKee was bigger everything, more muscled, more weight come fight time and obviously greater height, guy's a massive 145er, makes sense he's already talking about moving up on a perm basis to 155.
 
Jinx_AA said:
Mw division is incredibly weak ....possibly the weakest division

If Izzy clears rob again , there's really no contenders at all ....everyone's old , a d the young ones just aren't anything special at all .
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HW, if Jones isn't fighting? And assuming you're excluding WMMA because it's a lot better than either the 125 or 145 pound women's weight division, 135 arguably too.
 
Strickland vs Costa would be dope.


Regardless I think as long as Izzy is champ the division will be stagnate. MW is my favourite division but it’s not looking great.
 
The division is extremely top heavy, no one beats Izzy and Izzy is the only guy that can beat Whittaker. Gastelum is awesome too he's just a little undersized for the division.
 
It's not that deep, but there's a lot of fun match ups to make. I hope we get Hermansson vs. Strickland next.

I don't necessarily agree that we already know Hermansson, Gastellums, and even tavares' ceilings yet, by the way. Jack and Tavares are only 33, which isn't that old for the division and I think both are still improving. Gastellum isn't even 30, so he definitely has time to make some improvements.
 
Dreyga2000 said:
There is no way he makes it passUsman or Colby
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Probably not, but if Burns can drop Usman then it's not inplausibke that Kelvin can finish him. He's 4-5 years younger so I could see him sleeping Usman in a year or 2 as Usman declines.
 
fortheo said:
It's not that deep, but there's a lot of fun match ups to make. I hope we get Hermansson vs. Strickland next.

I don't necessarily agree that we already know Hermansson, Gastellums, and even tavares' ceilings yet, by the way. Jack and Tavares are only 33, which isn't that old for the division and I think both are still improving. Gastellum isn't even 30, so he definitely has time to make some improvements.
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Kelvin has peaked at 185, his last good win was a controversial split over Jacare. You might be putting too much stock in his loss to Izzy. Tavares getting a title would be even crazier than Blachowicz, he just doesn't have the physical tools. I suppose Hermanson has a chance to have a Bisping type title run if he sticks with it & gets the right breaks. His style presents challenges for a striking-heavy division.
 
Jinx_AA said:
Mw division is incredibly weak ....possibly the weakest division

If Izzy clears rob again , there's really no contenders at all ....everyone's old , a d the young ones just aren't anything special at all .
Click to expand...

Yep. If he beats Rob there's a wasteland left as far as real contenders. Maybe Till if he wins convincingly Brunson and gets one more win. But other than that I don't see anyone close to Adesanya. Which really sucks because he isn't moving up again after getting beat by Jan, so we're stuck with uninteresting title fights until somebody from the bottom makes a case for a title shot.
 
JoeRowe said:
Kelvin has peaked at 185, his last good win was a controversial split over Jacare. You might be putting too much stock in his loss to Izzy. Tavares getting a title would be even crazier than Blachowicz, he just doesn't have the physical tools. I suppose Hermanson has a chance to have a Bisping type title run if he sticks with it & gets the right breaks. His style presents challenges for a striking-heavy division.
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If by "peaked" you mean won't ever get a title, then we have different meanings of the word. I just mean I think it's too soon to say that those guys skills have peaked. Many guys put everything together right around that 33-35 year old age period. Bisping won the title when he was 37. Jack Just turned 33 and is 1-2 big wins from a title shot. He's not exactly in bisping territory yet.
 
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fortheo said:
If by "peaked" you mean won't ever get a title, then we have different meanings of the word. I just mean I think it's too soon to say that those guys skills have peaked. Many guys put everything together right around that 33-35 year old age period. Bisping won the title when he was 37. Jack Just turned 33 and is 1-2 big wins from a title shot. He's not exactly in bisping territory yet.
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Kelvin will lose to every top contender and people will still harp on about this dude. He doesn’t wanna cut down to 170, fine. Keep losing and I’ll count the days until your outta here and either in Bellator or retirement. Absolute wasted potential taking heavy damage, every fight.
 
fortheo said:
It's not that deep, but there's a lot of fun match ups to make. I hope we get Hermansson vs. Strickland next.

I don't necessarily agree that we already know Hermansson, Gastellums, and even tavares' ceilings yet, by the way. Jack and Tavares are only 33, which isn't that old for the division and I think both are still improving. Gastellum isn't even 30, so he definitely has time to make some improvements.
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Isn't Whittaker only 30 too?
 
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