Boxing tradition is go up in weight grappling is stay in weight

[Candy Routure]

But Rousey is a world class boxer that KO's world champions on a daily basis.. That has to at least put her in catch weight territory!

 

[RJK]

After the ass whooping that took place during the UFC's first and only Battle of Champions, you know why no one has attempted it since.

Could you remind me what this refers to please? thanks.

 

[Zefram Cochrane]

who cares, if cyborg wants the title she must make 135, if Ronda just cares about fighting justino she'll move to 145

 

[georgejjr]

I think Aldo and Barao are jokes and afraid of bigger and better competition. Anderson did move up as you mentioned, and absolutely clowned the former champ too. Liddell and Shogun were not really dominant "clear out the division" champs, not to mention there is a 60 lb weight difference between 205 and 265. Jones says he intends to fight at HW.

You also fail to point out the fighters that have moved up...or down in weight...Penn, Sonnen, Faber, Hendo, Bendo...etc.

I totally get the grappling angle, but in my opinion that argument is moot because of weight cutting. Until they put limits on cutting...guys like Barao cutting 30 lbs to fight smaller guys...it's kinda chicken shit if you ask me. GSP never challenged himself, he was afraid to even though he had completely cleaned out the division, really in a way we haven't seen in MMA. maybe mighty mouse. But then, he's a guy that says he'll go back up to 135 for the belt.

BTW, I used to say years ago the only guy that can beat Anderson Silva is GSP. I still believe he would have won too with his far superior grappling and top control. He was too afraid to take on the challenge. But had he done it, it would have sealed his legacy for me. Now he doesn't really have one in my eyes other than cleaning out a brutally weak division and going from one of the most exciting fighters to becoming the most boring fighter in mma.

Okay, I'll give you Shogun wasn't dominant in the UFC (keep thinking of him in Pride), but Liddell certainly was (he had as many wins as UFC champ as Rousey has, so either neither was dominant or both were).

And granted the jump between LHW and HW is huge, that doesn't apply to Anderson going against Jones - 185 to 205 is only 20 pounds (yes, they both cut weight, but its about the same cut for both of them).

The fighters you mention moving up or down didn't, with the single exception of Penn, move up or down while being champ, let alone move up to fight another current champ. Only Penn did that (as I said, even Anderson shied away from fighting for the higher weight title while wearing a UFC belt).

I'm not sure how the grappling angle is moot because of weight cutting - the same people fight each other whether there's a weight cut or not, they just do so at different weights (which is why I think there should be weigh-ins right before the fights). GSP and Condit walk around at about 190. With same day weigh-ins they'd fight each other at 190. With 24 hours to rehydrate they still fight each other, but at 170. Nothing changes but the weight they weigh in at.

As for challenging, I come at this from a wrestling/judo background (wrestled in college, competed in judo nationally). And no one "challenged" themselves by going to a heavier weight division. Seriously, multiple Olympic gold medal winners stay in their weight division. And no one thinks any the less of them for it. Satiev is revered, same for every other multiple Olympic gold medal winner - its a very different culture. In fact, the topic doesn't even come up. I've never heard a coach say to someone "Well, you're NCAA div 1 champ, time for you to move up to challenge yourself against bigger guys". And I doubt any Olympic team coach has told a Olympic gold medal winner to go up in weight for the next Olympics to "challenge" themselves. Its a boxing thing.

Boring is subjective, and GSP was divisive that way. A lot of people found him boring, but he was still the second biggest draw in UFC history behind Brock, so obviously more people found him entertaining than any other fighter but Brock. Not a big deal, some people like jazz, some people hate it - there's no more reason to expect everyone to find the same fighter's entertaining than there is to expect everyone to like the same music, or the same books, or the same movies, or the same food.

If you found GSP boring, then he was for you. If another person found him entertaining, then he was for them. There's no objective standard for it, and everyone has their own opinion - as a side rant, why do so many MMA fans expect everyone to agree on whether a fighter is entertaining or boring. Nowhere else do you find that - no one expects everyone to like the same movies, food, books etc, so why in the world do MMA fans think everyone likes the same things? Its weird.