FACT: with the exception of FW, all weight classes below welterweight are razor thin

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Truth.

I love hearing how Flyweight is so 'technical' when the top two contenders (Cejudo and Benavidez) are wrestlers with rudimentary striking. Cejudo is actually a pretty awful wrestler in the context of MMA, failing to take and hold down guys like Camus, Benavidez, and Kimura.

Benavidez is also very sloppy with his striking, and is only effective because he hits hard for a Flyweight. Hitting hard is not unique to Flyweight, and bigger weight classes have harder hitters.

Aside from Mighty Mouse and Horiguchi, Flyweight doesn't really have super fast, athletic powerhouses, especially now that Dodson left.

Makovsky, Bagautinov, Ortiz, Cejudo, Moraga, McCall etc... are all just wrestlers with some serviceable striking (at best, Ortiz and Makovsky suck at striking) Fighters like Romero, Weidman, Woodley, Cormier, Rumble, Jones, Bader, Davis, etc... are all wrestlers with much more varied skill sets in both striking and grappling.

What makes this funny is that a guy who has trouble with Flyweights (Lineker) have been tearing it up at 135, and may be knocking out the former champ soon. His only difficult fight came against a former Flyweight (Dodson), who holds a win against the former champ.

The myth that the smaller weight classes are the more skilled NEEDS TO STOP. There's diminishing returns to both ends. Flyweight is thin and weak, as is Heavyweigjt. Golden weight classes have always been 145-205 (MW was weak for a long time)
 
LW is always super-stacked. BW is pretty dang sweet right now too.


AnytimeAnywhereAldo said:
There's diminishing returns to both ends. Flyweight is thin and weak, as is Heavyweigjt. Golden weight classes have always been 145-205 (MW was weak for a long time)
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Your general understanding of the bell curve nature of things is right. The average athletic American/Brazilian man is a LW (about 5'9"-5'10" and 170ish lbs) so 155 is the deepest, followed by 145 and 170 as we move away from that fat centre of the bell curve.

But while 205 has always been a marquee weight class due to the spectacle of big boys cracking each other, talent-wise it's been shallow as fuck too, hence nonsense like Shogun and Rampage getting title shots on 2-win streaks, or Jones defending against consecutive 185ers or Gus getting a shot off a R1 KO loss.
 
Rum said:
Your general understanding of the bell curve nature of things is right. The average athletic American/Brazilian man is a LW (about 5'9"-5'10" and 170ish lbs) so 155 is the deepest, followed by 145 and 170 as we move away from that fat centre of the bell curve.

But while 205 has always been a marquee weight class due to the spectacle of big boys cracking each other, talent-wise it's been shallow as fuck too, hence nonsense like Shogun and Rampage getting title shots on 2-win streaks, or Jones defending against consecutive 185ers or Gus getting a shot off a R1 KO loss.
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True, 205 has been shallow and weak outside the top 5 in recent years, but it's been home to the most well rounded and skilled fighters of the past decade(s). No other weight class can say that
 
AnytimeAnywhereAldo said:
Truth.

I love hearing how Flyweight is so 'technical' when the top two contenders (Cejudo and Benavidez) are wrestlers with rudimentary striking. Cejudo is actually a pretty awful wrestler in the context of MMA, failing to take and hold down guys like Camus, Benavidez, and Kimura.

Benavidez is also very sloppy with his striking, and is only effective because he hits hard for a Flyweight. Hitting hard is not unique to Flyweight, and bigger weight classes have harder hitters.

Aside from Mighty Mouse and Horiguchi, Flyweight doesn't really have super fast, athletic powerhouses, especially now that Dodson left.

Makovsky, Bagautinov, Ortiz, Cejudo, Moraga, McCall etc... are all just wrestlers with some serviceable striking (at best, Ortiz and Makovsky suck at striking) Fighters like Romero, Weidman, Woodley, Cormier, Rumble, Jones, Bader, Davis, etc... are all wrestlers with much more varied skill sets in both striking and grappling.

What makes this funny is that a guy who has trouble with Flyweights (Lineker) have been tearing it up at 135, and may be knocking out the former champ soon. His only difficult fight came against a former Flyweight (Dodson), who holds a win against the former champ.

The myth that the smaller weight classes are the more skilled NEEDS TO STOP. There's diminishing returns to both ends. Flyweight is thin and weak, as is Heavyweight. Golden weight classes have always been 145-205 (MW was weak for a long time)
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The flyweight's being "more skilled" is absurd. This was a myth born with Mir and Rogan that is perpetrated all the time. Who has the grappling of Maia at FW? Who has the striking of Conor? Who has the wrestling of Khabib or the movement of Lando? I think the most skilled division are the divisions where the normal sized guys fight, because that is where the highest percentage of men are.

I also think that it is so shallow that it is almost like women's MMA. Member when people were saying Ronda was the #1 P4P fighter in the world? Yeah, I member. MM is arguably as lucky as Ronda, who also largely racked up title defenses by fighting people that were rushed into championship fights too soon, fighting the same people multiple times or just competition that did not deserve in the ring with her. Truly developed divisions like LW, WW and MW are what truly developed division looks like, with the belt rotating multiple times in a year and were average sized men fight, not freakishly big men or freakishly small manlets.
 
AnytimeAnywhereAldo said:
True, 205 has been shallow and weak outside the top 5 in recent years, but it's been home to the most well rounded and skilled fighters of the past decade(s). No other weight class can say that
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Well, that's not how talent pools work. To become a Top 5 fighter at 205 you naturally fight and are tested by fewer high quality fighters than a Top 5 FW/LW/WW fighter is, so you're not going to be as well-rounded or as skilled as those who reach the top of the deeper divisions.

You can appear to be more well-rounded or skilled at 205 because you're in a shallow division and it's easier to look good in a shallower division, because the opponents are generally of a lower quality, but that's not the same as actually being more well-rounded or skilled.

The most skilled and well-rounded fighters will almost always be in those deeper talent pools because of that. For example Daniel Cormier is the #2 LHW of the past half decade or so and the 145 lb division has four or five fighters as well-rounded and skilled as he is, or moreso. A fighter on the level of a Forrest Griffin, bless him, never makes the Top 5 of FW, LW or WW, let alone becomes a champion who has wins over other former champions.
 
ask said:
name top 10 LW fighters (in the UFC) now please
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From Sherbro to Sherbro I advise you to don't doubt LW. Your thread will explode.

I'm more interested in the divisions from WW upward.
 
Ban TS for being retarded

Bantamweight is on the mother fucking rise. LEGIT prospects and looking like FW from the past 2 years.

Flyweight also has some nice prospects not only from TUF but from recent cards like that boxing stud from Philippines.
 
"With the exception of FW" While the guy who was ranked number 5 at FW has yet to get a win over a top 10 opponent at LW and I don't think he will with killers like Chiesa, Diaz, Johnson, and Barboza above him.
 
ask said:
lmao, no you didn't. I specifically asked for a list of the top 10 current LWs in the UFC yet none of you have been able to compile a list because in reality there are about 5 top guys in that division and then there is a significant decline in terms of depth of talent. same the with the rest of the sub-157 weight classes (minus FW)
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The UFC Rankings or my personal rankings? I could do both if you want but my personal rankings are:

Conor
Khabib
Ferguson
Alvarez
RDA
Barboza
Diaz
Chiesa
Johnson
Melendez

There's also some tough dudes out side the top 10 like Jim Miller, Dustin Poirier, Al Iaquinta, etc.
 
ask said:
lmao, no you didn't. I specifically asked for a list of the top 10 current LWs in the UFC yet none of you have been able to compile a list because in reality there are about 5 top guys in that division and then there is a significant decline in terms of depth of talent. same the with the rest of the sub-157 weight classes (minus FW)
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You have unrealistic expectations and a shitty appreciation for technique and talent. You need to remember you are an unathletic nerd sitting at home.
 
ask said:
I'm sorry, but who exactly has chiesa beaten? who have miller and poirier beaten? MJs only notable win is over barboza, both RDA and melendez are on losing streaks (2 and 3 loses respectively) and diaz is a veritable gatekeeper who competes @ both WW and LW.
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You could say the same things about fighters at WW and MW, but both are stacked.

Rick Story has beaten nobody big, same with Stun Gun. Hendricks and Condit are both on 2 fight losing streaks. Donald Cerrone is a gatekeeper who fights at both WW and LW.

Brunson and Whittaker have beaten nobody big. Silva hasn't won a fight in over 3 years, Vitor and Weidman are on 2 fight losing streaks. Mousasi is a gatekeeper that fights at both MW and LHW.
 
The deepest divisions are without a doubt LW and WW, but I do think that the BW division would be stacked if they scrapped the FLW-division and made all the fighters move up to BW.
 
ask said:
hey, I suppose you're right now that I look at it. for some reason MW seems more stacked to me but when you break it down guys like mousasi and whittaker haven't really achieved all that much.

thank you for allowing me see the light.
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I think MW looks pretty strong still but I'd say WW is the strongest in my opinion. MW has great guys up there who have big accomplishments behind them though, but some of them are past it in my opinion. You might look at the division and think "Wow, look at this division with guys like Vitor and Silva not even in the top 5!" but in reality they're not as good as they used to be.
 
When fighters like Dodson and Almeida round out a division at #9 and #10 respectively, you've got yourself an healthy division. BW is my fav division that hasn't been held up by a pregnant champ.

Also got...
The Dominator,
Former champ Dillasnake,
Lineker who has won 6 in a row,
Undefeated Garbrandt,
20-1 Jimmie Rivera,
Caraway and Font are just now entering their prime,
Former WEC champ Wineland is still young believe it or not,
and all those fighters I just listed are coming off of wins.

So we have some sick match-ups coming up:
Dillasnake v Lineker
Dom v No Brain
Rivera v Caraway

Fact is, Faber retired just in time. Rivera beat him every round with every judge, and his two protégés, TJ and Cody, would beat him now too.

Do I even need to mention Mayday, The Funk Master, and #3 Assuncao? So yeah, BW isn't starving for talent IMO.
 
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