Hmm Flyweight has more fighters which the other list didn't indicate. It does seem to me like 125 would the true 'sweet spot' in terms of being a more average weight for athletic women who be inclined to do MMA to fight at. BW has almost as many fighters than SW and AW put together though which is about what I figured.
Yep. The flyweights are the largest single weight division in Women's MMA. Over a year ago it was even larger by comparison to either the bantamweights or the strawweights.
Fly had around 230 while ban had 150 and str had 115 or so fighters.
Before the UFC brought over Rosi Sexton and Shiela Gaff flyweight also had by far and away the largest grouping of fighters with big records and up and comers. Think of the fighters who are now at 135 or 115 who used to fight at 125 or had just recently fought there.
Bantamweight has actually been reborn after the UFC really showed they were going to do something with it (say TUF 18). At one point, a year and a half ago, it was down to 105 fighters with more then several talking about moving to different weight classes.
Flyweights continue to out fight per week the other weight classes. Since I was traveling so much earlier this year I could only do a large update on total fights and record changes rather then a week by week breakdown so the figures aren't there for checking as I'd like but there is often a big difference in the numbers of fights taking place.
It is not uncommon for two to three times as many fights to take place at flyweight then either bantamweight or strawweight. Brazilians make up a huge proportion of these flyweight fights as they are the busiest fighters in Women's MMA as far as countries go and Brazilians makeup the largest group at flyweight.
Here is a breakdown of the past seven weeks of fights for bantamweight, flyweight, and strawweight:
Bantamweight - 16 fights
Flyweight - 43 fights
Strawweight - 11 fights
I was doing some trivia on my lists but couldn't fit it all in there. It is worth noting that there are no US fighters in the top ten at featherweight (on my list, there are a few on other lists but they only have 2-3* fights at the most.)
There has been a ton of attention to both the bantamweights and strawweights for various reasons, mostly due to EliteXC, Showtime, UFC, Invicta and the Bellator strawweight tournament. Visibility. People talk about those fighters/divisions they know about. (I think it helps a division to have a strong US fighter, or US based fighter, in the top ten as the major US promotions are more likely to make fights visible if that is the case.)
The Bellator tournament in particular turned the strawweights around in the US. I remember Bellator was criticized somewhat for having a 115 tournament over a 125 tournament due the comparative lack of fighters at 115 versus 125 in the US. Tara LaRosa and her supporters were particularly annoyed. (LaRosa was under pressure to fight Carano or Cyborg at this time and had begun looking at 125 if I remember correctly.)
But people love Megumi Fujii and it was nice to see some of the other women like Lisa Ellis get chances to shine. A proper rematch between Fujii and Ellis was on people's mind.
Hard to hate on them for putting out the tournament let alone giving good fighters a chance to show their stuff on TV. I just remember there being a fair amount of head scratching about that decision.
Of course a flyweight ended up winning that tournament, Zoila Frausto Gurgel. (Although I don't agree with the decisions that led Zoila getting the nod.)
--
*Example. Ashlee Evans-Smith 2-0-0 US. I think Evans-Smith is a capable fighter but I dislike the idea of her being listed as top ten versus some others who have fought more and against somewhat capable opposition. Evans-Smith does have a great and well publicized win over Fallon Fox so there is that.
