Remember when lightweight was supposedly the deepest division?

[Pancake Sprawl]

it's the same as every other division now, when it used to be only HW was like this. they're all extremely top heavy with an aging elite group and no real new talent that looks better or even the same level as the old talent.

 

[Misanthropist]

Conor and the rest of those “banger” trope fighters would be still fighting and competing with each other today if it weren’t for the Dagestanis who cleared the division.

Not many are willing to fight them and risk getting their reputation tarnished imo, the Dagis treat their opponents like amateurs.

Same thing is gonna happen to Bantam and Flyweight i’m afraid.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Because all the stars of the division are old and have been rank squatting the new guys failed to live up to hype.

They didn't really sign many of the new guys. Usman to Bellator, Shabliy to Bellator, Vartanyan turned down by the UFC, Christian Lee in ONE FC etc. There was a time when the UFC would try to acquire the best and the promotion was deeper for it. Now they refuse to pay money or negotiate and while the sport has grown in depth and quality, the UFC has visibly regressed in a lot of divisions. LW hasn't been great in a long time. Most divisions are starved for genuine contenders and quality rising prospects.

 

[Koala]

Ribovic vs Zellhuber, Makhachev vs Poirier, and Rebecki vs Orolbai were among the top 5 listed fights of the year to vote for according to the UFC
It's just that there is rank squatting and some injuries like Fiziev but the division has Ruffy, Ribovic, Bahamondes, Dawson, Dober, Green, Klein, Rebecki, Orolbai, Zelluber, all outside of the top 15
If you force some top 10-15 fighters to defend their ranking against unranked prospects, top 5-10 guys like Chandler to fight top 10-15 guys and stop having too much top fighters who cherry-pick their opponents

 

[Gregoire1]

This division was never deep. Its all hype. Average contenders are trash. Especially Khabib and Islam ones: Al (not top-5), Conor (not top-3), Justin (50/50 record in UFC), Dustin, Volk (FW) 2 times, old Poirier (not top-5), Mocaino... Only close contested fights were Islam - Ollive and Islam - Volk 1. And could be Islam - Arman.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Its cause these “old” rank-squatting LW’s can still beat the shit out of the ones ranked under them

Kinda not their fault

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Average height and body frames. Obviously when you become a professional fighter, you get in better shape and more jacked than an average non-athletic person. You don't jump right off the couch.

They are bigger than the average person regardless.

 

[maximus__]

Any division with a top-notch Team Khabib fighter in it is inherently top-heavy, maybe there's one fighter in a given division who's a worthy rival for a Khabib/Islam/Umar but even one rival is not a guarantee

Having someone like that on top makes the rest of the division look shallow

So 1 division? Islam is just a great fighter. DP gave him a great fight and so did Volk with a full camp.
When he couldn't dominate the wrestling, he has had major moments of vulnerability. Credit to him for getting the nod in those fights though.

Umar just lost in both the striking and wrestling when it went outside 3 rounds. His striking looks good until he is pressured and that heavy kick style seems to fatigue him.

We have to go to PFL to get another dominant Nurmagomedov and that came with a PED failure in a second tier league.

Khabib on the other hand was near flawless. That was dominance in the cage. He could have easily lapped LW.

 

[Tweak896]

LW has a ranking bubble, the old LWs with names are mostly interested in fighting each other. Many of the new guys blew their shot. But BSD and Fiziev did do better than what the record suggests.