The Robbie, Johny, Rory era in the 2010s was the last time the WW division was truly great

[Mohawk Banditó]

Maia was also freakin' 44 years old. The script to beat him had already been written by Usman, Colby, Woodley and others several years before Belal. Maia's wrestling wasn't the same by then (pretty much all BJJ guys and wrestlers start having a bad back and/or knees by that age). Any good grappler with serviceable striking could keep it standing and beat a middle-age Maia.

 

[Mammothman]

Rory vs Hendricks in their prime would have been such a great fight

 

[rorschach51]

Sherdog: "Everything fucking sucks except for that one time."

Honestly, thread/

 

[Bend NvR Break]

Lawler was shot by then. He'd been fighting for 15 years and had way too many wars. He and Condit were at the very end of the twilight of their primes when they fought each other just before Lawler-Woodley. You could tell they were both slowing down but still put on a good fight, similar to Liddell vs. Wand.

Wand and chuck weren't winding down when they fought. They were both shot. Chuck was coming off a loss to Keith jardine. The only reason they looked alright was that they were fighting each other. Chuck would go on a KO loss streak. Wand was coming off brutal loses to cro cop and hendo and would lose to Chuck then beat Keith (who was slowing down himself) and then get spectacularly knocked out by Rampage and lose Franklin.

Robbie was the champ. Even if he was slowing down he was a legitimate champ.

I don't think we can compare the 2 instances.

 

[AmonTobin]

Welterweight 2004-2013 was pretty fuckin RAD.

 

[WokeWarrior]

You guys arent even trying
Tyron woodley and Usman held that belt and gave Stability to that division.
hence why Usman and woodley are TOP 3 Top 4 in that division..

When tyron woodley held the belt that was when the division was the most stacked and exciting
in most recent times. If Dana and you weirdos stopped getting who knows the type of stuff we could
of had. the talent was off the charts. You had Tyron Woodley sitting on the throne, with undefeated prospect and BFF
Ben askren, up and next big star Darren till, kimbo slice street fighting apprentice Jorge Masvidal
angry bigot Colby, african warrior Usman , silent dude who had unfinished business with Leon edwards
america's darling lyoto machina 2.0 Wonderboy, Gilbert burns Belal RDA Robbie lawler With a potential GSP, Connor and Nick diaz super fight.
it was so good people were saying it reminded them of the old 205 division....

so dont you dare do that.
so again we had
Tyron woodley
Undefeated Ben askren
prime colby
prime usman
prime masvidal
prime wonderboy
prime darren till
prime gilbert burns
Robbie lawler
Belal
Leon edwards
with a potential GSP CONNOR and Nick diaz fight.....

 

[TRYHARD 2001]

Condit getting absolutely fucked over for the belt against Lawler in a fight he won 4-1 is really indicative of that era being great. Truly. Just ask TS.

That was truly one of the worst decisions in MMA history, and believe me I've seen some bad ones over the past 30 or so years... my stars, I'm old!

Anyways, the fight was so good that people largely overlooked how badly Robbie was outstruck right up until he went super Saiyan in the 5th. Amazing finish to be sure, but the decision was just incorrect.

 

[ExitLUPin]

Maia was also freakin' 44 years old. The script to beat him had already been written by Usman, Colby, Woodley and others several years before Belal. Maia's wrestling wasn't the same by then (pretty much all BJJ guys and wrestlers start having a bad back and/or knees by that age). Any good grappler with serviceable striking could keep it standing and beat a middle-age Maia.

Hell Mark Munoz was the first to show the blueprint way back in 2011 although that was at 185. Mark stuffed all his TDs, got TDs himself, outstruck him. Demian dropped to 170 a year later.

 

[mkt]

Wand and chuck weren't winding down when they fought. They were both shot. Chuck was coming off a loss to Keith jardine. The only reason they looked alright was that they were fighting each other. Chuck would go on a KO loss streak. Wand was coming off brutal loses to cro cop and hendo and would lose to Chuck then beat Keith (who was slowing down himself) and then get spectacularly knocked out by Rampage and lose Franklin.

Robbie was the champ. Even if he was slowing down he was a legitimate champ.

I don't think we can compare the 2 instances.

I think Wand (not Chuck) and Lawler are very fair comparisons. After losing to Chuck, Wand had 3 more KO wins and a decision over Bisping, not too long before he became the MW champ. After losing to Woodley, Lawler had two KOs and one decision win over Cerrone, which wasn't impressive. And one of Lawler's KO wins was over a shot Nick Diaz who had like an 8 year layoff beforehand.

Wand actually had more impressive wins that Lawler after the Chuck loss.

 

[Elegant]

It was terrible up until recently with the likes of Carlos Prates, Ian Garry, Shavkat, Buckley, Leon, MVP, and Usman

Belal will lose his next fight and then WW can start having fun with all those matchups between the guys listed above

 

[Han]

I think you’ll find it’s called the GSP era