The UFC and its lack of title contenders

[HuskySamoan]

The UFC is in a weird place, the sport has grown globally both in depth and level of talent but the UFC has become somehow even more shallow in many of its divisions. There's a serious lack of title contenders.

Who are the contenders at 125lbs? None really, right? Moreno, Royval, Kape, Kai Kara? These guys have all taken recent Ls and been passed around, lost their title shots etc. None are compelling. Asakura wasn't even the right Japanese guy to sign.

At 135lbs we are already running out of contenders for Merab too, there's a few prospects rising up with potential but none are too close to a title shot like Farid Basharat, Jean Matsumoto, Felipe Lima.

At 145lbs who are the compelling contenders? It's really just Evloev and to a lesser extent Lopes, beyond that? Jean Silva is the only rising talent to really keep an eye on in regards to title aspirations.

At 155lbs? It's just Arman, there's not really any other contenders. Who are the rising prospects in this division? Doesn't seem like many.

At 170lbs...Shavkat and maybe Jack Della as contenders, after that it's mostly old men with Michael Morales being a promising talent.

At 185lbs and 205lbs it's mainly Khamzat and Ankalaev...not many other title contenders, perhaps Caio Borralho.

I think its time the UFC tried to sign talent talent from other promotions like they did with Asakura, throw big bucks out there and put those guys in title eliminator fights. At BW Patchy Mix is the most obvious, if you did Mix vs Omalley and Mix won, he'd be an immediate compelling title challenger. At 145lbs there's guys like Islam Omarov, Salahdine Parnasse, Timur Khizriev and Losene Keita to do this with. At 155lbs you've got Eduard Vartanyan and Christian Lee potentially. At 170lbs? Shamil Musaev seems like the guy but there's not so many obvious choices. At 185 you have of course Johnny Eblen and Magomedrasul Gasanov. At 205lbs it's Nemkov who in my opinion is the best LHW in the world for years now but he may be done at 205. Anyways, in the olden days they did this whether it was absorbing promotions inorder to do so or going after guys invidually. If they opened their pocketbooks for top talent globally and were a little better at signing talented prospects the UFC would be 10x more entertaining.

Weve spent years watching the elderly and recycled 155ers fight for belts at Welterweight. There's been so many rematches in recent years due to a lack of contenders. There's very few super exciting young talents on the rise in most divisions too. I can't be the only one who feels like most title pictures stagnate far too often in the UFC relative to available talent in the world?

 

[Beastslayer47]

I agree with this. Many contenders have taken recent Ls in their fights, especially the 155 division. Some say Charles is next but he is 2-2 in his last 4 and is coming off a decision win against Chandler who is just a punching bag.

 

[jeskola]

in the olden days they did this whether it was absorbing promotions inorder to do so or going after guys invidually. If they opened their pocketbooks far too often in the UFC relative to available talent in the world?

The guys you mentioned are under contract. UFC doesn't need to buy entire promotions to sign a few guys who may or may not succeed in the big show. They wouldn't bring in anywhere near enough revenue to justify that kind of spending.

Part of this is also your perception. If you review the divisions over the years it's pretty much always been like this. Another thing is with the growth of the sport, there is more skill and parity at the top, so we get more losses at the top instead of dominance.

 

[Superzorro]

Yeah, I agree. There’s a higher concentration of contender series/TUF level fighters in the roster.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

They don't build anyone or any division anymore, they just hotshot everything while the audience plays along.

 

[Clark Rogers]

As long as I've been watching MMA there's been a handful of super-elite who hold titles for long periods, keep winning, etc. Next level down are their contenders, the elite, and there's far more parity there.

Idk that adding names to that next level down changes that all that much, but would at least provide some new matchup ops.

 

[HuskySamoan]

The guys you mentioned are under contract. UFC doesn't need to buy entire promotions to sign a few guys who may or may not succeed in the big show. They wouldn't bring in anywhere near enough revenue to justify that kind of spending.

Part of this is also your perception. If you review the divisions over the years it's pretty much always been like this. Another thing is with the growth of the sport, there is more skill and parity at the top, so we get more losses at the top instead of dominance.

Salahdine Parnasse tried was available, UFC didn't want to pay KSW money. Eduard Vartanyan was available, got his visa and flew to Vegas to sit down with UFC after winning the ACA 1 million dollar tournament and they said "maybe the contender series". Losene Keita was available at a point too but joined the million dollar tournament instead. AJ McKee was available but Bellator offered him a big contract to stay. Many were in fact available. Khizriev was a fucking ELITE prospect and they let Bellator sign him. It's a long listen, UFC is a clown promotion talent wise these days relative to available talent.

 

[fortheo]

UFC matchmaking is shit is reliant on recycling through their most popular guys over and over. Signing all these extra guys would help, but ultimately UFC needs to fix their matchmaking practices and make more matches that allow divisional turnover

 

[GluttonforPunishment]

This is what happens when the rules don't evolve. Before the crotch sniffing crowd tears me to pieces. It's more advantageous to bring the fight to the ground than to stand and fight. Plenty of good talent out there. But they can't adjust to being taken down and laid on. It's why Alex Pereira and JBJ and Aspinall are great commodities. They want to finish. Topuria is also out there but his contenders now that max is done with are wrestlers. Nobody wants to join when they know their fate is to be taken down and either laid on and choked. Khamzat will lose his first fight by being ktfo.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

I think a lot of this can be partly blamed on their growing tendency for short term success of nonsensical title fights and cycling real contenders into fights they didn't need to while rewarding squatters. Log jams don't buy time for contenders to emerge most of the time, they only do what happens naturally with fighting, give people the chance to lose when they didn't need to. Look at some of the potential title contenders we lost too.

Flyweight lost contenders in Mokaev (though that seemed more his fault) and Albazi.

BW had Sandhagen, but "wah, he wrestled once with a broken hand," and there was no reason to put former fly champ Fig against Yan when he had as much, if not more claim to being the contender than Umar.

FW still has slow played Evloev, and Lopez, and Sterling got pretty slow played as a former champ too.

LW was ruined by a combination of a vacated belt, a constant recycling of the same top names all falling to the new champ, then that champ being beaten by a guy who could have had more ranked wins if more people agreed to fight him and the ones who agreed actually showed up. Still have situations where guys who earned a shot or at least should have had an earlier eliminator like Arman and Dariush didn't get in there.

WW got a bit lucky despite all of its bullshit cuz next guys Shav and JDM have been out too, but still: Luque never got his shot cuz he fucked up being the backup, Brady might have had a chance at an eliminator if he didn't have to be another name for Belal to keep himself busy while more BS title shots were being given out, and now Garry has picked up an L because of the log jam, and I expect the same will happen to either JDM or Buckley now.

MW is straight up skipping Khamzat right now and just ignored Cannonier's win over Strickland.

LHW is working itself out just fine after a few hiccups following THREE title vacations in 3 years.

HW is not even worth examining with his stupid its title situation is right now. There's already a GIANT example of the guy who has not been allowed to fight for the title he deserves.

And women's division title shots are fucking head scratching at best. I think I broke down women's BW once and only one woman in the top 10 other had over a 2 fight win streak. But when you try to run an immediate trilogy and then have a vacated title, the contenders have to fight each other to stay busy. Rocky had to kill off a few names to keep herself afloat during that bullshit, including Ketlen, who had just beaten Holm. Now, I don't care if it was a robbery, when you get someone with a win over Holly at that time and they were already in the top 5, you make them the contender.

Women's fly? How many years had Fiorot been the number 1 contender now? That meant that Erin, who also earned a shot never got hers either.

Suarez is another example of one where booking can't take the biggest blame, but until she does fight for the title, it functionally means her wins go to waste in the meantime and even if she does, that's leaving Virna and her wins on the outside. And also Marina definitely deserved her shot more than Weili did. One of the bigger problems with women's straw was that there was little room for "kingmaking," since Joanna and Carla both retired 1 fight off from losing the belt and Rose moved up straight from losing the belt, so the only former champ is Andrade who keeps hurting her stock by jumping back and forth between divisions.

 

[RockyLockridge]

It's all because of sensationalist match making the UFC does.

Merab now has no one to fight because they didn't give him figgy first they killed him off to make khabib jr fight him. Now they have no winning fighters that aren't rematches. Could have done Umar Vs song in march, then boom 2 fresh contenders for sure. But UFC likes to limit it's options.

Could just make tiara Vs pantoja after Perez but no kill him off against royval. could make kape Vs pantoja 2 but no, kill him off against royval. Could make albazi Vs pantoja but no, kill him off against Moreno...

 

[HHJ]

If they signed all the FEDORTEAM guys and let FEDOR come to the octagon to coach them, thus spreading FEDORISM within the organization, it would go a long way to solving this problem imo

 

[BangBang]

Su Mudaerji @ FLW I was hoping, but i don't know what has happened to him?!

 

[HuskySamoan]

Su Mudaerji @ FLW I was hoping, but i don't know what has happened to him?!

He was a bust, I had hopes for Su Mudaerji too. Flyweight has guys though in and out of the UFC that are very promising. Rafael Estevam, Rei Tsuruya, Tatsuro Taira, Lone'er Kavanagh etc. Them releasing Mokaev and Severino was shocking, two of their best 125er prospects. Guys they can pickup like Bilal Hassan, Sanzhar Zakirov, Daniyar Toychubek and maybe re-acquire Severino and or Mokaev would be nice. The division does lack contenders though unfortunately.

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

The UFC is in a weird place, the sport has grown globally both in depth and level of talent but the UFC has become somehow even more shallow in many of its divisions. There's a serious lack of title contenders.

Who are the contenders at 125lbs? None really, right? Moreno, Royval, Kape, Kai Kara? These guys have all taken recent Ls and been passed around, lost their title shots etc. None are compelling. Asakura wasn't even the right Japanese guy to sign.

At 135lbs we are already running out of contenders for Merab too, there's a few prospects rising up with potential but none are too close to a title shot like Farid Basharat, Jean Matsumoto, Felipe Lima.

At 145lbs who are the compelling contenders? It's really just Evloev and to a lesser extent Lopes, beyond that? Jean Silva is the only rising talent to really keep an eye on in regards to title aspirations.

At 155lbs? It's just Arman, there's not really any other contenders. Who are the rising prospects in this division? Doesn't seem like many.

At 170lbs...Shavkat and maybe Jack Della as contenders, after that it's mostly old men with Michael Morales being a promising talent.

At 185lbs and 205lbs it's mainly Khamzat and Ankalaev...not many other title contenders, perhaps Caio Borralho.

I think its time the UFC tried to sign talent talent from other promotions like they did with Asakura, throw big bucks out there and put those guys in title eliminator fights. At BW Patchy Mix is the most obvious, if you did Mix vs Omalley and Mix won, he'd be an immediate compelling title challenger. At 145lbs there's guys like Islam Omarov, Salahdine Parnasse, Timur Khizriev and Losene Keita to do this with. At 155lbs you've got Eduard Vartanyan and Christian Lee potentially. At 170lbs? Shamil Musaev seems like the guy but there's not so many obvious choices. At 185 you have of course Johnny Eblen and Magomedrasul Gasanov. At 205lbs it's Nemkov who in my opinion is the best LHW in the world for years now but he may be done at 205. Anyways, in the olden days they did this whether it was absorbing promotions inorder to do so or going after guys invidually. If they opened their pocketbooks for top talent globally and were a little better at signing talented prospects the UFC would be 10x more entertaining.

Weve spent years watching the elderly and recycled 155ers fight for belts at Welterweight. There's been so many rematches in recent years due to a lack of contenders. There's very few super exciting young talents on the rise in most divisions too. I can't be the only one who feels like most title pictures stagnate far too often in the UFC relative to available talent in the world?

I don't have the knowledge when it comes to other organizations so I appreciate your post with this type of insight. I agree when it comes to Eblen and Nemkov but I'm not familar with the rest. As for the UFC, it's very apparent the lack of contenders. I think they believe the brand trumps all and most people don't care too much. They save money and increase profits by promoting lesser talent and give them favorable matchups/handling on the way up. When they finally get exposed it's rinse and repeat. For this to be a real sport you need real matchups with top talent. It'll be interesting if Dana opens his pockets to sign better talent or just keep on pumping the guys we've been seeing.

 

[Edward Henry Berg]

The UFC is in a weird place, the sport has grown globally both in depth and level of talent but the UFC has become somehow even more shallow in many of its divisions. There's a serious lack of title contenders.

Who are the contenders at 125lbs? None really, right? Moreno, Royval, Kape, Kai Kara? These guys have all taken recent Ls and been passed around, lost their title shots etc. None are compelling. Asakura wasn't even the right Japanese guy to sign.

At 135lbs we are already running out of contenders for Merab too, there's a few prospects rising up with potential but none are too close to a title shot like Farid Basharat, Jean Matsumoto, Felipe Lima.

At 145lbs who are the compelling contenders? It's really just Evloev and to a lesser extent Lopes, beyond that? Jean Silva is the only rising talent to really keep an eye on in regards to title aspirations.

At 155lbs? It's just Arman, there's not really any other contenders. Who are the rising prospects in this division? Doesn't seem like many.

At 170lbs...Shavkat and maybe Jack Della as contenders, after that it's mostly old men with Michael Morales being a promising talent.

At 185lbs and 205lbs it's mainly Khamzat and Ankalaev...not many other title contenders, perhaps Caio Borralho.

I think its time the UFC tried to sign talent talent from other promotions like they did with Asakura, throw big bucks out there and put those guys in title eliminator fights. At BW Patchy Mix is the most obvious, if you did Mix vs Omalley and Mix won, he'd be an immediate compelling title challenger. At 145lbs there's guys like Islam Omarov, Salahdine Parnasse, Timur Khizriev and Losene Keita to do this with. At 155lbs you've got Eduard Vartanyan and Christian Lee potentially. At 170lbs? Shamil Musaev seems like the guy but there's not so many obvious choices. At 185 you have of course Johnny Eblen and Magomedrasul Gasanov. At 205lbs it's Nemkov who in my opinion is the best LHW in the world for years now but he may be done at 205. Anyways, in the olden days they did this whether it was absorbing promotions inorder to do so or going after guys invidually. If they opened their pocketbooks for top talent globally and were a little better at signing talented prospects the UFC would be 10x more entertaining.

Weve spent years watching the elderly and recycled 155ers fight for belts at Welterweight. There's been so many rematches in recent years due to a lack of contenders. There's very few super exciting young talents on the rise in most divisions too. I can't be the only one who feels like most title pictures stagnate far too often in the UFC relative to available talent in the world?

You are 100% correct in your observations.

They keep trying to re-sell meaningless, stupid fights (or remixes of the same fights), over and over again.

Dustin Poirier is a classic example. He's a good fighter, but HE FAILS to make Champion, every single time, no matter who he faces.

A classic beta-male in heart and drive, when it's all on the line. Decent performer when nothing's on the line.

The BMF title ... a whole article could be written on this buffoonery ...
Basically, the BMF = for "popular" fighters who continuously fail to make Champion (Diaz, Gaethje, Masvidal, Holloway), that the UFC wants to "match together anyway."
Okay, Holloway was Champion material, but after losing to Volk (3x) Max was ultimately included in this debacle-for-failures.

Pantoja is running laps around Flyweight.
Who does Makhachev have left to fight at Lightweight?
After Pereira beats Ankalaev, who is left at Light Heavyweight?

The Heavyweight division itself is a freaking joke, for which another whole article of lameness could be written.

The bottom line is this: the UFC needs more combatants in every division.

So, again, good post.

 

[joy2day]

Yeah, I've been saying something similar for a long time.

There are the elite fighters today just like there were yesterday. Then there is everyone else.

The difference between now and yesterday is the skill level of the low to medium level fighters; there was a time when there were less well-rounded fighters below the elite.

The elite fighters aren't any better than they were basically any time after the 90s.

As far as getting MORE elite fighters and better contenders, it would take a leap of pay to make that happen. Athletes know if they make it to the top level in other sports (e.g. playing in the NFL or NBA) they will make the big money no matter what. If they make the big show in the UFC, they only have an opportunity to be one of the few guys in the org that makes big money (but with the same probability of CTE and injury). Pretty considerable difference there, and it is most of the reason the talent pool stays relatively small (and there isn't enough talent to fill all of these cards out).

The whole "evolution of MMA" bit is largely an illusion.

 

[DoubleTrouble]

I think the UFC would do well to look into the tournament style that other orgs use.

 

[Azure]

The UFC is in a weird place, the sport has grown globally both in depth and level of talent but the UFC has become somehow even more shallow in many of its divisions. There's a serious lack of title contenders.

Who are the contenders at 125lbs? None really, right? Moreno, Royval, Kape, Kai Kara? These guys have all taken recent Ls and been passed around, lost their title shots etc. None are compelling. Asakura wasn't even the right Japanese guy to sign.

At 135lbs we are already running out of contenders for Merab too, there's a few prospects rising up with potential but none are too close to a title shot like Farid Basharat, Jean Matsumoto, Felipe Lima.

At 145lbs who are the compelling contenders? It's really just Evloev and to a lesser extent Lopes, beyond that? Jean Silva is the only rising talent to really keep an eye on in regards to title aspirations.

At 155lbs? It's just Arman, there's not really any other contenders. Who are the rising prospects in this division? Doesn't seem like many.

At 170lbs...Shavkat and maybe Jack Della as contenders, after that it's mostly old men with Michael Morales being a promising talent.

At 185lbs and 205lbs it's mainly Khamzat and Ankalaev...not many other title contenders, perhaps Caio Borralho.

I think its time the UFC tried to sign talent talent from other promotions like they did with Asakura, throw big bucks out there and put those guys in title eliminator fights. At BW Patchy Mix is the most obvious, if you did Mix vs Omalley and Mix won, he'd be an immediate compelling title challenger. At 145lbs there's guys like Islam Omarov, Salahdine Parnasse, Timur Khizriev and Losene Keita to do this with. At 155lbs you've got Eduard Vartanyan and Christian Lee potentially. At 170lbs? Shamil Musaev seems like the guy but there's not so many obvious choices. At 185 you have of course Johnny Eblen and Magomedrasul Gasanov. At 205lbs it's Nemkov who in my opinion is the best LHW in the world for years now but he may be done at 205. Anyways, in the olden days they did this whether it was absorbing promotions inorder to do so or going after guys invidually. If they opened their pocketbooks for top talent globally and were a little better at signing talented prospects the UFC would be 10x more entertaining.

Weve spent years watching the elderly and recycled 155ers fight for belts at Welterweight. There's been so many rematches in recent years due to a lack of contenders. There's very few super exciting young talents on the rise in most divisions too. I can't be the only one who feels like most title pictures stagnate far too often in the UFC relative to available talent in the world?

When there is a dominant champion we complain that there are no contenders.. When there is parity across the division and we see title changes frequently we call the division weak.

is normal

 

[HuskySamoan]

Yeah, I've been saying something similar for a long time.

There are the elite fighters today just like there were yesterday. Then there is everyone else.

The difference between now and yesterday is the skill level of the low to medium level fighters; there was a time when there were less well-rounded fighters below the elite.

The elite fighters aren't any better than they were basically any time after the 90s.

As far as getting MORE elite fighters and better contenders, it would take a leap of pay to make that happen. Athletes know if they make it to the top level in other sports (e.g. playing in the NFL or NBA) they will make the big money no matter what. If they make the big show in the UFC, they only have an opportunity to be one of the few guys in the org that makes big money (but with the same probability of CTE and injury). Pretty considerable difference there, and it is most of the reason the talent pool stays relatively small (and there isn't enough talent to fill all of these cards out).

The whole "evolution of MMA" bit is largely an illusion.

The evolution of MMA is huge. 15 years ago Russian MMA wasn't on the map at all, let alone Central Asian MMA. Shit 15 years ago Oceania wasn't a booming region either and Latin America offered nothing. Now a lot of the best prospects in the world are Central Asian, Russia and the Caucasian republics produce the best fighters in the world on average. Mexico, Peru and Argentina produce steady UFC caliber guys. Oceania has produced multiple generational great champions and several good top 10 caliber guys just recently, they have several dudes from their prominent gyms winning IMMAF amateur titles etc.

The sport has grown into something truly global and the standard of talent has become greater, no longer is it former drug addict and bored with life teacher stories where they began hitting heavy bags at 22, most of these guys have been competing since childhood and switched over to amateur MMA in their teens, pro debuts at 18 is no longer young, it's becoming the norm. Gyms have gotten way better too. The sport has evolved as a whole, perhaps in regards to the top end IN THE UFC divisions like WW, MW, it's regressed. 205 and 265 are worse...there's no denying it. The sport, similar to boxing, just doesn't have the pull to get great athletes and kids applying themselves from young ages who are that size since they are in so much demand by every other major sport basically..