Why are UFC Flyweights Disrespected?

SuperNerd said:


13 whole minutes.
Don't press play and put up your shit post.
Click to expand...


Because guys on this forum are emasculated by the fact that guys who are 5'4" 125 lbs could embarrass them in a physical contest
 
I don’t know, boxing doesn’t have this same issue with the little guys. The UFC marketed WMMA well enough, if they put the same resource into Flyweight I’m sure they could make it popular.
 
kflo said:
The flyweight champ would destroy the local lw.
Click to expand...
I don't think so. Take like a run of the mill fighter, like maybe Kaheem Murray or something. Roughly 5'10", which means that he has probably a 3 inch length advantage from the hips down. That means that say Figueiredo gets within his kicking range 3 inches prior to Murray getting within the flyweight champ's. He probably has a reach advantage about 4 inches, we cut that in half for both sides, the flyweight champ enters the range to receive punches 2 inches prior to being in range to land a punch. Not only that, Murray will come in at around 172, the flyweight champ enters around 138, about a 34 pound differential. This LW will inevitably hit hard, both with the hands and with the legs. Not because Murray hits hard. He may or may not, I have no clue, never seen him fight just pulled a name out of the hat. Murray may not hit hard for a lightweight but he will hit hard relative to a flyweight because he has more muscle with which to generate force, and more mass to generate momentum. Also, we know that with size, the ability to endure a punch increases as well, perhaps only linearly, but it still does. So as the flyweight, your punches are less effective than usual and the punches against you are more effective than usual. And you have a very hard time accessing your own punches while avoiding their punches because you have this range disadvantage. Usually when you have one fighter who is much longer than another fighter at the same weight, there's a tradeoff in power because that mass is spread out over a greater area. Here that is not the case, the lightweight has both range and power.

And if you try to wrestle, you're trying to take someone down with again this 34 pound differential. And not merely is the person heavier. The person likely has a strength advantage against you because of this added muscle weight, which he can use to fight grips, fight hips, etc. Even if you get them to the ground, you have to hold them on the ground, and they have a lot of muscles which would help them explode up to the feet. It's very difficult even for flyweights to keep other flyweights on the ground, much less much larger guys.

Are there ways for the smaller man to win? Sure. Like he could do a crazy sweep into a surprise leg lock. There are other ways, but they are relatively low probability. The light weight will try to keep the flyweight at bay via leg kicks, establish distance with the jab. And even these casual leg kicks or jab will rival and perhaps surpass the hardest strikes that the flyweight would face in his own bracket. So what the lightweight is doing merely to establish distance, the flyweight would actively have to try to avoid because, for the flyweight, these are thunderous strikes that could accumulate and become very debilitating. Without any of these problems, flyweights already have the lowest KO percentage, I believe something like 20%. That would go down, of course, because many shots that would drop a flyweight wouldn't drop a lightweight. So as the flyweight, it's statistically unlikely that you'll get in once and get the KO, you have to consistently get within range to strike while avoiding leg kicks and jabs. Is it impossible? No. But it's a significantly harder gameplan to execute.
 
It's as simple as the perception that fans have against the little guys.

Even my wife will walk in the living room and is shocked when she sees these little guys going at it. Always makes a comment that they our like the size of a teenager. No matter how great they are most casuals just laugh at their size.
 
TankAbbott4Eva said:
I don’t know, boxing doesn’t have this same issue with the little guys. The UFC marketed WMMA well enough, if they put the same resource into Flyweight I’m sure they could make it popular.
Click to expand...

I don't know if I'd go that far. How many great flyweights/bantamweights can a very average boxing fan name. Most that ever became popular usually didn't get the fan base until they moved up in weight(ie: Paq.)
 
skylolow said:
I don't know if I'd go that far. How many great flyweights/bantamweights can a very average boxing fan name. Most that ever became popular usually didn't get the fan base until they moved up in weight(ie: Paq.)
Click to expand...

You might be right, I think Lomachenko started at feather and moved up, and I actually thought Inoue was a feather until I just checked. For me though it doesn't seem like they get the same disrespect as feathers do in MMA.

There was that boxer, I think he was Thai that was 50-0 or something but he fights at minimum weight, no one has really heard of him, I always found that interesting.
 
CorninginChristianburg said:
I don't think so. Take like a run of the mill fighter, like maybe Kaheem Murray or something. Roughly 5'10", which means that he has probably a 3 inch length advantage from the hips down. That means that say Figueiredo gets within his kicking range 3 inches prior to Murray getting within the flyweight champ's. He probably has a reach advantage about 4 inches, we cut that in half for both sides, the flyweight champ enters the range to receive punches 2 inches prior to being in range to land a punch. Not only that, Murray will come in at around 172, the flyweight champ enters around 138, about a 34 pound differential. This LW will inevitably hit hard, both with the hands and with the legs. Not because Murray hits hard. He may or may not, I have no clue, never seen him fight just pulled a name out of the hat. Murray may not hit hard for a lightweight but he will hit hard relative to a flyweight because he has more muscle with which to generate force, and more mass to generate momentum. Also, we know that with size, the ability to endure a punch increases as well, perhaps only linearly, but it still does. So as the flyweight, your punches are less effective than usual and the punches against you are more effective than usual. And you have a very hard time accessing your own punches while avoiding their punches because you have this range disadvantage. Usually when you have one fighter who is much longer than another fighter at the same weight, there's a tradeoff in power because that mass is spread out over a greater area. Here that is not the case, the lightweight has both range and power.

And if you try to wrestle, you're trying to take someone down with again this 34 pound differential. And not merely is the person heavier. The person likely has a strength advantage against you because of this added muscle weight, which he can use to fight grips, fight hips, etc. Even if you get them to the ground, you have to hold them on the ground, and they have a lot of muscles which would help them explode up to the feet. It's very difficult even for flyweights to keep other flyweights on the ground, much less much larger guys.

Are there ways for the smaller man to win? Sure. Like he could do a crazy sweep into a surprise leg lock. There are other ways, but they are relatively low probability. The light weight will try to keep the flyweight at bay via leg kicks, establish distance with the jab. And even these casual leg kicks or jab will rival and perhaps surpass the hardest strikes that the flyweight would face in his own bracket. So what the lightweight is doing merely to establish distance, the flyweight would actively have to try to avoid because, for the flyweight, these are thunderous strikes that could accumulate and become very debilitating. Without any of these problems, flyweights already have the lowest KO percentage, I believe something like 20%. That would go down, of course, because many shots that would drop a flyweight wouldn't drop a lightweight. So as the flyweight, it's statistically unlikely that you'll get in once and get the KO, you have to consistently get within range to strike while avoiding leg kicks and jabs. Is it impossible? No. But it's a significantly harder gameplan to execute.
Click to expand...
Murray is 3-3 as a pro after a 7-8 ammy record. He has a loss to a 145 lber, which of course isn’t unusual. He’d get absolutely wrecked by figueiredo.
 
SuperNerd said:


13 whole minutes.
Don't press play and put up your shit post.
Click to expand...


No need to even watch the video it’s obvious

-weak division
-only handful that are worth watching
-less knockouts
-tiny guys that a normal big guy with some mma training could wreck easy.


Size matters and people arent that impressed with there speed either since its all pitter patter
 
Benoitthegr8 said:
Sorry TS I really like watching the munchkins fight... But, I stopped the video when the narrator said Joseph Benevidez could arguably be greater than Shogun Rua and Rashad Evans... preposterous
<{cruzshake}>
Click to expand...
It's true though

Benavidez is far more skilled than both and arguably has a better resume
 
Big guys >>> midgets

Also, the speed makes some of them look better than they really are but combat fans have a short term memory.
 
Nobody really cares abot the size of this guys outside of sherdog to be fair, its kinda of an inside joke. Truth is there are no big names in the flw division and the guys there have the personality of a potato so there is it, figueired is at least an exciting fighter so that could change, but the lack of name value is too much
 
They are the size of children. How can you take a very small guy seriously when every dude above his weight class can smash him? I know it is a silly argument, but at the end of the day fighting is viewed as who is the baddest man in the room. I don't care how good mighty mouse is if Overreem can turn him into stew meat with one punch...
 
Made a somewhat lengthy comment in the comments section of that vid, but the meat of the comment is...

How many of those guys are really just bantamweights that decided to cut more to get a size advantage because they're unsure they'll be able to do well there?

Hell, even our current flyweight champion cuts from 165 (apparently around 150 fight camp/in the ring). He's even bigger than Frankie Edgar for goodness' sakes. You guys sure that Figuredo is a legit flyweight, or is he just a bantamweight that is flyweight champ?

On the other hand, you got Cejudo who is an actual flyweight, but decided to move up to bantamweight and surprise! Get a championship belt there anyways.

In a sense, watching the flyweight division almost feels like watching B-league bantamweights competing, so to me, it doesn't generate as much excitement as a large chunk of those flyweight fighters are actually bantamweights anyways.

Now for the other points made in that Youtube vid, the smaller guy usually has faster everything (reactions, mobility) alongside arguably better cardio despite faster pacing of their fights, so a version of Stipe who got shrunk down to a size where he could be a bantamweight/flyweight could still give any one of those fighters in that division major problems.

Not to mention he would even be more durable relative to that division since lower weight classes don't score as much KO/TKOs as higher weight classes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

USA!USA!
Why was Emmett +200
Replies
13
Views
354
USA!USA!
USA!USA!

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,077
Messages
55,466,129
Members
174,785
Latest member
JoyceOuthw

Share this page

Back
Top