Why Middleweight Is Now the Most Exciting Division.

[The Reed]

Meh,,,,,

Right now I think it goes

WW
LW
FW
....

LHW
MW
HW

,,,
BW
FlyWeight

Featherweight is the division I see that has exploded. Will be the division of 2013 imo. Went from lean in April to overstocked with a lot of interesting fights to make with a deep pool

LHW over MW, really?

It's fallen tremendously in recent years. Maybe it's because they've finally got that unstoppable champion but really there aren't many up coming talents and contenders in the division right now, at least not as many as middleweight have now.

 

[TheComebackKid]

so now demian maia was good? make up your mind, man. that's not helping your argument when you say weidman hasn't done anything.

Ive always said Maia was good. But simply beating Maia, especially in a candidate for worst foty, doesn't mean you can start calling out the goat and claim hes ducking you.

 

[JoseAldoKillaBe]

i'm with you 100% when he's actually fighting once a year, they need to fight more than that without doubt, just don't think it's fair to bash him for it yet though.

Specially when the "supposed #1 contender" hasn't fought since JULY......

 

[The Reed]

LHW is a murderer's row, it's just that none of them can beat Jones.

All the non-title fights are fascinating.

I don't know man. Hendo is very old, Shoguns knees(and brain) have seen better days, Rampage is on his way out, Rashads rumoured to dropping to 185, Forrests still embarrassed by the Silva fight. Davis, Glover, Gustaffson and Mousasi are good young upcoming guys so It'll be interesting to see how well they do with better challenges though. Still it seems like LHW has lost a lot more talent recently than it's gained.

 

[EmeliankoFan1]

MW has always been solid however the problem with the MMA fans is star power. MW has none of it after you get below Chael, and stupid people equate big names with talent.

Its not really about star power, the division lacks elite fighters at the top.

The guy who ran the division before Silva was Franklin and was beaten in less then 2 rounds by Machida easy.

Its a shallow division in terms of elite fighters outside of Silva.

Its getting better now but I wouldn't call it a powerhouse division.

 

[IAC]

MW has always been solid however the problem with the MMA fans is star power. MW has none of it after you get below Chael, and stupid people equate big names with talent.

Exactly.

 

[The Reed]

The days of Cote and Leites? Well those were also the days of Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson, Chael Sonnen, Nate Marquardt, Yushin Okami, and Demian Maia. The new crop of MWs still have a little ways to go to prove they are on the level of these guys.

It will be good, but so far:

- Cung and Vitor beat Rich.
- Shields beat Hendo
- Sonnen and Okami are still around and Okami beat Marquardt
- Weidman and Munoz beat Maia

So it's looking pretty good for some of these new guys.

 

[iLesnar]

LOL how you put American heroes in there ..

 

[The Reed]

Its not really about star power, the division lacks elite fighters at the top.

The guy who ran the division before Silva was Franklin and was beaten in less then 2 rounds by Machida easy.

Its a shallow division in terms of elite fighters outside of Silva.

Its getting better now but I wouldn't call it a powerhouse division.

Sonnen, Okami, Weidman, Rockhold, Lombard, Jacare, Shields, Bisping, Vitor, Munoz.

Please tell me why these guys aren't 'elite' and which fighters are(in other divisions that aren't the champion).

 

[The Reed]

There are a lot of exciting matchups, certainly. But there's still no real challenges to Silva. It's the perfect scenario for a guy to put together a solid win streak by being exciting more than having the skills to be a contender for the throne.

Disagreed, I really think Weidman, Jacare, Lombard and Rockhold are very tough tests, they have skills that are tough match ups for all champions.

Still it is Anderson Silva we're talking about...

 

[The Reed]

LOL how you put American heroes in there ..

I'm not American but I really thought I'd get flamed a lot less if I did that. Looks like it worked.

 

[TheComebackKid]

It will be good, but so far:

- Cung and Vitor beat Rich.
- Shields beat Hendo
- Sonnen and Okami are still around and Okami beat Marquardt
- Weidman and Munoz beat Maia

So it's looking pretty good for some of these new guys.

Rich is a little older these days. Vitor is one of the guys from the 'Cote & Leites' era I just forgot to list him. Shields is also not a 'new guy' and Maia got robbed against Munoz.

 

[Saskatoonmike**]

With a champion as dominant as Anderson, any weight division will appear shallow. He sets the bar so high that every contender /prospect just seems to be on a level beneath him. I agree that the division has more depth than 5 years ago, but as long as Anderson is on top, it wil still be perceived as being shallow.

With or without Anderson at the top MW still is weak and needs to evolve and solidify.

See the next post for perfect summary.

While I agree it has dramatically improved.... I read the names you listed and kinda felt underwhelmed. Roger isn't ready, Phillipou isn't ready, Palhares will never be ready, Cung Le is old, Franklin is old, Stann and Kenedy are midtier.... I don't want to take anything away, it's gotten dramatically better, but it's still a step below the other IMO.

 

[The Reed]

Rich is a little older these days. Vitor is one of the guys from the 'Cote & Leites' era I just forgot to list him. Shields is also not a 'new guy' and Maia got robbed against Munoz.

Shields is new in the sense that he's new to the UFC's middleweight division but I do agree with your other points.

I just think the division is better now however I also follow the notion that it was always solid. I just can't fathom how people can still call it 'weak'.

 

[notoverrated]

LHW over MW, really?

It's fallen tremendously in recent years. Maybe it's because they've finally got that unstoppable champion but really there aren't many up coming talents and contenders in the division right now, at least not as many as middleweight have now.

Gus
Glover
Manuwa
Mousasi
Dan Henderson
Machida(if you want to count him)
Phil Davis
DC (after frank mir)

there are a lot of guys coming up that are talented in LHW.

 

[The Reed]

With or without Anderson at the top MW still is weak and needs to evolve and solidify.

See the next post for perfect summary.

Jukai had some good points but didn't list the absolute best new guys to the division just the mid level ones.

 

[TheComebackKid]

Shields is new in the sense that he's new to the UFC's middleweight division but I do agree with your other points.

I just think the division is better now however I also follow the notion that it was always solid. I just can't fathom how people can still call it 'weak'.

Agreed. I think the new crop of MWs could really elevate the division. But its a little too early to crown this new crop of MWs so much better than the previous crop.

I am expecting a lot of good things from Rockhold, Jacare, Weidman, Lombard, ect.

 

[PabloZed]

Lw
lhw
mw
fw
ww

 

[The Reed]

Gus
Glover
Manuwa
Mousasi
Dan Henderson
Machida(if you want to count him)
Phil Davis
DC (after frank mir)

there are a lot of guys coming up that are talented in LHW.

I don't think Hendo will be around too long after the Jones(or Machida if he loses) fight but TRT makes a fool of us all. Can Daniel Cormier make LHW? Manuwa looks like a powerful dude but I need to see him fight tougher competition first.

 

[Saskatoonmike**]

It's become better lately, but it's hardly the most exicting or deepest division. Ffs, Boetsch, a former 205 journeyman, managed to become top 5 just like that.

MW still remains the ONLY division that less then top 10 journey men can drop down to the division and become perennial top 10 and almost instantly in the title contenders race.

There is no history of that happening in any other division really, other then when maybe a new lower division is created and the smaller guys drop to their natural weight class. Outside MW when guys drop they tend to be exactly where they were or worse when they drop to the division below.

In fact we see the opposite when MW's drop. Currently we have two recent top MW's (perennial contenders and title shot) in Marquart and Maia, Marquart is struggling to get anywhere near his MW success and if Maia loses to Fitch then the same will be true with him. And these were not journey men MW's, like the LHW's who drop to MW, these were top MW's.