Is a 'Cruiserweight' division a good idea?

[greathamza]

Originally Posted by Will Cooling

Look at boxing - anybody who's any good either cuts to 175Ibs or goes up to heavyweight. Why? Because nobody cares about crusierweights.

the CW in boxing is very stacked kinda like the 205 or 155 in MMA.
there is a lot of talent in the CW to but they are barley any room to establish yourself like in HW or LHW.
david haye moved from CW to HW cuz the competition is easier in HW than in CW

[achillesthegreat]

No. JDS and Cain are not particularly big guys in terms of weight. Cain could easily be 220 but carries fat. Fedor and many others are proof that 205 plus is fine. 220 fighters tend to be 205 fighters. Above that, they tend to be heavies like CC, Fedor, Cain etc

[Thom]

Originally Posted by Flea Man

You don't think? Big 205ers small 265ers....there must be a fair few of those.

Then you'd be left with 3 or 4 decent Heavyweights.

[greathamza]

Originally Posted by Thom

Then you'd be left with 3 or 4 decent Heavyweights.

there only are 3 or 4 decent HW in the UFC to start with

[2ironmt]

The idea should be explored as the 60lbs between lhw and hw limits is a lot and there are a few guys that appear to have difficulty even w/ the 265 cutoff, but there's probably not that much of a need right now. hate too many classes (like boxing), but there's some merit to the idea

[Flea Man]

Well, it provoked the divided response I expected, but gave me more of a fully formed idea of how it would/wouldn't work. Thanks to all those who have contributed

In other news, looks like a fighter I've expressed a desire to see in the UFC, Hatsu Hioki, is coming over. Which is good.

Looking forward to seeing him get into triange mount on Aldo and g'n'p him into submision

[Bill Butcher]

NO

It was bad for boxing & it will be bad for MMA

[scurlaruntings]

Originally Posted by Will Cooling

Terrible, terrible idea.

There just isn't the depth in talent to support such a division. You have to look at it in the context of the current sport. Virtually every fighter in the UFC cuts 15-20Ibs. So a 225Ibs division wouldn't be for the likes of Jon Jones and Phil Davis as they'd still want to cut weight to go into their fights with a weight advantage. A 225Ibs division would actually be for the likes of Cain Velasquez and Frank Mir, natural 245Ibs who currently don't cut weight. You'd basically slice the heavyweight division in half with the 'heavyweight' weight class being full of 260Ibers who would not longer be pushed to improve their speed, cardio, etc by having to fight slightly smaller but faster guys.

As well you have to remember that a crusierweight division would be sandwiched between two of the most marketable divisions in the sport. It would therefore attract a significantly lesser quality of fighter than any other division. It wouldn't just be dominant crusierweight champions who moved - pretty much any champion after a couple of defenses would be egged on to move up. Look at boxing - anybody who's any good either cuts to 175Ibs or goes up to heavyweight. Why? Because nobody cares about crusierweights.

What this man said.

[codeman99998]

There is also the question of the legitimacy of the weightclass. If Fedor or Valasquez or Couture or other smaller heavyweights can win at HW that sort of implies that the size advantage ISN'T too much and top fighters at HW can be champs without there being a super heavyweight division. Anyways, there is certainly no one in the world who can't make 265 who could be the heavyweight champion of the world but there are people who can win it showing up at 235.

[rekcutnevets]

If weigh ins stay a day ahead, then I think it is fine the way it is. Most of the guys at 205 are people that are close to 220 anyway.

I wish they would make fighters weigh in the day of the event. Same day weigh ins were done away with in boxing, because many felt it was unhealthy to rehydrate in that amount of time. I say, stop playing games and fight at your weight. If there were same day weigh ins, I would favor a 225 lb division.

[Will Cooling]

I think weight difference means less the further up you go. I mean after all if a bantamweight has a 10Ib weight advantage on their opponent they weigh 8% more than their opponent. The same difference between a 240Iber and 230Iber is a weight advantage of only 4%.

Additionally I'm big believer that at heavyweight the trade-off for additional weight becomes all the greater as additional weight hurts your coordination, speed and cardio. I mean Silva vs Penn (weight difference of about 40Ibs) would be insane because there's no coordination or speed disadvantage for the larger man. That would not be the case for say Frank Mir (260Ibs) vs Randy Couture.