How does the quality of the divisions measure up? Do some divisions just seem weak because their champions are so dominant? Here is how Beekeeper rates this: 1. Lightweight - Quality fighters everywhere, Maynard and Edgar have emerged in the post-BJ era, Aoki has cleaned out LW in his organization in Japan and beat the champ of Sengoku and Melendez has been a force in SF to relatively little fanfare. To add, the stable of WEC LW fighter has arrived in UFC and will make some good matchups. 2. Light Heavyweight - This is a quality division mostly because of the UFC-Pride digestion, maybe the division talked about the most for potential matchups. Jon Jones has looked like he could be the next P4P king with his abilities. Gergard Mousasi also looks like a very good fighter. 3. Heavyweight - Strikeforce has put on a good tournament with some quality fighters such as Overeem, Werdum, Bigfoot and Kharitionov. The UFC heavyweight has taken a big step with the emergence of Cain and JDS. 4. Welterweight - Really not a bad division. GSP is a great fighter, and has dominated the fighters in the UFC. Who is left, Kim Dong-hyun? Out side there is some good competition with Nick Diaz, Shamil Zavurov and this Japanese guy, I forgot his name. 5. Middleweight - The quality of Anderson Silva keeps this division up in my opinion. Sonnen and Okami also deserve a mention. What are your thoughts?
Featherweight - I have not followed WEC too closely before the merger, but I would say FW is pretty close or better than MW. Aldo is a great fighter and it looks like he will be on top until he moves up. Hatsu Hioki who fights for Sengoku has beaten Homminick twice when he fought in Canada. Bantamweight - I liked watching the last Cruz - Benavidez fight, they both look pretty talented, but I don't really know much outside them.
you cant really hate on the guys in MW for looking bad cuz they get finished quickly by anderson silva. you forgot Ronaldo Souza (hope i spelled it right) from strikeforce Hector Lombard from bellator Robbie Lawler they are pretty good imo MW is a pretty good division but not in the UFC
You are correct Hamza, Anderson embarrasses people, this is one of the reasons Shields went to WW, and now Marquant has as well. But with the guys you mentioned, would you put it over HW or WW?
Shields went to welterweight because the UFC made him. He wanted to stay at 185Ibs and would have matched up far better against Silva than St. Pierre. Marquardt went to welterweight because he lost to Sonnen and Okami, and is so now out of the title picture. The fact is the UFC middleweight division has a world champion BJJ grappler in Demian Maia, an olympic-level greco-roman wrestler in Chael Sonnen, Asian championship judoka in Yoshihiro Akiyama, good all rounders in Michael Bisping and Jason Miller, solid specialists in Vitor Belfort and Yushin Okami, and all out sluggers in Wanderlei Silva and Chris Silva. It also has real prospects for the future in the likes of Brian Stann and Jorge Santiago. Oh and it has the single most dominant champion in MMA history. That is a very strong division and its depth has remarkably held up despite Silva's long reign. To me its up there with the light heavyweight division as one of the stronger divisions although lightweight is clearly the strongest. The Strikeforce division has some decent prospects although not enough to justify taking its championship seriously. I actually think welterweight is probably the weakest of the five core divisions - the way BJ Penn was able to expose the flaws in Fitch's game after repeatedly failing to cope with the wrestling of Frankie Edgar was very telling. Its a division plagued with a lack of variety (other than Penn and Diaz all the top contenders are wrestlers) and the politics surrounding AKA team members not fighting each other.
i would put it over HW in the ufc but overall the HW is pretty good. the HW division is the weakest in the UFC but strikeforce has picked up where the ufc couldnt. but i would put MW over WW.
Good post Will, you are clearly well informed on this, however, martial art superstars do not necessarily translate to MMA, just look at Alex Emalienenko. Obviously this doesn't apply to all the people you stated, but my point was that if Anderson moved up left or retired this division would lose much of its pedigree, at least in the UFC. But I agree about WW, you made a good point about Fitch. UFC really needs to try some talent from other places here.
i think its the other way around. Anderson Silva is holding his division back cuz just look at how he embarrassed good fighter like forrest griffin, dear lord did forrest look like some punk out of the audience trying to survive with the pros but we all know that forrest was at one point the LHW champ, he embarrassed hendo, vitor belfort and others that are pretty good fighters and he made them look not so good.
Heavyweight ; Stand out fighters include , Velasquez , Dos Santos & Overeem , other top level fighters would be , Fedor , Silva , Lesnar (unfortunatley) , Mir , Big Nog , Werdum (i suppose:roll , Carwin , and the likes . Should in theory looking at them names be one of the strongest divisions in MMA , the UFC / Strikeforce divide may prove otherwise , will Overeem switch to the UFC if he wins the tourney ?? , that depends on what there gonna pay him , if he does it becomes and excellent division with 2 or maybe 3 P4P entry's . Lightheavyweight ; This is where most of MMA's proper superstars reside , Jones , Shogun , Rampage , Evans & Machida would IMO be the standout / elitists of this division and the world , add to that Davis , Griffin , Henderson , Franklin , Lil Nog , Bader , Silva , and the likes make this for me the most talent stacked division in world MMA , from top to bottom its got animals with serious skills who all want a slice of the title and most of them have held it at one point . Middleweight ; By and large a weak division with one elite fighter , Silva , the rest are world class but not elite yet , Souza , Sonnen , Wanderlei , Belcher (for me is a serious player barring injury's) , Mardquart , Okami , Belfort not exactly full of bums at the top end of the division but no really great fighters compared ofcourse with the other divisions . Has some other solid contenders like Bisping , Cote , Lawler , but overall one of the weaker divisions Welterweight ; Talent packed and headed by the current face of MMA , elite fighters include GSP & Fitch , many world level fighters underneath them two include Alves , Diaz , Condit , Penn , Koscheck and Sheilds all of whom have excellent wins against top opposition and all have a claim to at some point to being close to being the very best in the world , underneath that pool of animals you have Swick , Johnson , Thiago , Nate Diaz , Hardy , Daley , Ellenberger , Sanchez , Hathaway , Kampman and co , its so deep its unbeleivable , its quite simply the most difficuilt division to look good in , every fight is seen as a title fight for its contenders , its a scary divison , overall has more talent than any division in MMA on a consistency and performance level . Lightweight ; Shark Tank of a division , Edgar , Maynard & Melendez have to be seen as elite IMHO , the recent loss of Florian , Stevenson & Tyson Griffin is a blow no doubt but still has excellent contenders such as Dunham , Sherk , Guillard , Gomi , Miller , Ayoki , Huerta , Alvarez , Guida and the likes , this division has took a hit over the last 12 months with the loss of Penn no doubt about it , but IMO we may see Aldo attempting to buzz saw his way through this pack which will add a complete new dimension to the dynamics of this division , it would be nice to see Melendez in the UFC and would probably be worth closing down the SF LW division without him !!! , he would be a smashing addition to the UFC's LW division , in summary for me only Edgar makes the current P4P list but lots of talent competition and potential . Featherweight ; Headed by a top 4 P4P fighter and killing machine Jose Aldo , who looks somewhat unbeatable , he will have Florian to deal with soon who IMO should take up the #2 position in this division purely down to his skill set and experience of fighting top level fighters in a weight class above . Thats ofcourse after the impressive Chad Mendez gets his shot , Hominick , Garza , Gamburyian , Grispi , Sandro (who will not be fighting in the UFC after just signing with Bellator) and the likes make up a really under estimated division , .............. Hioki seriously needs to make his switch to the UFC after years of looking mightily impressive oversea's and should make an impact in the UFC , Griffin and Stevenson added to that and this division is looking very very strong . Bantamweight ; Dominick Cruz arguably an elite level fighter joins Faber at the top of this division , not a great division in terms of talent and depth , Faber is a superstar because of his style and appeal and Cruz is very very talented and has a fan friendly style also , them two should provide a great fight again , and maybe more down the line which should advertise the BW dvision in good light , then you have Torres , Bowles , Benavidez , Wineland , Ueda (Japanese based) and Jorgensen , difficulit to rank this division as the majority of contenders are hard to follow , its one of the weaker ones IMO .
Ronaldo Souza has only one real lose and that is against moussai and he is a good fighter, and you cant blame him for a lose on his first fight. personally i would want to see him against Hector Lombard who has great judo and has some good hands and good submissions it would be an interessting fight imo and he has also lost to moussai and to gono
Apart from that your analysis is fair, but why would Werdum not deserve to be up there, he is the first man to legit beat Fedor and also decisioned Bigfoot, he surely is top 5 at least.