There is a trend occurring in the UFC. Perhaps trend isn't the right word, but it is the first one that comes to mind. Perhaps it is more accurate to call it a state of unrest.
This unrest comes from the idea that being a champion of a single weight division isn't enough. One must prove themselves in the never-ending debate about who the best "pound-for-pound" fighter in the world is.
Now, mixed-martial artists aren't just fighting their opponents, they are fighting abstracts and opinions.
It isn't enough that a fighter trains for hours a day, six or even seven days a week. It isn't enough to learn skills in boxing, kick boxing, wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. It isn't enough that fighters compete at local, low-money shows, trying to scratch out a living in hopes of making it to the big show.
Now, once you get to the big show and (God forbid) actually when a championship belt, you can't be happy. You have to gain or lose weight to fight another group of fighters in an effort to overcompensate for some shortcoming.
It wasn't always this way.
When Matt Hughes won his belt, he didn't try to put on weight and fight the likes of Evan Tanner or Dave Menne.
When Chuck Liddell won the belt, he didn't try to lose weight to fight Rich Franklin or even Anderson Silva.
And it isn't just these two fighters. Sherk stayed a lightweight. Franklin stayed a middleweight. Tito was a light heavyweight. It wasn't about jumping weight classes or proving anything. Having the belt was enough.
- B/R Ticket Guide
Enter Dan Henderson. Holding both the middleweight and light heavyweight belts at the same time for the former Pride organization set a new standard. Now fighters had to show that they could do the same thing.
Of course, Henderson lost both title defenses when the belts were unified in the UFC. However, that seems to be neither here nor there in the mindsets of today's champions.
B.J. Penn wants his shot at Georges St. Pierre. There was talk of GSP moving up to potentially fight Anderson Silva. Silva has already moved up and fought as a light heavyweight.
Brandon Verra made the audacious proclamation that he would be both the heavy and light heavyweight champ. Randy Couture moved up to heavyweight and took that title.
There is unrest amongst champions, and this unrest is a slap in the face of all fighters that want their shot at the belt.
The first and foremost concern on the mind of any UFC champion should be defending and holding sacred the belt that they won. Title defense should be their only concern. It shouldn't even be allowed that a fighter move weight classes while holding a belt.
The results are actually disastrous.
As is, there should never be a UFC pay-per-view that doesn't have a title shot occurring. Champions usually fight every four to six months. Of course, then there is The Ultimate Fighter, which puts titles on hold for over a year (thanks again for that one).
Let's say Silva has both the middleweight and light heavyweight belt. Does that mean he will be defending the belts at least twice a year (barring injury, which would destroy the point of the belts to begin with)? Doubtful.
What would happen if a Serra-like injury takes place? Suddenly, interim champs are crowned to subdue upset fans that would have to wait more than a year just to see a title defense?
Changing weight classes says one thing to other fighters in the same division: I am better than you, so I am going to find someone else to fight.
And the UFC allowing this to happen means they agree. Suddenly, having a UFC title doesn't seem to mean as much anymore. The UFC certainly doesn't seem nearly as interested in promoting their champions as much as it is interesting in showing that they can have what Pride had: a flash in the pan (sorry Hendo, but it is the truth).
The bottom line is this: If you hold the belt, you have to defend it. If you want to switch weight classes, you forfeit your belt. It shouldn't really matter to the champs; they don't seem that interested anymore.
comments (15) write a comment »
write a new comment
3 months ago
My goodness! What a relevant article for today's MMA debacle. The current situation borders on being ludicrous. Fortunately you have explained exactly how this happened, why it is such a concern and what to do about it. I am very imprssed by this explanation and solution. It is one thing to identify a problem, but having the solution handy is terrific.
from 3 months ago
Thanks a lot Dorothy. Coming from you I definitely take that as high praise. Now, if only someone would listen.
Or if fighters would remember what it was like to dream about being a champ in the first place.
3 months ago
Alright, this is a good, well written article, but I completely disagree with you...
"What would happen if a Serra-like injury takes place? Suddenly interim champs are crowned to subdue upset fans that would have to wait more than a year just to see a title defense?"
Exactly, injuries happen. And in this instance it had nothing to do with someone moving weight classes. The fans don't get too upset. Interim titles are typically viewed as the same thing. Most of the casual MMA fans would say the HW champ of the UFC is Big Nog. And they think that Randy is retired. I don't think it's right to ruin super fights for fans just because an injury could happen. Of course an injury could happen and the risk can be taken.
"Let's say Silva has both the middleweight and light heavyweight belt. Does that mean he will be defending the belts at least twice a year (barring injury which would destroy the point of the belts to begin with)? Doubtful."
Yes. He would (barring injury). Silva likes to fight every 3 months if he can. But this instance (and perhaps you're solely trying to prove a point and use his name in your example) is really beside the point because Anderson isn't looking to become the LHW champion. He just goes to LHW to challenge himself because the middleweight division is starting to run thin with challengers.
"Changing weight classes [when you are the champ] says one thing to other fighters in the same division: I am better than you so I am going to find someone else to fight."
Well... they are the champion, aren't they? Seriously though, are you worried that BJ Penn is hurting the poor lightweight division's feelings? Because none of them have rightfully earned a title shot yet anyway.
Wouldn't the champion of a division where another fighter relinquished their belt be just as descredited as an interim champion? Or even more so?
Alright... so as I write this comment I'm starting to think that it's not that bad of an idea (although I prefer it the way it is still). I'll leave my previous comments here anyways because I put too much time into them to just leave them out.
from 3 months ago
Okay, that is a lot to response to, but I will do my best.
Yes, injuries happen, but if two belts are taken off the market it has much more of an impact on the franchise than one.
Yes, I was just using Silva as an example, I could have used Penn, but he has gotten far too much attention from this site as is.
No, I'm not concerned about Penn hurting the feelings of other lightweights, I am upset about his disrespect for his fellow fighters. Not that Penn has ever been known to be the most generous and caring of fighters.
I'm not saying interim champs are or should be discredited, but I do think that champions that jump weight classes should be discredited. It is a slap in the face to the sport in general that a champion would think so little of their accomplishment that they would automatically try to win another belt.
After all, this isn't boxing. Do people really want it to become the spectacle that boxing has become with an endless number of divisions and belts and promoters and (gasp!) corruption?
from 3 months ago
I agree with Robert, Id just like to sum it up and say... If they can make the weight and win, then more power to them. I want to see the best fighter be the champion, no matter what weight classes they're in or how many other belts they have.
3 months ago
I think that Anderson and GSP are the only guys that should move to another weight class to challenge for the title because they have pretty much cleaned out their divisions. I'm a BJ Penn fan but I don't think he should be challenging GSP after beating Pulver,Stevensen, and Sherk. he still has plenty of fights left at Lightweight. GSP however has defeated all the top fighters at Welterweight except Thiago Alves and Diego Sanchez and Anderson Silva has beaten everyone at Middleweight except maybe Okami and Cote which he is fighting next so if they want to challeng other weight classes I say go for it, they deserve it and they earned it. but I would also like to see them regularly defend their current titles.
3 months ago
I almost agree with you Jon, with the exception of one point. I think that as long as you defend both titles, you shouldn't have to give up either. I think the UFC should just have a rule stating how often a guy has to defend his titles or be stripped. As long as you meet the guidelines, you should be able to hold as many titles as you can win.
In boxing the problem was never guys moving up and down in weight to win titles. The problem was they were not moving up to fight the actual champion, just some guy with the fourth rated belt in that division so that they could call themselves a champion.
If Anderson Silva wants to fight Griffin and can beat him, and defend both belts twice a piece next year, why shouldn't he?
I think it would devalue the 185lb belt if Anderson was stripped of it to fight at 205. Who would believe that Rich Franklin or Dan Henderson was the real champion if Anderson still WANTED to fight at that weight but couldn't.
The only way he should be stripped was if he no longer planned on defending the belt or couldn't make the weight anymore. But that's just my opinion, and its no more right than yours Jon.
from 3 months ago
Well said. I completely agree. Your 3rd paragraph really stressed a point I was trying to make and kind of failed to.
3 months ago
Great article Jon. It truly it a wierd situation for organizations nowadays. To be quite honest, I have mixed feelings about it all. I truly agree with you about the belts, because if you take all that work to get the belt, and then want to prove something, it's unfair to other fighters in that division to wait if you get injured, or want a specific fight in another division. However, take a look at Anderson Silva. He just got off his dominating win, and will be back in the octagon in October to defend his belt. So it's tough to generalize. With Superfights really being the result of this (BJ vs. GSP, Silva vs Forrest, etc...) there really are so many pros and cons to it. It's so tough to argue against, and so tough to defend too. Great article though. And like Dorothy said, you're solution seems reasonable, but it does take those darn superfights away too...sorta. But for example...there are extremes like Fedor vs. Silva..b/c even though everyone says "oh it's not an extreme because they both can make 205", it's unfair more to Silva, because come the day of the fight, you know Fedor will not be 205...but wow...great article...my POD.
3 months ago
Great article. I wrote my first article on the fact the BJ shouldnt move up to fight GSP. I like how you brought up Hendos failure. Alot of people want to see BJ win (not me) but what they dont understand is that by having BJ win, that means youll prolly see those titles defended once a year, if that. Anderson earned the right to move up by beating everyone in dominating fashion in his division. But he also is fighting 4 times a year meaning he can do 2 fight s a year at each weight class. BJ has only beaten Joe Stevenson and Sherk. Now he demands a shot at the belt in his first welterweight fight in years? Anderson is 10 times the fighter BJ is and he didnt demand a title shot. He wasted his time knocking out James Irvin
3 months ago
Nice article jon.. we all know that jumping weight class is just to make more exciting fights errgo money for Dana....
3 months ago
In my opinion, this "predicament" is what makes the sport great. It is what separates MMA from Boxing. Fighters don't just want to fight to defend their belt, they want to fight whoever the fans want them to fight.
3 months ago
I kind of agree. I think that in Silva's case, it is a cool idea since he has demolished the best in the Middleweight division. Matt Hughes was the most dominate fighter in the Welterweight division, and they started to have him fight the likes of Royce in different weight groups.
I think BJ Penn is an asshole, and is completely flaking on his responsibility as a title holder in the lightweights. Vera, same thing, he has to make sure he has cleaned the heavyweight/light heavy weight division spotless before he can start switching in divisions.
Unless a title holder has a weight class completely dominated, then they can start lookin to fight in other divisions, but if they just got the title, then they should just worry about who is next to fight them in their division.
from 3 months ago
Why the hate on Vera? Some fighters begin their careers in a weight class that they believe they can compete in, then realize that it's too large for them. Hell, Rich Franklin dropped from LHW, but nobody seems to remember that. There's countless fighters who have done it after TUF (Rashad Evans, Mike Swick, etc.).
3 months ago
Ramon: Nice article jon.. we all know that jumping weight class is just to make more exciting fights errgo money for Dana....
So what? exciting fights are good for the fans to, not just dana.. I really want to see gsp vs anderson, it would be a hell of a fight
write a new comment