I recently read an interesting piece by Chuck Mindenhall over at ESPN where he highlighted the disarray of the title picture in most of the weight classes in the UFC - here's my take on it. Let's start from the bottom up;
125 - people could be forgiven for forgetting that there's now a 125lb division in the UFC. Their mini tournament turned into a debacle mighty quickly and who knows when we'll have a champion in this weight class
135 - I genuinely admire the timescale that Cruz has set himself to recover from his torn ACL. But even if he does recover in double-quick time, we'll still only see him fight one more time this year. In the meantime, there will be an interim champion (number one contender with a belt). This leads well into my next point; I don't know if he's getting softer with age, but for some reason Dana has been much more placid when it comes to the needs of his number one contenders and interim champions - allowing them to sit out when in the past he would have pressed them to fight
145 - onto arguably the most laughable division there is. I get it, I really do; Aldo is a mean, mean man. He tears through opponents with relative ease, and has made seasoned champions look positively amateur (see Urijah Faber). But when a champion is in need of a challenger and no one in the division seems willing to step forward, it makes a mockery of the sport. It is not unlike Faber asking for one of his team to volunteer on this year's TUF. Just look at the HW division when Overeem bowed out - those guys were practically throwing their grannies under the bus to get their shot
155 - the lightweight belt is currently tied up awaiting another rematch (cue a collective groan from the UFC fans) but in this case I would say it is 'fair' (a term I use loosely when discussing mma matchmaking) given that Edgar bent over backwards giving others their rematches. Nate Diaz is the new #1 contender and has decided to sit out awaiting the winner of the title fight due to take place in September; that means the lightweight belt is tied up until at least December, possibly January of next year. Unless Dana makes Nate fight, a division stacked with electrifying fighters will be resigned to staging fights for the #2 contender's spot for up to 8 months
170 - GSP's dominance was broken only by his own injury; if we're lucky he'll fight by the end of this year. In the meantime, the interim champion (cue another groan from fans) is Condit. The matchmakers at the UFC were probably licking their lips when they saw the controversy caused by first Diaz-Condit match, as that makes for a great rematch. Cue a Sonnen-esque badly timed hot test, and another title picture goes stale as Condit has decided to sit out until GSP returns
185 - Anderson Silva, undisputed kingpin takes on (touch wood) Chael Sonnen in the rematch of the century. This is as big as Chuck-Tito was in terms of a genuine, bad blood fight. Now, with Bisping reaching new heights in his career, Munoz on the way back from an injury, the arrival of Hector Lombard and the grudge match between Wandi and Belfort, this division is buzzing!
205 - Jon Jones is on a tear; say what you want about his personality, the man is a joy to watch in the cage. He isn't shying away from any challenges, and none of the multiple fan favourites are shying away from fighting him. The staple division of the UFC, once again, does not disappoint
265 - the heavyweight division is probably the healthiest it has been in a while, but admittedly it will be much better if Mir wins. If JDS wins, who does he fight next? The fans are already sceptical of the Mir matchup and they aren't convinced they want a Cain rematch already, Nelson isn't there yet, nor Werdum or Bigfoot etc. Overeem would be fantastic, but sadly yet another hot test by a title contender has scratched that. That only leaves the slightly fanciful notion of Mark Hunt, or possibly Lavar Johnson - not ’fair’ matches, but what the fans would like to see. What could also help greatly is any impact the arrival of Cormier and Barnett may have
So out of 8 divisions, we have 2 active, exciting title pictures. That has to be a cause for concern for Dana, Sean Shelby and Joe Silva; I'm a fanboy - I adore mma. When there aren't events on I watch classic events and ’Best of’ DVDs. Whether there's a title fight or not, I set aside time to watch any event that's on - many other fans aren't as easily pleased, and rightly so; they spend their hard earned money and have a right to demand excitement. My solution to the problem - a women’s division. Dana has always been resistive to the idea as he doesn't believe there are enough female fighters, but Invicta went a long way towards disproving that, and he has notably softened to the idea since the emergence of Ronda Rousey. She's polarising, exciting to watch, charismatic, intelligent, great at creating a feud, photogenic and her Olympic pedigree appeals to many fans also. It also couldn't be timed any better - she has a scheduled title defence coming up in August; a timely way to introduce her to new fans. Assuming she survives, Cristiane ’Cyborg’ Santos is free to return in December to settle their fierce feud, and incidentally the first women’s mma super fight. Also, Overeem will return around the same time, and will likely return to a title shot as it will be a big seller - what better main and co-main events for a blockbuster end of year show than the men's HW and women's title fights?
