BW is stacked right now

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With Cejudo returning to BW now you got this…

Sterling as champ.
Top contenders list…Yan, Aldo, Cejudo, Dillashaw, Cruz, maybe you have heard of some of them.

Dvalishvilli, Song, Sandhagen, Vera, O’Malley, Said Nurmagomedov, Simon and Font have climbed the ranks as well.

Umar Nurmagomedov is now 2-0 in the division and someone to watch.

Over at Bellator, a GP is being held, Pettis is champ, Stots just won the interim title, Higo, Caldwell, Mix, Horiguchi, Barzola, Archuleta, Johns, Mattos, Hill and Mogomedov are all in the mix to varying degrees.

It has never been harder to climb the top 10 rankings in the UFC or Bellator if you happen to be a BW.

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BW is in my top 3 favorite divisions currently. If you woulda told me that 10 years ago I’d have laughed my ass off

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Gallagher and Pettis had to give up their spots in quarters due to injury. So Sabatello and Barzola had to win fights vs Mikhailov and Lugo to qualify for the quarters. Stots and Mix just advanced to the semis. I think the other pair of quarters are in June but not sure.

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BW is a deep and exciting division right now.

But it’s so hard for me to get excited about a weight class that women compete in or an adolescent boy. Being a man and only weighing 135lbs is strange to me for some reason.

Either way, I’m a fan of Sandhagen, Yan, ALjo, Font, Chito, and O’Malley.

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Just imagine how exciting a 32 man GP would be if you could invite anyone from any promotion to compete.

The champs plus all the top ten BW from UFC and Bellator could be in there competing with RIZIN GP champ Ougikubo, ONE FLW fighters like Mighty Mouse and the champ Moraes, ONE BW champ Lineker plus former champ Bibiano and a couple of the best guys from ACA too.

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Some of those guys are cutting from 155 lbs/160 lbs. Have you ever trained? Do you really think a 160 lb athlete in any combat sport is anything like a woman or an adolescent boy? I bet if you ever wrestled or sparred with them you would have a different opinion. I feel like that is just something people who have never trained anything say, no offense.

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No offense taken, but since I currently have two fighters in UFC and a host of others in Bellator, I’m pretty familiar with how it works. My first fighter went to UFC in 2009.

And I’m assuming you train and realize how strange it is for a full grown man to be able to make a weight class of 125/135. They are not big men naturally.

I had a fighter who walked at 170 and would make 135. He was not a big person in general.

It’s not a knock on them at all…I just find it strange that a man can weigh that little.

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Didn’t realize you were a coach. A lot of people like the technique and pace of the top guys at BW. They are small compared to the average man, you are right about that. I just respect the skills a lot of a lot of the fighters at that weight.

When watching the sport, as a fan, I’d just rather watch an Aldo or a Horiguchi with all that skill than say a lot of HWs who are more limited in terms of technique.

I’m a fan of the elite HWs but LW is my favorite division when I’m looking to see a great fight.

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HW and LHW have become horrible imo. BW, LW and WW are the best divisions currently imo. Or I should say they’re currently my 3 favorites

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Honestly, if you took BW, LW and WW away and they did not exist…I’d probably only bother to watch five or ten fights a year. Those three weight classes do so much to keep the sport interesting these days.

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Stots looks like a killer and Sabatello has a mouth on him. This tourney was a good call for Bellator

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It’s funny. When I was a lot younger and first got into MMA I was the opposite. I only cared about the big guys. HW and LHW and of course MW thanks to Anderson Silva

Other than Nick and BJ Penn I really didn’t care about the small guys

Now that I’m a bit older and wiser, I’m the complete opposite. I recognize that HW and LHW are so much less skilled overall and the smaller divisions are incredible and their talent/skill level is far better

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Tbh you may be onto something :joy:

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Lol they cut from 150-160. That is probably the average weight of healthy men worldwide. (healthy, not American)

The talent and skill at 135 is insane. Half of the p4p top 10 are bantamweights.

I will never understand how you could have Ngannou that oaf in a p4p ranking. Or Nunes lol

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Cejudo!

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Another little person.

Ask any woman and ideal man weight/size. See if she says 150lbs.

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Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz is targeting a return this year and eyes the upper echelon of the division.

Cruz is coming off a “Fight of the Night” win over Pedro Munhoz this past December and is back on a winning streak after losing his title in 2016.

“I’m ready,” Cruz said in an interview with The Schmo. “I’m training non-stop. I just want to face someone who’s above me in the division, not underneath me in the ladder. I’ve been fighting for a long time. I don’t deserve anything, but moving up the ladder doesn’t sound like anything other than logic.”

He continued, “I’m coming back this year, and we’re winning the title. We are winning the title if not this year, the next year, but each fight is getting closer to that goal.”

Cruz (24-3 MMA, 7-2 UFC) would love another shot at the title now but is willing to fight his way back up. With the news of Henry Cejudo, the last man to beat him, returning and asking for a direct shot at gold, Cruz thinks he should have to fight his way back too.

“If I don’t get the shot, I don’t get the shot, but I’m beating the people I need to beat. I’m on a two-fight win streak,” CFormer UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz is targeting a return this year and eyes the upper echelon of the division.ruz said. “We’re naming people who haven’t even been in the USADA testing pool for over a year. So people who have been outside of the USADA testing pool, why are they even in the debate for a title?

“That doesn’t make any sense to me. So the only people in the debate for a title are the people who have been actively putting their careers on the line, and that’s everybody who’s been in the division actively. If you haven’t been active in the division, get to the back of the line, period.”

Cruz doesn’t have a particular name in mind for his next fight but is happy to welcome Cejudo back to the octagon. Prior to retiring, Cejudo finished Cruz at UFC 249 to retain his bantamweight title, a stoppage Cruz contested.

“I want to move up. Give me somebody in the top five,” Cruz said. “Give me an Aldo, give me a Petr Yan, give me Aljamain Sterling. You know what, give me the rematch with Cejudo when he gets his sh*t together. I don’t care. Let me be the first person he faces until he gets right back in the division if he wants. I got no beef with him.”

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Yaadong song2!!

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#11 ranked Edgar is not in the title picture at all but if you are just talking former champs, UFC’s BW division has 6 former champions ranked in the top 15 and thats not including the reigning champion.

So once Cejudo is back, 7 current or former UFC champs of 4 weight classes are competing with one another in the BW division.

No division has ever seen so many former champs nor from so many weight classes competing together.

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