A lot of people that have lost interest in MMA say they just don’t have any interest in WMMA, the flyweights, watered down weekly cards etc… I get their perspective to a degree. They want to see fighters compete who can at least beat the prelim HW’s from the late 90’s. Personally I’m a big fan of BW, FW, LW and WW, those UFC divisions keep me a fan of the current product.
Anyway… how many currently signed UFC fighters can beat the 6’2, 350 lb wrestle-boxer Andre Roberts from 1999? Andre retired 14-2 in MMA and went 1-1 in the UFC. How about 1999’s Ron Waterman, how many fighters does the UFC have signed that would honestly be favored to win a MMA fight vs the Waterman of 1999?
Probably most from 170 and up. Maybe some from 155, as a lot of them are actually big and cut from 180+.
Flyweight should just go. Its selling point was that it was going to bring in hordes of Asian and Latino talent and that definitely hasn’t happened. It’s been over 10 years and it’s still the weakest male division with the least fan interest. The champion is someone who kills himself to make weight and should be at 135 anyway.
WMMA will never go away but 145 should be dropped. It only has 7 fighters on the roster, most of whom have unimpressive records. The rest of the female divisions just need some standards. Don’t sign anyone and everyone just to have a big roster.
UFC HW has always sucked. Overall, I’ve considered HW to be the most overrated division in MMA, period.
That being said, here’s the UFC top 10 HW, including the champion at #1:
1 Francis Ngannou
2 Ciryl Gane
3 Stipe Miocic
4 Tai Tuivasa
5 Curtis Blaydes
6 Derrick Lewis
7 Tom Aspinall
8 Alexander Volkov
9 Jairzinho Rozenstruik
10 Chris Daukaus
Rozenstruik and Daukaus are the only guys I could see Roberts or Waterman beating today.
I was not targeting the current HWs with that question about who could beat Roberts. I was really pointing to the fact there are 650 fighters on the roster and I get what some old school fans don’t like about the current MMA landscape.
Who is the baddest man on the planet was the original question being asked when NHB got up in running.
Coming up in July they now got 115 lb females on three fight losing streaks and 0-3 UFC records on the biggest UFC card of the year.
Andre smashes anyone 170 and under. I do miss finding the baddest man on the planet type feel to events. Can we get an open weight GP over summer or something?? No just 115 wmma on losing streaks OK
Yeah the average Fight Night can really start to feel a little boring now. The UFC believes their system of bringing talent through TUF and DWCS and then to the prelims and then the main cards is the way to go. I don’t entirely disagree with how they do that at all though. Also on those main cards will be aging dependable vets that fans know and have seen 1000x, vets like Guida, Arlovski, Eye, etc…
They figure each Fight Night they give fans 40% decisions, 40% TKO/KOs and 20% submissions and they will be happy with that as long as they know a few vets and maybe one of the WMMA chicks is pretty enough to be marketable.
They think its only for the PPV headliners and co-headliners they need to really package a narrative around why a fan would want to watch the fight to begin with.
Most UGers would like to see the UFC experiment with using the GP format occasionally and most fans are happy to see when they put four or five good fights from a single weight class on an event because for once fans get a chance to focus on a division while they watch a UFC event instead of having to watch the same 2 gender/9 weight class Fight Night over and over and over again.
LOL every ranked male though???.. Yeah i’m just over here picturing Sean O Malley kicking Roberts once and snapping his feeble, feminine, petite femur on Roberts ham hock of a leg like its a wet tooth pick before crumbling to the canvas in a heap of clown paint & rub on gumball machine tattoos
