For the most part, everyone can agree that Anderson Silva & GSP have cleaned out there divisions; for most of the most part, everyone can agree that B.J. Penn has cleaned out his division...[please run a title search for "The Enigma of the UFC's LW Division" to read my defense of the previous statement]...
More so in the LW division than the WW & MW; what do you think the cause of this is? Clearly, the three aforementioned fighters are living legends and are all simply on a level that is attainedby a rare few in sports, i.e. Jordan, Gretzky, Tiger Woods, Phelps, etc..so I think the cleaning out of the division would come sooner or later but do you think that one of the reasons is that the top fighters don't fight in the UFC?
In the LW division only 2 of MMAWeekly's top 8 fight in the UFC; the WW and MW division aren't as bad but the problem is definitely most prominent in the LW division...basically, I'm saying that maybe BJ [& I'm a self-proclaimed BJ nuthugger] can't be beaten at 155 lbs. in the UFC b/c the best 155ers don't fight in the ufc....once again please read "The Enigma of the UFC's Lightweight Division".
Do you think that the WW and MW divisions are in the same boat as the LW?
There is generally a bias towards Japanese LWs because they had the weight class established during the time when the UFC dropped the LW division. Because of that, people still seem to think the UFC LWs are ranked below the ones that fight in Japan, even though they are only fighting non UFC guys, and the UFC guys are only fighting UFC guys.
Basically we don't know until some of the top guys from the Japanese LW scene fight in the UFC. We got a glipse of it when Uno returned after beating Ishida and then losing a very close decision to Spencer Fisher.
To settle the issue I would love to see someone like Kawa, Aoki or Kikuna come over to the UFC
"for most of the most part, everyone can agree that B.J. Penn has cleaned out his division"
Why would anyone agree to this ridiculous statement? He's beat Pulver, Stevenson and Sherk at LW and the division is absolutely loaded. He hasn't cleaned out anything. On the other hand GSP has beat Hughes, Koscheck, Fitch, Alves and Serra recently, that's a much better example of cleaning out your division.
"There is generally a bias towards Japanese LWs because they had the weight class established during the time when the UFC dropped the LW division."
Exactly, the Japanese LWs tend to make up a lot of the rankings because they are more established and the rankings are based on results and not potential. More and more of the UFC fighters should be sneaking into the rankings as they face off against elite competition very regularly. Edgar has as good a resume as anyone at LW but the division is still relatively new.
"for most of the most part, everyone can agree that B.J. Penn has cleaned out his division."
My GOD that is an absolutely ridiculous, and flat-out indefensible statement. He has fought TWO guys in the division, one of whom is 2-3 in his last five fights, the other of whom just got dominated by Edgar.
NoPlacebo - "for most of the most part, everyone can agree that B.J. Penn has cleaned out his division"Agreed. As more time passes and the weight class because more established in the UFC, the LWs in the UFC will creep up the rankings however this would quickly be resolved if the Japanese LWs fought in the UFC
Why would anyone agree to this ridiculous statement? He's beat Pulver, Stevenson and Sherk at LW and the division is absolutely loaded. He hasn't cleaned out anything. On the other hand GSP has beat Hughes, Koscheck, Fitch, Alves and Serra recently, that's a much better example of cleaning out your division.
"There is generally a bias towards Japanese LWs because they had the weight class established during the time when the UFC dropped the LW division."
Exactly, the Japanese LWs tend to make up a lot of the rankings because they are more established and the rankings are based on results and not potential. More and more of the UFC fighters should be sneaking into the rankings as they face off against elite competition very regularly. Edgar has as good a resume as anyone at LW but the division is still relatively new.
"In the LW division only 2 of MMAWeekly's top 8 fight in the UFC"
This isn't even true. BJ, Florian, Diego, and Edgar are all in there. Of course, MMAWeekly is generally a joke when it comes to rankings. How JZ and Josh Thomson are in there, but not Gray Maynard is fucking ridiculous.
Aoki will beat BJ? Aoki is overrated. UFC has the top competition, everywhere else is C/B list fighters and the occasional A- fighter (excluding fedor maybe)the reason people think they're so good is because they fight people on their own level (B level) and makes them LOOK good. Once they join the UFC they're only middle of the road fighters