Wmma 5 how add weight class
In short, the 205lb light heavyweight division is bad and the champion is not.įor years, fans have clamoured for Jon ‘Bones’ Jones, inarguably the greatest light heavyweight champion in history, to pursue the heavyweight title.
Then look at Johny Hendricks, a beast of a welterweight who struggled to make the weight and who looked utterly out of his depth up at 185lbs, a lumpy little man with T-Rex arms who lacked the physicality to impose any of his physical game.īut as alluded to earlier the UFC has an even bigger problem. Sure, some guys haven’t had much of an issue transitioning: take for example Kelvin Gastelum, who whilst seemingly blessed with the perfect frame and style to be an excellent welterweight either lacked the discipline or the ability to consistently make that weight and trudged on up to middleweight, where his undeniable ability made him a contender there anyway. And of course, carrying on in the same vein as the lightweight-to-welterweight problem is that welterweights moving up to middleweight (185lbs) can find themselves in with huge lumps that could still end up cutting weight if they moved up to light heavyweight. Yet, I would argue that mixed martial arts-and in particular the Ultimate Fighting Championship, who I will be using for the benefits of this exercise- has a bigger problem than the possible inauguration of a new weight-class at 165lbs.įirst off is the question: what do you do with welterweight? If the jump from 155lbs to 170lbs is much too big, then a jump from 165lbs to 170lbs is completely redundant. Yet those finding it hard to continue with the arduous cut to 155lbs find themselves at a disadvantage if they move up to 170lbs and find themselves in the cage with hulking wrestle-boxers cutting from 190lbs. Today’s MMA landscapes finds itself in a similar quandary: lightweight is arguably the most talent stacked talent pool in the whole sport, and welterweight isn’t half bad either. If only there had been a super middleweight division like the one created in 1984. Of course, Dick Tiger did eventually make the move up, winning the world title against similarly sized Jose Torres, but had a gargantuan Bob Foster taking his head off in his third defence.ĭick Tiger’s weights for his four title fights at light heavyweight: 167, 167, 167 3/4s, and 168.
Even all-time great middleweights such as Dick Tiger struggled to squeeze themselves inside the 160lb middleweight limit, with the jump to light heavyweight (175lbs in boxing) too big a leap. It’s certainly a good idea: since the acquisition of the WEC, a nice round figure of 10lbs separates all weight divisions until you get to lightweight, when the jump to welterweight becomes 15lbs.įor those based in the UK that’s more than a stone.īoxing had this problem for years, and this was when fighters had to weigh in on the day. Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images If you’re a serious fan of MMA you would have heard the calls for a 165lb division-in between lightweight and welterweight-for some time.