New Golden Division

Ever since UFC 12 February 1997 Weight Divisions where apply to Mix Martial Arts. With the emerge of this weight class divisions competition started getting more fair to MMA fighters.

No longer bigger fighters would used their advantages on their opponents (even if Royce Gracie didn’t need it to win the first 3 UFC events) the creation of this, made the sport look more legit and human reasonable.

Years past and fighters start to rise in each division, Champions emerge and contenders line up on the ladders.

But many would noticed some division were more exciting than others, normaly the bigger guys were the bigger fights like in boxing, but not in MMA. By the 2000’s era a golden Weight class was born, the UFC called it LightHeavyweight while PrideFc called it Middleweight division, the Weight was around 200 – 210 pounds.

Fighters were big but still manage to be fast and powerfull. by 2001 Wanderlei Silva was the PrideFc Middleweight Champion while Tito Ortiz was the UFC LightHeavyweight Champion. Both Champions defend their titles for years but more and more Fighters rise from the unknow to become stars.

By 2005 the LightHeavyweight Division was the Undisputed Golden weight class with so many fighters around the world the competition was unreal. Shogun Rua won the 2005 Grand Prix Tournament against 16 of the best 205 pounders in the world, including Wanderlei Silva , Ricardo Arona , Rampage Jackson , Kevin Randleman , Alistair Overeem , Dan Henderson , Vitor Belfort , Rogerio Nogueira amoung others.

While on the other side of the Globle Chuck Liddell had won the title defeating Randy Coture, while leaving behind Belfort and Ortiz in like a mini Tournament for the belt in the UFC. For years to come we have seen the best action in this weight class and after the dissolusion of the biggest MMA organization PrideFC , the Division look to be finally united into one. After 3 years of awesome wars and fights the division finally have the Undisputed Champion in one Organization.

Now the division seems to be on hold, and a new division seems to be on its peek, the Lighweigh division. Now with so many more MMA organizations and new and improve fighters the Division seems to be the new Golden one not only because of the amoung of fighters, but also because the fact that the lighter the fighters are the faster and better the fights seems to be. Currently there are 5 major Organizations with this Weight class, all with their own respective Champions.

Frankie Edgar UFC Lightweight Champion.

Ben Henderson WEC Lightweight Champion.

Gilbert Melendez Strikeforce Lightweight Champion.

Shinya Aoki Dream Lightweight Champion.

Eddie Alvarez Bellator Lightweight Champion.

Now , not only there’s 5 major Lightweight Champions , but also a great amount of Contender on all organizations including a lot of Former Champions like Bj Penn , Sean Sherk and Jamie Varner.

now the list of contenders is the most extensive than any other time of any other weight class to date. Theres at least 15 more contenders to be named , Gray Maynard , Kenny Florian , Donald Cerrone , Takanori Gomi , Nate Diaz , Evan Durham , Tyson Griffin , Tatsuya Kawajiri , Georges Sotiropoulos , Anthony Pettis, Roger Huerta , Clay Guida, Josh Thompson , Kj Noons, Joe Lauzon.

Now the Division seems to be stacked more than ever in the UFC were the majority of the fighters are. But the question is how are they ranked most will say Frankie Edgar is the #1 and i would have to agree but the rest of the top 10 are in different organizations and will we ever watch these fighters fight each other like it happend with the LightHeavyweight division with the Pride vs UFC theme? (Rampage vs Chuck , Machida vs Shogun, Wanderlei vs Chuck ).

Either way is clear that the new Golden Weight Class is here, and the possibilities are endless with this fast-paced warriors that keep getting better and better. Let me now if you agree or still think the 205 is the best there is.