Why is flyweight the only lighter division to have regressed in UFC?

ExitLUPin

ExitLUPin

K
@Steel
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
30,163
Reaction score
44,700
We all know the heavier weights have seen far better days. MW, LHW, HW.... even WW have had far stronger eras with deeper and superior talent.

But from 135-155lbs the talent now is as good as ever if not better. BW is unquestionably better than its ever been.

But 125.... Has seen better days.

There was an era where we had

Mighty Mouse
JoeB
Dodson
Henry
Kyoji
Formiga
Ortiz
Makovsky
Lineker
Bagautinov

With Fig moved up and Moreno looking shot Pantoja is only current UFC FLW who MIGHT have been top 5 in that era. It was just far better in every way. 37yo Tim Elliott is still top 10 LMAO. So what happened to UFC FLW?
 
Last edited:
The real reason even though some of the fans who are small don’t want to admit; it’s because it’s very rare for a grown man to be small enough to make 125 pounds and also be somewhat athletic. At least athletic enough to fight mma. Most guys who are that small haven’t really even ever played sports.

If you are small enough to make 125 then you obviously never played football basketball or hockey, I don’t know much about soccer but I would guess that you are too small to play that too.

So finding guys who are willing to fight in a cage on tv with no sporting experience for their entire lives until they were adults and could have fights against other really tiny guys and also are good enough to warrant them be in the ufc? It’s going to be tough.

Most of the guys who are that small are Asian and would probably rather fight over there in One or one of the other orgs they have out there, why would they want to fly across the world to fight in an organization that doesn’t really even care about their division? Especially when you consider that you have to deal with all the random testing and all that
 
Last edited:
The talent at 125lbs has greatly improved in MMA, the issue is the UFC doesn't prioritize talent let alone 125lb talent. They let Horiguchi and Might Mouse go, they don't sign Russians or any talent that's beyond contender series level.

But guys like Mokaev, Taira, Tsuruya and others are going to age really well into the division. Those kinds of prospects didn't exist back then and there's a lot of them now.
 
HuskySamoan said:
The talent at 125lbs has greatly improved in MMA, the issue is the UFC doesn't prioritize talent let alone 125lb talent. They let Horiguchi and Might Mouse go, they don't sign Russians or any talent that's beyond contender series level.

But guys like Mokaev, Taira, Tsuruya and others are going to age really well into the division. Those kinds of prospects didn't exist back then and there's a lot of them now.
Click to expand...

There was a time when Kyoji and Henry were both prospects and their talent was levels above the 3 you listed.

Mokaev is a fraud who got lucky to survive Filho, has terrible striking and likely loses to Perez. Tairas striking is shite too and he almost got choked out by Chairez. Great top player tho.
 
roganisonly5foot3 said:
The real reason even though some of the fans who are small don’t want to admit; it’s because it’s very rare for a grown man to be small enough to make 125 pounds and also be somewhat athletic. At least athletic enough to fight mma. Most guys who are that small haven’t really even ever played sports.

If you are small enough to make 125 then you obviously never played football basketball or hockey, I don’t know much about soccer but I would guess that you are too small to play that too.

So finding guys who are willing to fight in a cage on tv with no sporting experience for their entire lives until they were adults and could have fights against other really tiny guys and also are good enough to warrant them be in the ufc? It’s going to be tough.

Most of the guys who are that small are Asian and would probably rather fight over there in One or one of the other orgs they have out there, why would they want to fly across the world to fight in an organization that doesn’t really even care about their division? Especially when you consider that you have to deal with all the random testing and all that
Click to expand...
1708849087793.png

1708849164014.png
 
Koya said:
View attachment 1031587

View attachment 1031588
Click to expand...
Like I said I don’t follow soccer but I do watch on rare occasion like the World Cup and the Olympics. I’m not-00% sure but I’m pretty sure that those pics are of Messi and maradona? If I’m right about that then I gotta say when I saw those guys on tv they didn’t look like big guys obviously but they didn’t look that small that they were 125 pounds either. They looked pretty much normal size to me but I’ve only seen them on tv a few times but I’m pretty sure they are not that small. Hopefully I am right about that being Messi and Diego or this whole post was a waste of time.

But I’m pretty sure I’m right I think you just happened to post 2 of maybe like the 15 soccer players in the world in your post
 
roganisonly5foot3 said:
The real reason even though some of the fans who are small don’t want to admit; it’s because it’s very rare for a grown man to be small enough to make 125 pounds and also be somewhat athletic. At least athletic enough to fight mma. Most guys who are that small haven’t really even ever played sports.

If you are small enough to make 125 then you obviously never played football basketball or hockey, I don’t know much about soccer but I would guess that you are too small to play that too.

So finding guys who are willing to fight in a cage on tv with no sporting experience for their entire lives until they were adults and could have fights against other really tiny guys and also are good enough to warrant them be in the ufc? It’s going to be tough.

Most of the guys who are that small are Asian and would probably rather fight over there in One or one of the other orgs they have out there, why would they want to fly across the world to fight in an organization that doesn’t really even care about their division? Especially when you consider that you have to deal with all the random testing and all that
Click to expand...
Theres no such thing as too small to play soccer.
 
Conan the K-9 said:
That division just has a dominant champ, who makes everyone else look mediocore.
View attachment 1031591
Click to expand...
I’m really not one of those Americans who diss soccer bro I’m down with it. During the last World Cup final I was rooting for Argentina to get it because I wanted to see Messi win one.

Once it went to penalties I told all my friends in the room who don’t follow and were only watching because I wanted to watch it. When Messi stepped up to take his shot I told my friends, this one’s a sure thing this guy isn’t gonna miss trust me! And then sure enough he hit a and my friends who don’t watch soccer even knew his name for probably 10 minutes
 
I've never thought highly of Moreno. He got a gift draw in a great fight vs. Figgy and got elevated due to that. I was big on him winning today only because Royval has looked average vs his best competition. Royval has improved. Moreno has reached his peak.

I said it years ago, Pantoja and Kape are the best fighters aside from Figgy. Moreno got plain lucky, period. He would get beat down by Kape, and he's lost to Pantoja 3 times.

I think Kape, Figgy, and Pantoja are as good or better than the guys DJ beat aside from maybe Cejudo. But no one is better than DJ.
 
It's just at a weak point like a few other divisions. They've been repeating the same challengers over and over.

Worldwide the pool is pretty damn deep. UFC just has to sign them.
 
roganisonly5foot3 said:
The real reason even though some of the fans who are small don’t want to admit; it’s because it’s very rare for a grown man to be small enough to make 125 pounds and also be somewhat athletic. At least athletic enough to fight mma. Most guys who are that small haven’t really even ever played sports.

If you are small enough to make 125 then you obviously never played football basketball or hockey, I don’t know much about soccer but I would guess that you are too small to play that too.

So finding guys who are willing to fight in a cage on tv with no sporting experience for their entire lives until they were adults and could have fights against other really tiny guys and also are good enough to warrant them be in the ufc? It’s going to be tough.

Most of the guys who are that small are Asian and would probably rather fight over there in One or one of the other orgs they have out there, why would they want to fly across the world to fight in an organization that doesn’t really even care about their division? Especially when you consider that you have to deal with all the random testing and all that
Click to expand...

Plenty of wrestlers and boxer that size that are very athletic. I think it has more to do with the fact that the division was as good as closed 4 years ago and they reluctantly bring it from the dead, and since the signinh of new talent is very scarce.
 
roganisonly5foot3 said:
Like I said I don’t follow soccer but I do watch on rare occasion like the World Cup and the Olympics. I’m not-00% sure but I’m pretty sure that those pics are of Messi and maradona? If I’m right about that then I gotta say when I saw those guys on tv they didn’t look like big guys obviously but they didn’t look that small that they were 125 pounds either. They looked pretty much normal size to me but I’ve only seen them on tv a few times but I’m pretty sure they are not that small. Hopefully I am right about that being Messi and Diego or this whole post was a waste of time.

But I’m pretty sure I’m right I think you just happened to post 2 of maybe like the 15 soccer players in the world in your post
Click to expand...

Messi and Maradona are both 5'5. Yes they're not 125lb but to be fair neither are FLW fighters. They cut weight to be 125 for a brief amount of time but they're generally in the 145-150 range for walk around weight. Figgy was said to be 160 hence the move to BW.

it's true it's a thin division but the reasons are multiple for that.
 
DJ was just the GOAT. It's like how WW looked like a wasteland up until guys like Shavkat started showing up, the fighters of the current generation are so far removed from the agreed upon current GOAT of the division that they look paltry in comparison.
 
Because it was the most stacked division in MMA history in 2014 and it got blown up and started from scratch. MMA evolving is nice but the division was rebuilt from scratch. Why would they get all the best smaller guys in the world when the last time they did that no one gave a shit? If they get the same results from spending less money they will spend less money.

The UFC was going to end the 125 division if not for the Disney deal making PPV buys irelevant. They see 125 as card filler.
 
ExitLUPin said:
We all know the heavier weights have seen far better days. MW, LHW, HW.... even WW have had far stronger eras with deeper and superior talent.

But from 135-155lbs the talent now is as good as ever if not better. BW is unquestionably better than its ever been.

But 125.... Has seen better days.

There was an era where we had

Mighty Mouse
JoeB
Dodson
Henry
Kyoji
Formiga
Ortiz
Makovsky
Lineker
Bagautinov

With Fig moved up and Moreno looking shot Pantoja is only current UFC FLW who MIGHT have been top 5 in that era. It was just far better in every way. 37yo Tim Elliott is still top 10 LMAO. So what happened to UFC FLW?
Click to expand...
Royal beats all those fighters but Johnson Henry or Joe b
ExitLUPin said:
Pantoja is 5'4 and 5-0 against both Brandons. He owns them.
Click to expand...
i disagree I think he should have lost to royval last time out royval kicked his ass pantoja had to lay and pray.


Royval would beat him given another chance
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,488
Messages
55,494,527
Members
174,790
Latest member
stor

Share this page

Back
Top