UFC 300: Pereira vs. Hill

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

Currently every new champ just wants to be double champ before defending their own belt once or twice. More weight classes would have the double champ or triple champ chase and not defending their first belts. More interim belts and whatnot. That's my only issue against more weight classes. 

I also don’t like making up new weight classes that don’t exist. Super lightweight/ww exist, but only in the regional scene. It’s kind of gimmicky to just add a new belt & let the fighters choose what weight class you want. Sure, you can claim you have the best fighters at 165/175, but they also wouldn’t exist anywhere outside the ufc; it’s just like Kayla fighting at 155. Sure, shes clearly talented but 90% of her career was fought at a made up weight class that doesn’t exist. 

If ufc added 165/175 it would make them no better than pfl’s made up womens 155. Sure you could have guys from two divisions come up but again, it would be lw/ww fighting for a made up belt in a made up weight class

* Edited at 01.30.2024, 12:11 PM ET *

I can see how the UFC being the only place that has a 165 division would be weird at first, but the UFC is clearly the top dog in MMA so I don't think it would be a silly thing that people laught at and dont take seriously. Especially if right away great fights are happening in the new division that people are loving. There is a certain level of credibility that comes from just being the UFC unlike PFL. Also the new division would be a man's division and that helps as well.

As far as the made up belt and division thing I would say it's not like they are making up a new BMF belt all of a sudden.  A whole new division with strong competition and hungry fighters that feel better fighting at 165 would give the new belt credibility and prestige I think.

That being said the more I think about it the less I think the UFC will do that. To much risk. 

More weight divisions would bring more big fights and more money going to the fighters.

More big fights yes but better pay? No chance. Ufc will do everything in their power to not pay the fighters, or at least pay them the bare minimum 

I just really don’t see the point in adding two made up divisions just for the sake of doing it. If they did it specifically for Conor (which won’t happen) than it would make even less sense. If they were to add two divisions, it would leave 155/170 very thin, or vice versa; lw and ww would get halved & we’d be left with 4 thin divisions instead of two stacked ones. Also, mma politics are worse than ever right now, imagine how bad it would be if someone became triple champ? Negotiations about someone trying to become double/triple champ would be more saturated than they’ve ever been. Champ vs champ fights are great BUT, we don’t need a belt attached to every big fight 

* Edited at 01.30.2024, 1:32 PM ET *

More weightclasses allows for: the best around the same weight not fighting the best, the devaluing of the belt as the more champions the less being a champion means, dumbass names like super or junior divisions, overabundance of title fights making them less special. There would be less big fights, having a title on the line doesn't make a fight big, you need two good guys, and if they can sit in their division 5 lbs away from eachother and not fight risking their belt why would they

100% agree with Baron here.

^ well said. I think adding new weight classes would just be a silly gimmick 

One much needed 165lbs weight class won’t devalue Champ status unless they keep 170. They should scrap 170 and add 165 & 175. Promote Leon to 175lbs Champ and have UFC 300 headliner be the debut of the 165lbs belt. The highest ranked 155er that has a hard time making 155 vs the highest ranked 170er that doesn’t cut much if any weight. Or Conor vs Chandler

Holm vs. Harrison
Kayla Harrison, TKO, R2
GNP

UFC would get more out of adding women atomweight and men’s straweight to the UFC then making 165lbs and 175lbs, adding lighter weight class would at least mean more fighters to fill up apex card instead of diluting 155,170, and 185lbs divison 

@DamienHandel420 

Looking at the analytics such as how many Women's Atomweight fighters and how many Men's Strawweight fighters there are, I think it would be pointless to add those. I estimate that there are only about 50 WAW and 150 MSW fighters out there globally at all levels (even very low levels). What I would really love to see is a Men's Cruiserweight (225 LB) and Men's Super Middleweight (195 LB), there are so many tweeners out there struggling to find an optimal weightlcass between MW-LHW-HW. If they were to add 165 LB and 175 LB Men's divisions though, I think they would need to remove 170 LB as it would become kind of pointless in that case. 

@codyst789 

I agree, I would also rather have 165 & 175 rather than 170

@AyyLmaonnaise 

if the UFC made the change, mostly all of MMA would follow suit. UFC is the industry leader. 

I don’t want the UFC to add more  division because no new talent will be added, just dilutes division. diluting  185lbs, 205lb and heavyweight with 2 more divisions is bad because those divisions are pretty thin on talent already, 2 extra division won’t help. There be division with like 3 fighter who actually good and that be rough viewing.

At least lightweight and welterweight have enough talent so diluting those division isn’t the worst thing In the world, even if I’m against adding weight class because it will make them less good , Lightweight is the best division in the UFC, don’t want to make it less peak 

* Edited at 01.31.2024, 5:40 AM ET *

I'm trying to think what it would be like for Leon if they did that. They call him one day, tell all their plans of scrapping his division and then ask which division he wanna be champ 165 or 175.  Does he accept all this ? Or would he go nuclear and post something ?

The first thought that will come to his mind is that his legacy of title defenses as welterweight champion is being taken away from him. I imagine that he wants to be the new welterweight goat with the most defenses ever and being the first champion of this new division would not seem as appealing. 

And then the whole conversation about erasing history and the legacy of all past welterweight champions begins with many egos being brused. It's to much problem for the UFC I think.

* Edited at 01.31.2024, 6:46 AM ET *

I think we're down to Conor vs. Chandler or Izzy vs. DDP for the main event here. 

@VicStrk 

that's a good point you got there. But on the other hand it would automatically make him a two division champion and following that up he could become the first three division champion if he just keeps defending his 175 title a few times and goes up to 185. So actually it could even be a push for his legacy, at least on paper. And to become the Weltlerweight Goat is super unrealistic in GSP's division especially nowadays where the sport is so much more evolved and competitive. I think Leon knows that as well and would prefer to have a three-division-champion status in sight.

By the way, this is exactly the reason why I wouldn't want to see a new 165 pound divison, since there would be an additional champion for basically no reason and it would lead to even more talks about double or even triple champ status since it gets easier to switch weight classes, which is pretty annoying right now already to be honest. Also it would water down the talent pool at 155 and 170 and make these two divisions way less exciting.

* Edited at 01.31.2024, 8:00 AM ET *

I hadn't been able to read the comments yesterday, because I was traveling to another city for work. I sincerely believe that everyone gave very valid points regarding the positive or negative of adding more weight class and clearly this has a mostly negative trend if there is not correct planning (a perfect example is the Women's Featherweight Division). The 165-pound option is somewhat feasible due to the fact that it is a possibility that has already been evaluated before and there is a roster to carry it out (Poirier, Turner, BSD, Fiziev, RDA, Durinho, Chiesa are clear examples of LW/WW Top 15 who could fight without problems at 165 pounds).

I also agree that a Title Shot for McGregor and Chandler is a crazy scenario (although I also consider that there have been even less sense challengers to champions in the past), but it is a UFC 300 and Conor is the UFC's goose that lays the golden eggs. If you tell the casuals that Conor McGregor will return from his brutal ankle injury with the possibility of being the first UFC champion in 3 different weight classes and being the fighter with the most KOs in distant weight classes in the UFC, the hype will be there. will go through the roof. Also, a Title Shot would maybe give true legitimacy to McGregor as UFC 300 Main Event, for me putting McGregor and Chandler Grudge Fight as Main Event would be disrespectful to the champions in the Co-Main or Main Card who have been doing things well and consistently for several years.

Just watched Dustin P V Max Hallow 2 again, is anyone picking Max to beat Justin G?
I have Justin but I could see Max gassing and long comboing him in later rounds.