just me or...?

has the ufc LHW division fallen off recently? not too long ago, the champs and challengers were feared and numerous....now (doing my research like the sports writer i am) the LHW is the most inactive division in ufc.... going all the way back to last march, there has been a TOTAL of 14 main card fights on ppv...this number includes such gems as hamill-ortiz, couture-toney, rampage-machida....it hasnt helped that forrest, rashad, shogun, and machida have been injured, and rampage and couture movie deals taking them away for periods at a time.... this USED to b UFC's signature division, now i'd rank it 3rd.  and its only ahead of MW and WW because those divisions champs have been one man weight demolishers... but lemme kno if im missing something, but i brought this up because jones-shogun is the most excited ive been for a LHW fight in over a year..and that felt strange

Interesting that there have been so few LHW matchups recently. Lot of injuries. Rashad injured/waiting for his title shot, Shogun knee injury, Thiago Silva had a back injury, Forrest was injured, Ortiz has been out with injury, Rampage had his movie.   Bunch of 205lb wimps!!!  :)

I still think of it as the UFC's signature division even without the "old" Chuck, Tito, and Randy in the mix.  You've still got a lot of bankable stars left. And at this size the fighters are fast and athletic, but also seem a little bit larger than life.

Gotta Agree with both of you guys. I think that they need some new blood in there to help bring it back into form I believe Dan Henderson would be a good but were gonna have to wait for his contract to be up and have him resigned with the UFC. Also with all the injuries there hasnt been many fighters who can actually fight. In my opinion the LHW division is my favorite so I feel your pain.

Gregory hit the nail on the head and you mentioned it yourself. When you look at the top ranked fighters of the division they've been injured, or had other obligations. Some of the old school fighters are getting old and some have dropped weight class. A lot of the younger fighters have fought just the names have been out with injury, busy or retiring. Phil Davis fought 4 times last year. Jones has essentially established himself over the past year or 2, and Gustaffson has also been a guy to look out for now. The young guys have been a lot more active than the name guys and are moving to take their place. A lot of them are just cruising under the radar. 

The LHW have been pretty lukewarm recently. I agree with what you guys are saying for sure. Its the young guys coming in that are really going to build it back up. Speaking of, I can't remember the last time there was a half hour special on just one guy (Jon Jones on spike tomorrow). The effort to make him the poster child is really heavy handed. I could be wrong about the specials, but there's no question they want Jones to be as bankable as possible.

When I heard about the special on Jon Jones I was astounded.  Before the Bader fight he was a prodigy.  The next day he is the face of the UFC.  The UFC definitely looking to use him to revitalize the stalling LHW division.

I think it's a little overboard. I want Jones to win, but they should be focusing on the champ and if Shogun destroys him in one round i wouldn't be suprised. I'm sure he's using all the Jones hype and specials as more fuel for his fire, which is explosive enough. I'm curious how the UFC spins this if Jones loses?

Dana White at the press conference following a Jones loss, "Johnny Jones got knocked out like a f*$%ing champ. He utilized Jackson's strategy perfectly by taking that left hook to the face. Did you see that s$*&? A star is f#*%ing born"

Jones wins this fight either way.

@mope too funny... at least you always  know where dana stands - you know who he wants to win.  "BJ Penn won that fight for sure"  "I thought Diego won that fight"

Classic, all you have to do is throw in a F-bomb every sentence and you mimick Dana.... I have to be honest, i'm a huge Jones fan and the more i hear how confident people are that he's going to win, the more i want Shogun to KTFO him....

NO ITS BY FAR THE TOUGHEST DIV. IN ALL COMBAT SPORTS AND SHOGUN WILL HOLD THAT TITLE FOR A LONG TIME 2 COME!!!