2016 UFC cuts

Most recent list of fighters cut from the UFC:

Steve Montgomery, Marcio Alexandre Jr, Danny Castillo, Mike Pierce, Konstantin Erokhin, Valmir Lazaro, Akbarh Arreola, Steve Kennedy, Hayder Hassan, and Marcin Wrzosek

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2016/1/29/10873540/ufc-cuts-releases-mike-pierce-10-fighters-roster-trimming-contract-pay-mma-news

Problem is if they did that Mighty Mouse who is probably the best P4P fighter they have goes back to fighting guys that he's undersized against and loses. They just need more 125ers and better ones. Just seems like at this point you can't say "Okay, there's no more flyweight division. Sorry DJ your belt that you've had since this division was invented is no longer worth anything." If a time comes when someone beats Mighty Mouse a few times then they could possibly do it, or if there's ever a time when the belt is vacant for too long due to Mouse injuries or something. To do it now would be the single ****tiest thing the UFC has ever done to a fighter.

@BuffaloBen  What @Hush said.  The only reason flyweight seems uninteresting at the moment is because Mighty Mouse has almost cleaned house in a relatively new division and looked amazing doing it.  If Demetrious was built like a welterweight and was doing this as the champ of 170 to guys like Condit and Wonderboy, no one would be *****ing.  People would say he is the best fighter ever.  And I say this as someone who WAS a harsh critic of Johnson.

A lot of the flyweight division's problems, in my opinion, fall on the UFC brass and how they poorly set the division up.  They should have done what they did for women's strawweight and set up a tourney through TUF with the best 125ers in the world to crown the inaugural champ.  But instead, they do a 4 man tournament that had very little hype behind it, had pacing equivalent to that of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, and was comprised of 3 ex WEC bantamweights in McCall, Johnson, and Benavidez and one true flyweight in Shooto's Uru****ani.  If the UFC actually bothered to build the division up through TUF from the start, or had a couple of Flyweight TUF's after the fact, then maybe the division wouldn't be as unappealing as it has become.

* Edited at 08.09.2016, 2:59 AM ET *

they have brought in some flyweight via tuf, they know when they do a bantamweight series theres going to be guys dropping to 125 right after the finale- if mighty mouse wasnt in the division Dodson would be a ******* superstar at 125

The nect TUF will hopefully find someone who can challenge him.

it'll probably bring in a few people worth giving a shot and postponing this conversation by a year.
Im quite willing to believe we have already found the most effective its possible to be at fighting under this ruleset whilst able to weigh 125lbs ~24hrs before the fight.

I can't believe they cut Ben Saunders, his BJJ is next level and he would be a perfect replacement for Strickland to fight Tim Means at 202!

Im also shocked after Saunders cut off UFC, 3-1 record is not a bad one. Im wondering whats their plan, maybe they want to cut some fighters to make space for new ones, who knows.....

Saunders apparently wasn't exactly cut and got dropped from the roster due to personal issues: http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/8/9/12410072/not-cut-ben-saunders-explains-why-he-s-no-longer-on-the-ufc-roster

Ok, if he's the number 1 pound for pound then why couldn't he hold his own at bantamweight? I mean, which is it? 

I'm not taking anything away from the man, but as a fan I don't know how many fights there left to make for him. He's effectively cleaned out the division already. So whoever wins TUF is going to be a legitimate threat to the flyweight world title? I'll believe that when i see it. 

Very interesting Pillory. He sort of makes excuses for the loss and there seems to be some gray area or something unsaid between him, his management, and the UFC if he was off the USADA protocol but was unaware of it or that he wasn't still with the UFC. Again with the employee/independent contractor ****. Was it money? If he gets back to the UFC will it be for the same money? less? 

buffalo ben, what the hell are you talking about? He earned a title shot, the last one Cruz fought in before his injury, and it was probably the most competitive title fight Cruz had or has been in. Cruz was forced to L'n'P on Mighty Mouse because he was being outstruck so he used his size to muscle him to the floor and that was pretty much it. Never came close to getting any kind of sub or g'n'p stoppage. Johnson is still one of the smallest FLWs and was more than competitive at BW so by definition he's a p4p great. 10-0 pre WEC. 2 career losses, both by decision so never been finished. The Pickett loss was his 1st in the WEC and he followed that up with a 4 fight win streak to earn the BW title shot: Nick Pace, Damacio Page, Kid Yamamoto, and Miguel Torres. Personally I thought Torres should've got the nod in that fight but he fought almost all of it from his back and it was a UD. I don't know what about his resume says anything other than he was a top flight BW when BW was the smallest weight class the UFC OR WEC had. Yes, if the judges could perform arithmetic at an elementary school level, he should've lost his draw to McCall because he obviously had a cut his 1st time at FLW but he not only clearly won their 2nd match but he upset the presumed FLW champ JoeB and then KOed him in their 2nd bout. He's also clearly improved as much if not more than any fighter in the UFC since. 

Bottom line Johnson and Edgar are the 2 greatest p4p fighters in modern MMA history because they both did what BJ did in the early 2000s - fought bigger men and won.

Sucks about Saunders.

@BuffaloBill

Are you smoking freebase?  Johnson was fine at Bantamweight.  In fact his only two losses when at bantamweight were to Brad Pickett (back when Pickett's jaw wasn't made of glass) and Dominick Cruz.  And his loss to Cruz was when Cruz was at his top form.  Considering how much of a disadvantage Johnson had due to his height, I'd say he did alright.  Furthermore, Johnson isn't the same fighter he was five years ago.  He has improved by leaps and bounds as a fighter and has become arguably the most well rounded fighter to ever fight in MMA.  In my opinion, if the Demetrious Johnson of today fought the Cruz of 2011, Johnson would have beaten him or made it a close split decision.

Mr. Hornet, that-s what I-m saying. Let DJ fight at bantamweight, and knock off this nonsense, unless we want to see him fight Joe Benavidez or John Dodson AGAIN or tool some mid-level contender pushed into a title fight due to a lack of competition. 

Too bad he does get the publicity he deserves.

"Cruz was forced to L'n'P on Mighty Mouse because he was being outstruck so he used his size to muscle him to the floor and that was pretty much it. Never came close to getting any kind of sub or g'n'p stoppage."

He had an RNC pretty much locked in on him in the 3rd but MM has great sub defense.

Ben, Dodson's moved up to bantamweight so that fight's more likely to happen if they do get rid of 125.

M’I suggestion is not to remove the Demetrious Johnson weigh class and force him to fight Cruz, we switch for 130 and 140 at the place of 125-135-145.

This way, 130lbs contain all flyweight and the smaller guy in the actual bantamweight. That's not mean Johnson will have to fight Cruz, who will probably chose to fight in the140 division. That simply mean Johnson will have a more competitive division.

The 140 get the ¾ of the actual 135 and probably half of the actual 145 then the other half move on to 155.This way, we make the lowest weight class more competitive.

@buffaloben

By that logic, the UFC should have gotten rid of Middleweight when Anderson Silva was cleaning house and forced him to fight at Light Heavyweight.  Again, the problem is that the UFC botched the building of Flyweight by not bringing in the best fighters at that weight class.  The only compelling fight at 135 for Johnson right now is Cruz. Outside of that, and a possible fight with Lineker, there is no compelling fight to make for Johnson at 135.

* Edited at 08.11.2016, 4:12 PM ET *

I don't see any reason to change the divisions.I think 125 has a lot of talent and Mighty Mouse could probably fight at 115.He's just so dominant that the division is boring (to some people) much like 185 when Anderson Silva ruled,but that was a really weak division imo.I'd say 125 right now is way better than 185 then,but that's just my opinion.If they would do a better job of trying to fill the 125 division it would be even stronger now,isn't there another 125 TUF coming up?

Either way,I think talk of getting rid of the division is ridiculous.I don't even want to see MM go to 135,maybe for one superfight with Cruz giving the division more time for contenders to come up.It's not his fault he's such a dominant champion,but going up in weight just because he's dominant when he's even small for his division is just something I don't believe in minus a super fight here or there.I just don't see the reason for it,besides entitled part time fans being sooo bored lol.

Edit: lol at us making such a similar post at the same time.

* Edited at 08.11.2016, 4:15 PM ET *