Making The Case For A UFC Pound For Pound Title
Lately in MMA, everyone seems to be mentioning the term ‘pound for pound’. Some sites even have a pound for pound list along with a top 10 list for respective weight divisions. As of late, many fighters themselves have mentioned that they want to prove themselves by only fighting the best. The UFC/Zuffa has several fighters that could be mentioned in any pound for pound list…such as:
- Anderson Silva
- GSP
- BJ Penn
- Forrest Griffin
- Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria
- Rampage Jackson
- Uriah Faber
- Miguel Torres
- Lyoto Machida
- Reader’s insert your favorite fighter here
The only other fighter outside the UFC that realistically could be included in this discussion is Fedor Emelianenko. (Sorry Couture nuthuggers)
Implementing a pound for pound title would solve a lot of problems with fighters wanting to hop around from weight division to weight division. This would keep weight divisions in tact with true champions because it would eliminate 2 fighters fighting for an interim title when a champion wanted to move up/down in weight(i.e. BJ Penn). Another instance where it would be helpful is…carrying a PPV card. Zuffa often has 2-3 events a year without a championship fight to carry the main event.
I know WAMMA is trying to implement their championship belts…it’s all fine and dandy….but they can’t do anything without cooperation from the UFC(it aint’ happening btw). Being that the UFC holds the majority of the best fighter’s in each respective weight class. Somebody tell Dana White to call me so we can discuss this further.
July 27, 2008 at 6:46 pm
i believe whole heartidly that there are several fighters who could cover the entire spectrum of weight classes with relative ease but there are those who are spectacular only in THEIR weight class. Faber could move up but how high before he begins to lose that speed? Sure his endurance is phenomenal but do you believe that will continue to reign true? silva yes. i even like Machida as underrated as he is. But, some of the competitors who primarily reside on the opposing ends of the spectrum will have some difficulty with this.
which brings about another problem…. if the above holds true and the competition is minimal at best as far as depth of fighters for a “pound for pound” great, then how long before said competition is done away with? would it have even been worth it?
July 27, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Sketch1ne…good to see you here my brotha…your question is a legitimate one….I suppose the only way to find out is for him to move up and see…his only loss is at 155…however, that was 2-3 years ago(faber that is)…
BJ Penn fights at 155 now…however, he’s had matches at LHW before…and been successful…we could also bring catch weights into the equation to level the playing field somewhat for the smallest and largest fighters.
As far as the depth of fighters for the P4P title…a fighters peak only lasts for so long…each year, new fighters burst on the scene out of nowhere…there are fighters out there training right now that haven’t been discovered…but are absolute beasts….that is due primarily to the infancy of MMA
July 28, 2008 at 10:07 am
I don’t think it’s a good idea for a ‘pound for pound title’ especially with the ages of some of those guys, unless it’s at a catchweight all parties involved would have no problems cutting or gaining weight to and that would be a weight that each competitor would be comfortable at…I understand since Dana and other sites and columnists want to throw that title around and whatnot and that guys want to prove themselves but a lot of those guys put in a pound for pound fight with another at a different weight would get heavily exposed IMO…especially the heavier guys…
weight divisions that are relatively close in weight like the lightweight and welterweight or light heavyweight and heavyweight could definitely mix and match some of their stars to make superfights, but I’d hate to see BJ gain a bunch of weight to fight Big Nog and pretty much get embarassed or Rampage drop down to skeleton levels to get creamed by GSP
To properly do this it’d have to be a very controlled situation and I think kept down to a minimum but a superfight for pound for pound recognition I see no problems with and I think would be a good idea especially with guys like BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, and GSP basically wiping out the competition in their respective weight divisions, this would give them an opportunity to showcase themselves against some of the other big name guys…but I keep thinking of how guys at heavier weights would do trying to reach a believable catchweight to fight some of these other guys…I know a lot of the smaller weight division guys cut a lot of weight but they cut it for a reason, hell I’m not fighter but I weigh 210 and I know I’d have to cut a substantial amount of weight to be able to fight a guy the way I’d want to properly fight…
so yeah, good idea and maybe it can be done sometimes but I doubt a title could be made for this
July 28, 2008 at 10:19 am
Good reply Charles….ordinarily I wouldn’t have mentioned Faber and Torres due to the weight that they fight at…the reason I did is because they have been annihilating their competition. In terms of catchweight…guys fighting at WW walk around at like 190-200lbs…guys at MW walk around over 200lbs…so it’s not THAT big of a difference that you’d think in terms of if say GSP had to fight Big Nog or something…they could easily make the HW weight limit.
July 28, 2008 at 10:44 am
My whole thing about that is, I understand they walk around a lot bigger than their actual fighting weight, but how much would that extra weight effect them in a fight? We saw what it did to BJ in most of his fights, though he’s a tough SOB, he was still getting beat by guys mostly due to the extra weight he was holding…I don’t know, I think it’d be interesting and it’d definitely show who was ‘pound for pound’ the best
July 28, 2008 at 11:50 am
BJ is a lazy mofo…that’s why the weight did what it did to him. However, Anderson Silva on the other hand looked just as fast/agile at LHW as he does at MW.