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The first week of July for MMA will not only be remembered for the Forrest Griffinʼs UFC Light Heavyweight Title victory over Quinton Jackson, but for the Association Of Boxing Commissions revision to the Unified Rules Of Mixed Martial Arts. What this column is going to take a look at today is the revised rules effects on the MMA weight classes, which has now been expanded.
Currently, the Ultimate Fighting Championships has five weight classes, heavyweight (206lbs. - 265lbs.), light heavyweight (186lbs. - 205lbs.), middleweight (170lbs. - 185lbs.), welterweight (156lbs. - 169lbs.) and lightweight (145lbs. - 155lbs.). UFC Vice President Dana White already has already stated that the company will not be revising their weight classes to match those proposed by the Association Of Boxing Commissions.
The fourteen weight classes now look like this, flyweight (up to 105 lbs), super flyweight (over 105.1 to 115 lbs), bantamweight (over 115.1 to 125 lbs), super bantamweight (over 125.1 to 135 lbs), featherweight (over 135.1 to 145 lbs), lightweight (over 145.1 to 155 lbs), super lightweight (over 155.1 to 165 lbs), welterweight (over 165.1 to 175 lbs), super welterweight (over 175.1 to 185 lbs), middleweight (over 185.1 to 195 lbs), super middleweight (over 195.1 to 205 lbs), light heavyweight (over 205.1 to 225 lbs), heavyweight (over 225.1 to 265 lbs), and super heavyweight (over 265.1 lbs).
If the UFC were to just use the weight classes that fall within their current weight classes, there would be nine total weight classes ranging from lightweight to super heavyweight. That would also add four more championships to the UFC, which already has five champions in Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion), Forrest Griffin (UFC Light Heavyweight Champion), Anderson Silva (UFC Middleweight Champion), Georges St. Pierre (UFC Welterweight Champion) and BJ Penn (UFC Lightweight Champion).
Now, you could simply be asking, why doesnʼt the UFC simply ignore the Association Of Boxing Commissions revised weight classes and carry on business as usual? The answer comes from each individual states that regulates MMA, because some of these states are going to use the new revised weight classes as the official weight classes. So lets say my home state of New Jersey decides to use the new revised weight classes, then if the UFC were to run an event in New Jersey, then they would have to run the event by the new weight class standards.
This could become a huge potential problem for both the UFC and the states that use the new revised weight classes. Lets just say that New Jersey does take in the new revised weight classes and current UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva defends his title on the card, that would mean that Anderson Silva would have to defend his title under the super middleweight weight class, because the UFC Middleweight Title is a 185lb. division.
Thatʼs not to say that the UFC would have to run events in states that use the new revised weight classes, but they would be losing so top notch locations if they choose to do so. In recent years, Dana White and the UFC have been attempting to get MMA regulated in all fifty states, most recently New York. Now imagine the disappointment for the UFC and Dana White if they lose some of those states and locations because they refuse to use the revised weight classes.
Right now, the UFC has five champions that are marketed perfectly and well known by most of the MMA viewer landscape. Now say the UFC adapts all fourteen weight classes and produces fourteen champions, it would definitely be a lot harder to market those champions as equals to the public and if the public canʼt become invested in your top fighters, they will not be spending the money to watch them on pay-per-view.
This situation could also bring MMA into a boxing-like situation, in which there are tons of champions from tons of different organizations. In recent years, it has started to seem like that MMA is picking up where boxing left off at during the peak of its popularity and it doesnʼt want to go down the way boxing has in recent years.
This is a situation that will eventually have the UFC and the Association Of Boxing Commissions butting heads, along with the various states that will and will not be using the revised weight classes. Within the next few years, depending on which side comes out victorious, there will either be fourteen weight classes in the UFC or there will be the original five weight classes.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
