By Michael Owens
The UFC’s middleweight division has often been something of a red-headed step child. Sandwiched in between the sport’s traditional glamour divisions its biggest stars (welterweight and light heavyweight) it has rarely had the biggest spotlight. But could 2014 finally be the year when it really takes off?
First of all, let’s look back at the problems that have plagued the UFC’s 185 pound weight class. It started off late for one thing. The first UFC middleweight champion was crowned three years after Pat Miletich claimed the first welterweight belt. Even the (at the time) maligned lightweight class kicked off six months earlier. There were no stars. The early going was less than smooth too, as its second Champion – Murilo Bustamante – left the division in limbo when he left the promotion to sign with PRIDE. Rich Franklin has the first lengthy reign as champion, but he was never a star like Matt Hughes or Chuck Liddell and he ended up getting pulverised by some unknown Brazilian guy with just one win in the UFC and a pair of losses to Ryo Chonan and Daiju Takase in Japan.
As hard as it might be to believe now, Anderson Silva was not always a huge star for the UFC. Even when the promotion was at its blockbusting, million-selling PPV peak he was only pulling in about 350,000 buys. The forgettable UFC 78 – which was headlined by an unremarkable fight between Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping – outdrew Silva’s rematch with Franklin. Some people even thought Nate Marquardt would have been a more marketable champion than ‘The Spider’. Even when Silva started to pull in bigger numbers, there were plenty of naysayers who disputed the level of competition he was facing. Many would argue that Silva was so good he was making everyone else look terrible by comparison, but the fact remained, he had to take three fights at 205 pounds to get a lot of spectators really excited.
Enter 2013, and while the torch was passed on to Chris Weidman over the course of two fights, and a strong queue of contenders has lined up to give the division a credible case as the most intriguing and potentially exciting division around. Looking at the list of top-ranked contenders you can just see the potential.
2. Vitor Belfort – Even before Weidman really showed just how special he was by doing the double over Silva I would have picked him to beat Belfort. If you’d told me he would in fact go on to beat Silva twice – regardless of how – I would have bet my house on it. Now that über TRT Vitor has emerged from the shadows of an up and down career I’m not so sure. He has made such a good job of smashing anyone with the misfortune of stepping into the cage with him he has pushed himself back into contention and is many people’s pick to take the belt and, get this, join BJ Penn and Randy Couture a the only man to win titles in two UFC divisions.
3. Ronaldo Souza – Fast, athletic, dynamite on the fees and incomparable on the ground, Jacaré is a complete fighter. His BJJ alone would be enough to give him a chance against almost anyone, but add in the rest of the package and he will be a favourite or close to even money against everybody in his path.
4. Lyoto Machida – A mystery. Seven years into his career and still almost no-one has figured him out. He went 3-3 at 205 pounds after losing the belt, but only one of those was a ‘real’ loss and that was against Jon Jones. ‘The Dragon’ has the tools stay out of trouble against anyone’s offence, whether it’s Belfort’s berzerker rush or Weidman’s takedown. He can unleash a kick or counter punch and score a KO at any moment too. Another one not to be counted out.
5. Michael Bisping – Middleweights mainstay. He’s been around forever and only ever lost to former champions and Chael Sonnen (and many people fought he won that one). Too classy on the feet, deceptively good at grappling and well conditioned for anyone without a serious ace in the hole, Bisping also generates a lot of attention and people want to watch him, even if it is only to see him lose.
6. Luke Rockhold – One of the new kids on the block. Rockhold has only lost once since he joined Strikeforce and he has a win over the #3 ranked fighter in the weight class. He has a killer instinct, a bottomless gas tank and a well-rounded set of skills. It seems like he could only be stopped by something outrageous. Unfortunately he was up against something like that when Belfort’s heel rattled his brain around in May.
That’s just the next five contenders. Below this motley crew you’ve got the likes of tough-as-nails Mark Munoz, who for all his flaws is still a fantastic fighter. Following him is Francis Carmont who is not the most flashy fighter and he tends to get on the right side of some unusual judges decisions, but he’s 5-0 in the UFC. Then there’s Tim Kennedy who is another well rounded, seemingly unstoppable scrapper.
And that’s not all. There are some unranked veterans like Chael Sonnen and Gegard Mousasi, who will walk into the top 10 as soon as they have fought back down at middleweight this year. Add in wild newcomers like Yoel Romero and old highlight-reel favourites like Cung Le and Wanderlei Silva and you’ve got a recipe for excellence. Lightweight might still be the deepest and most exciting division, but the added 30 pounds and higher knockout percentage adds just another (knockout shaped) dimension to middleweight fights.
Match them up however you like Joe Silva, with a hierarchy like that you can’t lose. As long as everyone stays healthy, we should get plenty of bang for our buck from these men and with a welterweight division in transition, a light heavyweight division with its shallowest pool of talent ever and a lightweight division that still won’t catch on with the casual fan, there might just be a new crop of megastars to carry the UFC this year.
