Making Sense of the Lightweight Division - Part One
Posted by Marc Staehling on January 15th, 2008
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It’s safe to say that the deepest, and most consistently entertaining division in mixed martial arts is the lightweight division. Just a glance at fight of the year candidates over the last several years and you’ll see a slough of classic lightweight bouts. Uno/Sato 5/99, Penn/Pulver 1/02, Sato/Nakayama 11/02, Uno/Hansen 3/05, Hansen/Azeredo 4/06, Gomi/Diaz 2/07, Griffin/Edgar 2/07 and Huerta/Guida 12/07 are just a sampling of the fantastic lightweight fights that have taken place over the last several years.
Largely due to the depth of the talent pool, the modification of weight classes by certain promotions, and the vast array of international fighters at that weight, the lightweight division has become very difficult to rank. In part one I’m going to take a look at the major Japanese promotions, where they are, where they’ve come from, and what the future holds. In part two I’ll do the same for the non-Japanese promotions, and part three I’ll actually try and rank these suckers.
Shooto’s welterweight division, 70kg/154 lbs., is a great place to start this discussion, because it is the oldest MMA organization around, and many of the top fighters at that weight in the world cut their teeth there. The history of the Shooto welterweight world title is a who’s who of great fighters. Sato, Uno, Gomi, Hansen, Ribeiro, Kawajiri have all held it at one time or another. While it has been the historical home of many great fights and fighters in that weight class, lately this hasn’t been the case. Since January 2007, the Shooto welterweight title has been vacant, due to the inability of champion Tatsuya Kawajiri to defend it. Also the Pacific Rim version of the welterweight title only recently got sorted out when Takashi Nakakura defeated Yusuke Endo to win the title, which had been vacated by Mitsuhiro Ishida at the beginning of the year. It appears that Shooto’s time as the home of the best fighters at 70kg is passed. Now that I’ve said that, I’m sure they’ll announce a Hansen/Kawajiri rematch for the vacant title, and I’ll have egg on my face. But seriously, they simply don’t have the money or clout to be anything more than a feeder system it appears at this point.
Pride FC
Yes, I realize Pride is dead, but despite this, their actions are still being felt on the lightweight landscape. Firstly, one of the main reasons Shooto’s welterweight division fell off the map, is because they went to Pride to fill up the roster for their fantastic, if short-lived Bushido series. Pride also started the incredibly annoying trend of modifying weight classes for no good reason, other then to satiate their own needs. Instead of being like EVERYONE ELSE and having a division somewhere between 152 and 155 lbs, their lightweight division was 160 lbs. This enabled Takanori Gomi to have an easier time making weight, and brought in Hayato Sakurai, who simply can’t make 155(and he even had trouble making 160). This gave us match-ups like Jens”natural 145″ Pulver fighting Hayato”should be at 170″ Sakurai in the Bushido Tournament in 2005. Speaking of poor booking decisions, Pride’s use of non-title bouts further muddled fighter rankings when Marcus Aurelio choked out Takanori Gomi, yet didn’t win the belt. Pride’s demise put many top lightweights in limbo for most, if not all of 2007. The only major name that signed anywhere was Aurelio, who has gone 1-1 in the UFC.
While Pride caused problems in the rankings due to their bringing in heavier fighters, K-1 did the exact opposite. Their first “middleweight”/154 lb tournament featured the likes of KID Yamamoto and Hideo Tokoro, both guys that should be fighting at least one, if not two weight classes lower. 2007’s incarnation was filled with guys fighting at their proper weight, including Shaolin Ribeiro, Caol Uno, Andre Amade and tournament king J.Z. Calvancante.
Cage Force was a very bright spot, in a rather dim year for MMA in Japan. Their tournament series at 155 and 170 lbs. was an excellent showcase for Japanese and international talent, and they have embraced the traditional weight classes, and have outright said that successful fighters will be moving on to the UFC. It’s this type of planning and co-operation that we need more of, for MMA to further legitimize itself as a global sport. Although they still need to work on their use of the unified rules(see Yoshida-Hardy), Cage Force made great strides this past year, and hopefully continue to do so in 2008.
What the future holds…
There are many uncertainties as we enter into the new year. We know that the newly founded World Victory Road promotion will be having a show in March, although they don’t have any lightweights announced as part of their roster they are reportedly interested in Takanori Gomi. Of course, they’ve decided to complicate matters even further by having their lightweight division at 150 lbs.
Pancrase will crown a new LW King as the winner of the upcoming Artur Oumakhanov/Shoji bout will likely face Yuji Hoshino down the line for the title. Shooto’s first major show has no indication of any major bouts in their welterweight division.
The JZ/Aoki fight previously planned for New Year’s Eve will hopefully take place in 2008. Aoki has confirmed that he can make the cut to 155, which was a question being raised by myself as well as others. Where this fight, and where the likes of Hansen, Kawajiri, Ishida and others will ply their trade is up in the air. Rumours swirl about the formation of DREAMS, an amalgamation of HERO*S and old DSE reps, but as of now this remains rumour. Either way, it’ll be hard for the lightweights to have such a disappointing year as 2007 was.
Look for Part Two, where I’ll take a look at the non-Japanese promotions, and Part Three where I’ll look at the major rankings, and come up with my own.