In MMA, are weight classes going the way of the dinosaur?
Written by Chad Dundas
Saturday, 09 May 2009
When Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva step into the Octagon next month for their main event fight at UFC 99, they’ll do it at the unorthodox catch weight of 195-pounds.
It seems neither former 205-pounder wants to bother cutting all the way down to 185 for this contest. Both guys are getting a little long in the tooth, so when Silva proposed they simply split the difference there was no argument from the Franklin camp.
Taken as an isolated incident, this gentleman’s agreement is not a big deal. A broader view, however, reveals that Franklin vs. Silva is part of a growing trend: Weight classes just don’t mean as much as they used to in mixed martial arts.
Across the board, promoters and fighters alike are eschewing the formal weight class system in favor of putting together “super fights” that are designed to draw big money, but don’t necessarily retain a lot of meaning in the grand scheme of things.
Lightweight champ BJ Penn’s January defeat by welterweight king Georges St. Pierre springs immediately to mind, as does Anderson Silva’s crushing victory over James Irvin last summer at light heavyweight. Both fights were fun, but empty of any real significance.
That same insignificance was apparent last month when the upstart Strikeforce promotion headlined its first event on Showtime by having lightweight bad boy Nick Diaz fight middleweight bad boy Frank Shamrock in an entertaining but wholly inconsequential match-up. Rather, it would’ve been inconsequential had the smaller man not handed Shamrock the most embarrassing loss of his career.
At the same event, popular female fighter Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos simply ignored the weight limit for her fight with Hitomi Akano, saying that “woman problems” prevented her from completing a weight cut. The same “woman problems” didn’t stop Santos from abusing the already much smaller Akano on her way to a third-round TKO, nor did it prevent her from celebrating the win by jumping on top of the Strikeforce cage and hollering like she just won the Super Bowl.
Not very classy, “Cyborg.”
It remains to be seen if Strikeforce will even set a weight limit for a possible upcoming fight between Santos and notorious weight-crasher Gina Carano. Why bother? Both these athletes have already shown a willingness to show up tipping the scales at whatever weight they feel like.
In Japan, where MMA has always been more spectacle than sport, the DREAM brand is on the verge of offering its first “World Superman Championship” open weight tournament. A freak show in the grandest tradition, that event promises to include oddities like Bob Sapp, Hong Man Choi and – weirdest of all – former “Bash Brother” and baseball steroid snitch Jose Canseco.
Entertaining? Yes. Respectable? No way. The DREAM event puts the exclamation point on the fact that all this across-the-board contempt of the weight class system is getting ridiculous.
In some respects, inter-weight super fights are a natural step in the evolution of the sport. It’s normal for fans to want to see the best and most popular fighters take each other on, regardless of weight. To make the best fights possible, promoters are being forced to make an end-run around the weight class system.
In other ways, it feels like a bit of a throwback to the “blood and guts” days when MMA was viewed as an incorrigible blood sport unworthy of mainstream media attention or the casual sports fan’s respect.
And it won’t stop here, either. The UFC has already announced plans to send middleweight champion Silva back up to light heavyweight to fight former champ Forrest Griffin at UFC 102. Strikeforce, meanwhile, is going totally crazy with inter-divisional match-ups by juggling Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, Scott Smith and Diaz into a variety of weight-hopping fights.
For his part, Wanderlei Silva has publicly campaigned for the full-time addition of the 195-pound “super middleweight” class after his fight with Franklin is done. Such a suggestion was met with a collective groan from the MMA media, fearing that the addition of more weight classes will dilute the talent pool in much the same way it has in boxing.
Seriously, when will it end? Whatever is done, MMA needs to decide – and decide soon – if it wants more weight classes, fewer weight classes or no weight classes at all. At least then even “Cyborg” Santos will know where she stands.
When Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva step into the Octagon next month for their main event fight at UFC 99, they’ll do it at the unorthodox catch weight of 195-pounds.