Please note, all research was done before UFC 137, and there have been at least three heavyweight bouts since then.
A few years ago, there were calls for a cruiserweight or middle heavyweight division when Brock Lesnar was able to defeat the much-smaller Randy Couture by imposing his incredibly huge frame on Couture. At the time, Brock was among only a handful of established heavyweights fighting at a very high level who also weighed in at the maximum weight limit for heavyweight. There may not have been the athletes to put together a whole new division back then. But now, between Strikeforce and UFC, there are more than twenty-five fighters that weigh over 250 pounds, including a dozen or so that weigh in at exactly 265. Among the fighters that weigh in over 250 pounds are Lesnar, Antonio Silva, Alistair Overeem, Matt Mitrione, Mark Hunt, Shane Carwin, Roy Nelson, Josh Barnett, Frank Mir, and Travis Browne.
Of the nine weight classes in MMA, the lighter weights are separated by ten pounds apiece. As the fighters get larger, the disparity does, too. Welterweight and middleweight are separated by fifteen pounds from the lighter weights. Light heavyweight is separated from middleweight by twenty pounds. Heavyweight, though, is a whopping sixty pounds heavier than light heavyweight. That seems odd to me.
If it’s important that guys who weigh 185 pounds do not fight guys who weigh 205 pounds, should it be fine for a guy who weighs 206 pounds to fight a guy who weighs 265 pounds? Neither Dan Henderson nor Fedor Emelianenko weighed in over 225 pounds, in the same division as Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin, who both weighed in at 265 pounds. Hendo weighed in at 207!
On the other side of the coin, Cain Velasquez weighs in at around 245 pounds, and he’s generally a unanimous pick for the top heavyweight in the world. He’s able to manhandle guys who weigh twenty or more pounds heavier than him on fight night. Top contender Junior dos Santos weighs in at 240 pounds, and hasn’t had much trouble handling fighters that outweigh him by twenty pounds or more. These guys seem to be the exception, rather than the rule.
I wanted to know if there really is a disparity within the heavyweight division, if there is enough talent to warrant an extra division and possibly another championship. To get some answers, I researched all the heavyweight fights in UFC and Strikeforce over the past two years or so, since UFC 100. I especially looked at fights where competitors were separated by more than 15 pounds.
There were 90 heavyweight fights in that time period. In 39 of those fights, fighters weighed in with at least a 16 pound weight difference. That means that more than half the time, matchmakers had put together fights between fighters that are closer in weight to each other. In only 17 of the 39 fights between fighters with a large weight difference, the lighter fighter won. That’s just under half, which doesn’t seem too bad a record for the smaller guys, and seems to lean against the necessity for a new weight class.
There are some weird fights in the heavyweight division. King Mo Lawal fought at heavyweight and defeated a much larger, but less skilled Mike Whitehead. Randy Couture beat James Toney, who was bigger, but is not an MMA fighter by any means. By my count, only 7 out of the 17 fights where a much smaller fighter won were “serious” fights, though. Two of those wins were Velasquez, two were dos Santos, and one each belonged to Brendan Schaub, Fabricio Werdum, and Daniel Cormier. Given that these fighters all fight at or above 240 pounds, I don’t think they totally take away from an argument for a lighter division.
Looking at everything, I think there is enough of an argument for there to be a separate division at 230 pounds, because the lighter heavyweights are still at a huge disadvantage. We’ve seen historically great fighters like Fedor and Randy get absolutely destroyed by bigger fighters. We see lighter fighters being routinely matched up with lighter fighters until they put together a winning streak, and then they’ll get matched up with a bigger guy who demolishes them. JDS and Cain Velasquez are the exception, not the rule. At the end of the day, I think having a cruiserweight division between light heavyweight and heavyweight would really emphasize the athleticism of these bigger fighters, allowing some really great fighters to shine who otherwise wouldn’t be able to.
The only other question is whether or not there are enough fighters to make two divisions out of one. I’m not entirely sure there are. Besides the twenty or more heavyweights that currently fight at 240 pounds or less, there are also at least ten light heavyweights that could probably fight at 230 with no problem. There are also the guys that weigh up to 250 pounds that could never make weight at 205, but may be able to get into better shape and fight at 230. UFC only has 24 heavyweights on its roster, and Strikeforce has 15. If you put them together, and maybe get Rampage and Tito and a few other guys fighting at cruiserweight, that’s getting close to enough for two whole weight classes. Granted, they would both be incredibly weak at the bottom, but it’s possible that there are fighters that would come out of the woodwork to fight at 230 pounds that we can’t expect.
Ultimately, I think it could work. Even with two divisions of under twenty fighters in UFC or between UFC and Strikeforce, the fights should be exciting. As more and more large athletes see MMA as a viable way to achieve success, these divisions should blow up. UFC has shown that it understands the marketing value a larger fighter has, and finding a way to promote more big guys should be a no-brainer.
