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411 Fact or Fiction MMA: Is the UFC Welterweight Division the Best Division?

December 20, 2017 | Posted by Lorenzo Vasquez

Welcome back to another edition of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! I’m your host, Lorenzo Vasquez III, and it is my pleasure to bring you another jam-packed edition of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! Before moving on, I want to say thank you, for your votes and comments last week it is appreciated. As you witnessed last week, Dan Plunkett and Mark Radulich brought forth the thunder and lightning in a back and forth affair over topics like Brian Ortega’s win over Cub Swanson, Mayweather Jr. carrying Conor McGregor, and GSP vacating the middleweight strap. Both men traded punishing straight punches but it was Dan who withstood the beating and stole the victory. Congratulations, Dan, and thank you both for your efforts and contributions.

This week, Wyatt Beougher is taking on a tall task. Hit the music folks because he’s back! Dino Zee makes his return and Wyatt is looking to spoil the kings welcome back. They will trade barbs over the UFC Welterweight Division and its status as the top division in the promotion, Josh Emmett’s stunning victory over Ricardo Lamas, Rafael dos Anjos’ new life as a welterweight, and much more! Grab some grub and strap-in folks because it’s time for another round of, 411 Fact or Fiction MMA!

TALE OF THE TAPE
RED CORNER
Dino “Salad Bar” Zee
Contributor, 411 Wrestling Zone
12-0-1

VS

BLUE CORNER
Wyatt Beougher
Host/Reviewer/Columnist, 411 MMA/TV & Movies/Wrestling Zones
2-12-1

Knowing Rafael dos Anjos withstood Robbie Lawler’s arsenal but that lightweight, Eddie Alvarez, knocked him out a little over a year ago is an example showing a negative effect of cutting too much weight.

Dino Zee: FACT I’ll say “Fact,” but I’m doing it with the caveat that I’m, you know, not a doctor. It could be an example of multiple things, none of which I have the knowledge to properly diagnose. That said, for my simple MMA Fan brain, I do believe that it shows the hazards of cutting too much weight. I think we’d agree that Lawler hits harder than Alvarez, but Dos Anjos was able to weather his storm much easier than that of Alvarez’s. Heading into the fight, I basically had a mindset of this being “Gas Tank vs. Chin,” and I assumed that, over 25 minutes, Lawler’s barrage was just going to be entirely too much for the former lightweight champion. And I was wrong. Dos Anjos looked incredible, had the gas tank he needed for the fight, and was able to fight fire with fire.

I’m not sure that I think he can beat Woodley, but Dos Anjos should no longer be considered a lightweight that moved up; he’s a full on welterweight now, in my opinion.

Wyatt Beougher: FACT I mean, sure, that’s probably a drastic oversimplification of things, but if you distill down to two major, widely-believed (or perhaps even widely proven) MMA tenets, it actually makes perfect sense. First off, we know that severe weight cuts leave fighters more prone to being knocked out and RDA admitted earlier this year that he walks around at about 195 pounds between camps, so I think we can all agree that a forty-pound cut, even over the course of a six-week camp, qualifies as “severe”. And conventional wisdom around the sport tells us that heavier fighters hit harder (at least in general – there are probably lightweight fighters who punch harder than Michael “Pillow Fists” Bisping), so by applying those two principles, Occam’s Razor tells us that this one is probably a FACT.

Darren Till vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio makes the most sense for both fighters at this time.

Dino Zee: FICTION No disrespect to Ponzinibbio, but I think that Till deserves a higher ranked opponent after the thrashing he put down on Cowboy Cerrone. According to the UFC’s rankings, Wonderboy, Lawler, Covington, Dos Anjos, Maia, and Masvidal all rank above Till. Give Ponzinibbio an actual name to beat – Carlos Condit fights Neil Magny soon, one of them could work – before we set up the two rising contenders to meet. Till made a statement in his last fight, and should be rewarded with a higher ranked opponent. Masvidal could be ready, and that’s a scrap I’d be down to see.

Till and Ponzinibbio, I’ll assume, will fight one day. It just doesn’t have to be so soon.

Wyatt Beougher: FACT Till is currently the seventh-ranked welterweight in the UFC’s official rankings and has won three straight and four of five since joining the UFC (with the fifth fight being a draw), while Ponzinibbio is currently ranked ninth and has run off six straight wins since losing to Lorenz Larkin in 2015. Both guys have at least one win over a more established UFC star, and in both cases, you could make the argument that each guy deserves a higher-ranked fighter than they’d be getting, but I’m a sucker for pitting two prospects together like this and seeing which one is actually ready to take the next step. I wouldn’t be opposed to Ponzinibbio fighting Lawler since they both just fought on the same show, but I’m not sure the 35-year-old Lawler, who fights twice a year in his good years, will be ready as quickly as the only-slightly-younger Ponzinibbio, who has fought six times in the past two years. Of course, Till last fought two months ago, so there’s no guarantee he’d be willing to wait around for Ponzinibbio, especially if a fighter ranked in the top six finds themselves in need of an opponent. So while I think it does make sense for both fighters, that doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen, although I’d be delighted to see it should the contract get signed.

Should Tyron Woodley decide to have shoulder surgery, rather than having an interim title, Rafael dos Anjos and Colby Covington should have a title contender eliminator bout with the winner fighting Woodley upon his return.

Dino Zee: FACT It’s a fact because we don’t need more interim titles. The fans don’t buy into the mystique anymore, and it’s basically considered a glorified #1 Contender spot anyways. Woodley defended recently, there’s no reason to think he’ll be out for years… I still feel like Dos Anjos should probably get the next crack, but I don’t have a problem with having him and Covington fight, either. Just, please, no interim titles. Please.

Wyatt Beougher: FICTION Without knowing how long Woodley would be out for, I can’t say FACT to this one in good conscience. What if there are complications from his surgery, and Woodley is out for over a year? Would you then take the winner of RDA and Covington and have them fight another time for an interim title? What if said winner decided to go the Rashad Evans route and wait for the real champion to be available? I know interim titles are the scourge of the average MMA fan’s existence, but I think in a situation like this, where surgery is required and you have two legitimate challengers who could conceivably be ready to fight well before the champion returns, bringing out an interim belt makes the most sense. They keep giving the real light heavyweight title back to Daniel Cormier, so I fail to see how an interim title is more of an affront to the legitimacy of the sport than that.

SWITCH!

Erick Silva is the most disappointing welterweight prospect to come out in the last ten years.

Wyatt Beougher: FACT Unless we’re counting Kelvin Gastelum here, sure. I would say Gastelum is the bigger disappointment at welterweight, if only because he could be a legitimate contender if he could consistently make weight without totally draining himself in the process. For as exciting as he was, I never really thought Silva’s ceiling was all that high, as his striking always seemed reckless enough to me that a talented and patient counter puncher could exploit that. I figured him for a solid gatekeeper, and the fact that he’s lost pretty much every time he’s taken a step up in competition inside the Octagon pretty much bears that out. But if we’re allowed to throw Gastelum into the mix, then this one is a pretty easy FICTION for me.

Dino Zee: FICTION Entirely too tough to call, but I can see the case being made. I just can’t say “Fact” on something I’m not 100% sure of, and this is one of those times. Yes, Silva came in with a ton of hype, and was propped up to be the unbeatable champion of the future. Jon Fitch would quickly bring him back down to earth, and it’s been a bumpy road ever since. He beats low rated fighters, and then it’s a tossup after that. Silva brings a fun style, but the results just haven’t been there. I’m not saying he hasn’t been a big disappointment; I’m just not totally sure he’s the biggest one at welterweight. He never beat a top rated guy to make us feel like he do big things. Someone like a Kelvin Gastelum, for me at least, was much more of a disappointment at welterweight just because he showed promise and the ability to beat top fighters, while being unable to beat the scale. He at least coulda been something in the division. Silva’s build was all based on hype, and not so much on actual in-octagon results.

Josh Emmett destroyed Ricardo Lamas, the No. 3 featherweight, with a left hook from hell but that, doesn’t mean he is ready for Max Holloway.

Wyatt Beougher: FACT This is a pretty easy FACT for me simply because I don’t think anyone, save perhaps the last guy to beat Holloway, is really ready for the featherweight champion. And since that last guy to beat Holloway is notoriously hard to nail down as far as getting a fight signed, I think we’ll probably get to find out if Emmett is actually ready for Holloway. Granted, the left hook referenced in this statement was a thing of devastating beauty, but it was also Emmett’s first finish since joining the UFC, and I’m afraid a guy who consistently goes to decisions (over half of his fights overall and 80% of his UFC contests have gone the distance) will find himself giving Holloway too much time to find and exploit a weakness. Out of the top five UFC-ranked featherweights right now, I certainly think it’s possible that Emmett would provide Holloway his toughest challenge, but honestly, that’s damning him with faint praise, as Max pretty handily disposing of the former kingpin of the featherweight division twice in successive fights has convinced me that he’s easily the best in the division right now.

Dino Zee: FACT Yes, I think that’s a pretty fair statement. Holloway appears to be on another level for any fighter at 145 (with maybe Edgar excluded from that statement), and while Emmett’s win was huge and shocking and should absolutely be celebrated, it doesn’t tell me that he’s ready for the champ. And frankly, he doesn’t need to be, because there’s no way he’s getting a crack anytime soon with a missed-weight win. Besides, Edgar has his fight still, and then T-City’s roaming around after strangling Cub… yeah, Emmett might not be ready for Holloway right now, but he doesn’t need to be. He can just enjoy his incredible upset.

The UFC’s Welterweight Division has overtaken the Lightweight Division as the most exciting and shark infested division.

Wyatt Beougher: FACT I went back and forth on this one, as the lightweight division is still pretty stacked and has never really experienced a drop in excitement (Gray Maynard’s time as a top contender notwithstanding), but considering guys like Donald Cerrone and Rafael dos Anjos, both of whom provided a considerable amount of excitement to the lightweight division over the past couple of years, have defected to an almost equally stacked welterweight division, I opted to go FACT on this one. If you look at both divisions’ top fifteen fighters, I think it’s really a matter of personal preference as to which division is more exciting and has the more dangerous fighters, but the other black marks against the lightweight division that caused me to favor the heavier weight class are the fact that the current lightweight champion might never defend his title and the top contender after the interim champion can’t seem to stay healthy for two fights in a row.

Dino Zee: FACT Absolutely. It’s the active division, with the champion who defends his title. Woodley might not be guaranteed fireworks, but he’s defended his title 3 times, with each coming against a man considered the top contender. Meanwhile, Lightweight has turned into a wasteland with people fighting for everything but the title. We have an interim champion, we have The Most Violent Man, but we don’t have the champion fighting the top contender, and haven’t in a year. Lightweight still has an impressive roster, but for now, Welterweight has to be considered the premier division for sure.

So who won? You’ve got until midnight eastern on Saturday to vote, so make sure you make your voice heard!

And that’s it for today but, as always, we’ll be back next week with another contest! And please, be sure to vote!

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