FanPost

The Future of the Light Heavy Weight Division in the UFC

Jon Jones has come off a great year at LWH in the UFC, he has beaten 4 of the top LHW the UFC has to offer, 3 out of those 4 were the very elite of the LHW division, Shogun, Rampage, and Machida. He practically destroyed Shogun, he beat Rampage in a war of attrition, and he put Machida to sleep after a difficult first round. His next likely opponent will be Rashad, I don't see Rashad losing to Davis, he has the more experience, has excellent wrestling, and a better stand up to David. Rashad is at his peak right now. Now comes the main question, what happens if Jones beats Rashad, which he most likely will, where does that leave the UFC's LHW division?

The next possible contender is Dan Henderson, but is he willing to wait for that long, and are the UFC willing to keep him shelved for that long? Jones' next title defence will take place anywhere from April-May, meaning any fight that comes afterward will likely be another 3-4 months, so a Jones Hendo match up won't take place until August-September, that's a waiting period of 9-10 months for Dan Henderson. Is Hendo willing to wait out that long just to get the title shot? Is that even a smart decision? Fighting a man like Jones who has been competing on a regular basis while you haven't competed in 9-10 months?

Maybe the UFC could give Hendo a feeder fight, giving him someone like lil nog, all right it's not exactly an easy fight, but Hendo shouldn't really lose such a match up if he really thinks he's good enough to fight Jones. Now let's say that Hendo does fight again and loses, then what, who is then the next challenger for Jones? Shogun just got destroyed by Jones and is 1-1, Jackson was easily defeated by Jones and hardly deserves a rematch, and as for Machida well he doesn't deserve a rematch anytime soon. Looking all the way to August-September Shogun will most likely have 2 fights, and let's say he win's both, would that warrant him another rematch? The same scenario with Machida, Jackson, and so forth. If they manage to string a winning streak of two fights by August-September would that warrant either of them a rematch with Jones? Well one of them might get one due to how light the division is looking due to Jones' dominance!

Now let's even say that Hendo fights Jones in August-September and beats Hendo, then who's next? All likely candidates for another match with Jones are all rematches, one after the other, and this just highlights how light and weak the LHW division is looking all of a sudden. Just like in Strikeforce when people talk about how thin their LHW and MW divisions are that you often see a lot of rematches taking places, well the way things are going with Jones' dominance, the UFC's LHW division is going to turn into the same thing!

The best possible scenario for the UFC right now is for Jones to lose to either Evans or Henderson, the LHW division in the UFC has often been said to be the strongest and most competitive division in the UFC, it is in fact the division that has brought a lot of recognition to the UFC, so it would be a big shame to see the LHW division completely taken over by one dominant fighter who just destroys all before him. If Jones does continue to dominate in 2012 as he has done in 2011 then the UFC should take an executive decision and move him up to the HW division where he will be fighting guys his own size, making the odds much more fair, and much more competitive.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

FanPosts are user-generated content that do not reflect the editorial opinions of MMAmania.com nor its staff.

In This FanPost

Fighters