The UFC has never been filled with so much talent across its entire roster as it is today. From the heavyweights down, almost all divisions are more stacked today than they have ever been.
So it’s a bold claim to say that the welterweight division, which has historically been the UFC’s biggest talent pool, is the promotion’s most stacked.
However, few things have transpired to make people sit up and pay attention to the 170-pounders.
Back in 2006 when Georges St. Pierre first won the title from Matt Hughes, he took it from one of the most dominant mixed martial artists of his era, who himself had held the belt nine times.
Along the way, Hughes defeated the likes of Sean Sherk, Frank Trigg and BJ Penn—fighters GSP also had to overcome in his turn.
But once champion, St. Pierre had cleaned out the division within four years, leaving the UFC looking elsewhere (to Strikeforce in particular) for fighters to challenge its reigning champion.
However, the Canadian has been out injured since last year, and in that time many fighters have risen through the UFC’s own ranks and now look like much more worthy opponents for St. Pierre.
Firstly, there’s the interim title holder himself, Carlos Condit, who has yet to face St. Pierre and has dropped only one fight in 14.
Then there’s Johny Hendricks, who has gone on a similar 13-1 run, defeating UFC veterans Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck along the way. Along with a resurgent Martin Kampmann, those are the immediate threats to GSP.
Finally there’s the prodigy himself, Rory MacDonald, who has looked like the most tantalizing talent the UFC has produced in years. He possess the skills and athleticism to challenge any welterweight in the world, and his forthcoming fight against BJ Penn at UFC on Fox 5, will prove whether he’s experienced enough now to be a title contender.
However, events over the last four weeks have produced even more interesting developments for the welterweight divisions.
Three men—Dan Hardy, Jon Fitch and Demian Maia—all look like rejuvenated fighters adding to the wealth of talent at the weight class.
Hardy, for instance, looks like a much more complete mixed martial artist than the one GSP ran through two years ago. Similarly, Fitch, with such an impressive performance over Erick Silva, and Maia, continuing his successful start as a welterweight, look only a couple of fights away from a title shot.
That’s enough to keep GSP awake at night. But he’s not the only champion sweating right now.
Dana White has been praising his heavyweights for some time, and for good reason. Anyone among the top four—Junior Dos Santos, Cain Velasquez, Alistair Overeem, Daniel Cormier—could be champion. Not to mention the talented chasing pack led by Fabricio Werdum and Stefan Struve.
The picture is similar elsewhere.
At middleweight, Anderson Silva has reigned supreme for longer than GSP, but today faces an arguable bigger threat to his belt than he has ever known. Those men include the likes of Chris Weidman, who many people are already favouring over the 11-time champion, as well as Alan Belcher, who looked so impressive against the dangerous Rousimar Palhares in his last outing.
And, further down, at lightweight, that division is now more stacked than it has ever been. Ben Henderson only narrowly held onto the title he stole from Frankie Edgar in their first match, but there’s every chance someone like Nate Diaz, Donald Cerrone, Gray Maynard or Anthony Pettis could take the title from him.
The ultimate question is how stacked that division is compared to the welterweights.
When we look at the top five welterweights in the UFC, as per Bleacher Report October rankings, and compare them to the top five lightweights, we see Ellenberger, Kampmann, Hendricks, Carlos Condit and St. Pierre on one side, against Cerrone, Pettis, Diaz, Maynard and Henderson.
At first glance, the UFC’s top five welterweights look as closely matched to each other as the lightweights. However, on closer inspection, it is clear that St. Pierre has been a much more dominant and long-serving champion than Henderson.
Henderson has only defended the belt once, and both his championship victories against the diminutive Edgar were extremely close and extremely controversial decisions. He’s also been defeated by Pettis, number four on the list, and Maynard also ran Edgar as close in his first match as Henderson did in his two matches.
By any estimation, that makes the position of lightweight champion look much more precarious than GSP’s throne.
However, GSP is untested against all the main contenders in his division, so to say that his belt is any more secure is pure speculation at this point.
As stacked as the division has become, to say that welterweight is more stacked than any of the others can be argued either way. Nevertheless, there’s plenty more there today than a year ago to give GSP sleepless nights.
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