Last night, Dominick Cruz easily outpointed Demetrious Johnson. Part of the reason is that Cruz is such a talent. He is so adept at creating angles and confusing his opponents that he usually wins.
This time though, he was the slower man. So he did the smartest thing he could. He took the much smaller Johnson down and beat him that way.
It wasn’t surprising to see Cruz win this way as he stood a towering five inches over Johnson.
Johnson’s game just wasn’t in the same league. He was faster than Cruz, but the size was just too much.
A decade-and-a-half ago this wouldn’t have been a problem. Fighters weren’t training in multiple styles of martial arts and there was a possibility that a smaller combatant could find a hole in their skills and beat them with it.
That just doesn’t happen these days. Fighters train so extensively that being the bigger guy gives a great advantage. In Cruz’s case, it was monstrous.
Normally, the answer would be for Johnson to cut down in weight and see if he couldn’t make a run for the belt there. The problem is that there is nowhere for Johnson to go. He is in the lowest weight class offered by the UFC.
Johnson could decide to drop in weight, but it would mean a drop in paycheck too as he would have to fight mostly in Japan and on a few smaller US promotions instead of in main events on cable TV.
The choice is pretty easy to make.
The UFC should make a flyweight division, though. It’s true that they shouldn’t follow boxing’s mistake and make too many divisions, but they do need to have a place for the smaller fighters who populate the fringes of the featherweight division.
It would be difficult to hype the fight as much to the common fan since most just want to see heavyweights like Brock Lesnar in the cage as pay-per-view buys show, but it’s usually the smaller guys who bring the Fight of the Night.
Johnson showed this in the first round when he beat Cruz easily when they were striking. As stated before, with Cruz’s striking, that is not an easy task. Yet Johnson made it look like it wasn’t hard at all.
Now imagine Johnson in the cage with someone who could match his speed and pace. Exciting isn’t it? And it would be a fair fight.
It also makes economic sense. Another title means more PPV buys and a legitimate main or co-main event even if it isn’t the most interesting matchup. It would be fiscally responsible and it would give a fair shot to smaller featherweights who don’t quite stack up in the featherweight division.
It would give guys like Demetrious Johnson a chance to prove that they are the best in the world on fair and equal terms.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com