When the UFC announced the flyweight division, they also announced how they would create a champion for the division. Unlike the bantamweight and featherweights divisions, this was a weight class that was going to need to be built from the ground up.
So when the UFC announced that it was going to have a four-man flyweight tournament to crown a champion, it made sense.
Until the participants were mentioned.
Most made sense and should have been there.
Ian McCall has beaten some of the best flyweights in the world, Joseph Benavidez had won his last three fights including those in the UFC at bantamweight and Yasuhiro Urushitani is a good flyweight who is probably in the tournament to draw in Japanese fans, but has more than enough wins to merit being there.
The fourth man is Demetrious Johnson, who is a great fighter, but is coming off a loss at bantamweight from a failed title shot at that weight.
It wouldn’t have been a problem to see Johnson in this tournament if he had a few wins right now or if there wasn’t a better option out there.
But there was.
The only person the UFC is missing is someone who was considered the best flyweight in the world by the name of Jussier da Silva. Fans of the flyweight division will already know him as the man who beat Shinichi Kojima and, after his loss to McCall, Mamoru Yamaguchi.
Da Silva has a laundry list of great names that he has beaten on his resume and has earned a shot at being in the UFC.
He also has a true underdog story.
Silva is a father and now the main provider for not only his family, but for his mother as well, as his father died in 2010. It’s been a rough climb for him.
Silva has to work at a hospital just to make ends meet and has to skip certain things like supplements that other fighters have. Even with all of this he is still one of the best in the world at 125 pounds.
He was denied a chance to come to America and make money. He had to accept donations just to get the money for a plane ride.
This is a man who not only earned his ranking, but deserves to be in the top promotion in the world fighting for the top prize.
Things might have gotten better for him recently because he now has fought at the American promotion Tachi Palace Fights, but even if he gets a bigger purse from being in the US it is still nothing compared to what the UFC could give him.
Silva has worked hard and struggled to become one of the best in the world. He has answered the question that White usually gives competitors in the UFC which is, do you want to be a fighter?
Silva has shown he has and yet he still hasn’t been signed.
So now the question is: Does the UFC want to be the a promoter?
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