There are certain aspects of mixed martial arts that simply make no sense.
And when my lovable colleague Pat McCarry took a look at the 15 ways that rugby could be improved, it struck a chord with me and made me think that, as physical as rugby is, MMA is far more dangerous and needs some improvement in pretty much all areas.
There are elements of the sport that are still counter-intuitive when it comes to fighter safety, fan enjoyment and the overall legitimisation of the sport.
I would like to make it clear that this is very much an opinion piece and I’ve decided to drip feed my ideas for rule changes over 15 weeks and, while some of them are a little bit out there, I think that they just make sense to switch up.
– In Week 1 we looked at how to deal with fighters missing weight.
– In Week 3 we suggested a new initiative as to how to make the weight cut safer for fighter
– In week 4 we toyed with the idea of getting rid of the cage
Week 5 – More weight classes
If I had to pick one of these amendments to really push through, this would be at the tippy-top of my list.
There are 17 weight divisions in boxing but us MMA fans have less than 10 to enjoy.
The UFC currently has 10 different weight classes(if we are to separate the men’s bantamweight and women’s bantamweight divisions) and some fighters find themselves stuck in between a division.
There are 20lbs between a light heavyweight (205lbs) and a middleweight (185lbs) while the discrepancy between a light heavyweight and heavyweight (265lbs) is just ridiculous.
The potential of certain fighters, like heavyweight Brendan Schaub, former middleweight Rich Franklin and featherweight Frankie Edgar would be unbelievable with the introduction of so-called “in between” weight divisions.
When you look at small light heavyweights like Rashad Evans and big light heavyweights like Jon Jones, it seems almost ridiculous that a fight between them is thought to be on an even keel.
The argument does exist that with more weight divisions, the titles become less important but that wouldn’t be the case as the UFC has introduced five new weight divisions over the last five years and there has literally not been one complaint about the increase in championships.
The problem boxing has is the division of titles across the four major organisations, not the amount of divisions in the sport, and in reality, dominant fighters like Chris Weidman and Jon Jones (presuming he returns) will end up holding the belt in two weight classes.
I think, for MMA, there should be at least four new divisions – cruiserweight (230 lbs), super middleweight (195 lbs), super welterweight (178 lbs) and super lightweight (163 lbs) – to allow for certain fighters to flourish.
It would lead to more champions, more fights and more superfights for fans to get excited about.
Come back next week when we’re sure you’ll agree with our stance on MMA judges and how we propose to improve that area of the sport.
