SEATTLE — The flyweights in the UFC are getting a raw deal, straight up.
You can start in on your list of “Yeah, but…” explanations and justifications if you’d like, but the reality of the situation is that the lightest weight class competing inside the UFC Octagon doesn’t get the respect it deserves. In fact, the 125-pound ranks are an overlooked, undervalued bunch, with champion Demetrious Johnson the most maligned of the group.
Heading into his second consecutive title defense in the main event of a UFC on FOX show, the titleholder and his opponent, John Moraga, are equal parts overshadowed by the welterweight co-main event between Rory MacDonald and Jake Ellenberger, and victims of the faulty perception many fight fans hold in regards to their weight class.
The former of those two obstacles to recognition is somewhat understandable.
MacDonald has quickly climbed to the cusp of stardom based jointly on his impressive performances and the ever-present question about a potential showdown with his teammate, Georges St-Pierre, the UFC welterweight champion. For the record, nothing has changed on that front; it’s still not going to happen.
In the weeks leading up to this bout, Ellenberger aided in pulling attention to this content by egging his opponent on in 140-character increments. What started with a simple question on Twitter – “What round is round is Rory getting melted? #UFConFOX8” – turned into a back-and-forth between the two welterweight contenders that has become the most prominent talking point of the entire event.
Watch over five hours of UFC on Sportsnet: Johnson vs. Moraga live on Sportsnet 360 starting at 5pm ET / 2pm PT Saturday, July 27, plus two early prelims on sportsnet.ca starting at 4pm ET / 1pm PT
As a tandem, MacDonald and Ellenberger make up the most well-known duo on the docket. They’re the only opposing fighters that have been main card fixtures in the UFC, and while they’ve been piling up appearances and victories on television and pay-per-view, Moraga spent his first two appearances in the Octagon in the opening bout of the night.
When you match up an intriguing storyline between two established welterweights in the penultimate fight of the night with Moraga’s standing as a relative unknown, it’s easy to see how casual fans can shift their focus to the fighters they’re familiar with at the expense of the main event competitors.
The perception that flyweights don’t finish and are somehow not as entertaining as their heavier contemporaries is the second obstacle standing before Johnson and Moraga, and to me, it’s something that is blown out of proportion.
In their very brief time in the UFC, the flyweights have a 44 per cent finishing rate; that’s eight stoppages in 18 fights since they debuted in March 2012. And for the record, five of those eight stoppages have been technical knockouts or knockouts, which takes a lot of steam out of the “lack of power” complaint right off the bat.
So far this year, exactly 50 per cent of all UFC fights have gone the distance, as Reed Kuhn of Fightnomics.com tabulated earlier this month. A six per cent difference between the division and the overall average isn’t all that much, but with the flyweights, perception is reality, even if the perception is incorrect.
Because many of the high profile flyweight fights – including each of Johnson’s four UFC appearances to date – have ended in decisions, it has created the belief that the lightest fighters on the roster can’t finish fights.
As Joseph Benavidez, John Dodson and Saturday’s title challenger have shown, that just isn’t true.
Every weight class ends up at the scorecards sometimes, even the heavyweights, although less frequently, but what has become baffling about this frustration with the flyweights and their lack of finishing is how they get no love for being one of – if not the most entertaining divisions in the UFC.
When heavyweights drift passed the first round, things start to slow down, considerably. When the flyweights hit round two or round three, it still looks like the opening minute of the fight — two fresh competitors flitting around the cage, sniping at each other with punches and kicks.
For whatever reason, the flitting around the cage and not the fact that the competitors are able to go non-stop for 15 or 25 minutes on a fight-by-fight basis has become the focus. It’s a maddening situation given how frequently were hear complaints about fighters gassing out long before the final horn sounds.
Anyone competing north of lightweight gets tired, they get ripped for having poor conditioning. Anyone fighting at lightweight or below that goes the distance without so much as a single deep breath, they get labeled as a good-for-nothing “point fighter” and they deserve every ounce of criticism they receive.
Or even worse, they get called boring.
Moraga has used that word to describe Johnson’s style on multiple occasions heading into this fight, mainly challenging his approach, and what he perceives as a lack of push to finish fights.
How someone that has landed 369 significant strikes and 12 takedowns over his last four bouts (all at flyweight) can be considered boring is beyond me. Did you not see Johnson literally climb up Dodson when they were clinching along the cage in January? It was awesome, as was the fight, as are all flyweight fights, and the vast majority of fights in general, regardless of how they end.
But when the relatively unknown half of the main event is calling the defending UFC champion he’s facing “boring” and the UFC continues to insist on rolling out trailer after trailer of highlight reel knockouts (often set to really bad music, by the way), it’s no wonder a large portion of the fan base is far more interested in the welterweight co-main event instead of the flyweight title fight at the top of the card.