Issue 031

November 2007

I love mixed martial arts, I really do. I love watching fights, I love going to events, I love meeting fighters and I love training. 

When you’ve been in the game for a while, things can sometimes get a little routine and lose their shine. Another day, another fight, to butcher a popular phrase. Though I would far rather be at an event watching MMA than sat in front of the TV or busying myself with some other tedious pasttime, the magic can come and go as with anything in life. 

But there is one thing that almost always manages to get me excited, and that is the promise of a good lightweight encounter. Plainly put, I think lightweights Rock with capital ‘R’. 

As far as I’m concerned, you can keep your heavyweights, even if watching two big bangers slug it out is admittedly entertaining. Light heavyweights and middleweights bring a fantastic combination of athleticism and power to the cage, which is always appealing, as do the welterweights, but if you want the best of everything that MMA has to offer, why look further than the lightweight division?

For me, the lightweights deliver everything you could possibly hope for and more. My love affair with lightweights began back when BJ Penn first entered the UFC and Jens Pulver had recently established himself as champion in the UFC’s newly formed 155lb weight class. Penn’s arrival into the Octagon was like a bomb had gone off, and no-one could fail to notice the youngster from Hawaii. 

He blew through opponents with a ferocity people hadn’t seen before in a fighter of that size. Even the then-top dog, Jens Pulver, was amazed by the level of intensity Penn brought to the table. Their five round war (that Pulver would win) set the benchmark for future lightweight competitors, and the result was an exciting and energetic division full of sparkling talent. 

For me, the lightweight division distils all the good bits of MMA into one category. Whether you want slugfests, slams or submissions, you can find them here, and the best part of it all is that there is a huge depth of talent out there just dying to break through. 

There are many lightweight competitors across the globe, and there is plenty of phenomenal talent in every major MMA nation. They’re faster than their larger contemporaries. They are dynamic in their actions, slicker on the ground and more flexible. Their move through transitions so quickly it is sometimes hard to keep up, and the strength to weight ratio means they can pack plenty of power into their lightning-fast punches. 

When the UFC shelved the 155lb division a few years ago, there was an outcry among fans. Luckily lightweight fighters were able to find opportunities elsewhere. The UFC wisely reinstated the weight class and found that it was one of the most popular of all. Lightweight matches now figure on almost every event. 

Some of the best fights of the last twelve months have been in the lightweight class. Spencer Fisher vs. Sam Stout was a brutal encounter that saw fifteen minuites of non-stop punching and kicking from both men with hardly a moment on the ground. Sean Sherk’s battle with Kenny Florian for the UFC lightweight title was bloody and enthralling, with both men showing exceptional levels of determination and heart. Tyson Griffin’s fight with Clay Guida featured maybe the sickest wrestling we’ve seen in MMA ever, and who can forget Nick Diaz’s memorable gogoplata submission of Pride champion Takanori Gomi? (OK, it was at 160lbs, but they were stil technically lightweights.) 

The WEC have gone one step further and even feature the featherweight and bantamweight classes, recognising that there is a huge market for the lighter weights and a wealth of talent dying to break through. Countries with a long history of producing smaller boxers, such as Mexico and Japan, have many fighters in these classes, and we’ll see more of them in the future as promotions feature them.

In the meantime we can find lightweight fights as part of all of the major events. K-1 HERO’s recently concluded their tournament in Japan with the Brazilian ‘JZ’ Calvancanti blasting through his opponents. Cage Rage continue to bring us the best of domestic and international talent while shows across the USA such as Elite XC, Strikeforce and more feature many amazingly talented lightweight fighters.