MMA Cruiserweights: Ohio Takes the Lead, but Will Others Follow Suit?

Earlier this week, the Ohio Athletic Commission (OAC) announced it will be implementing a new cruiserweight division for the state's amateur mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter effective May 1. The idea is for enough data to be collected over time in an effort to bring about a change to the professional MMA divisions. The time frame for this to occur: no specific end date.

The change will have the biggest impact on the heavyweight division, currently set at 206 to 265 pounds. The new cruiserweight will takeaway from the heavyweight division the bottom 20 pounds, covering the 206 to 225 pound range.

For inexperienced amateurs, the hope is to reduce unhealthy weight loss for bottom end heavyweight fighters who could do better at light heavyweight.  For professionals, the hope is to find relief for the "in-betweeners" who are too big for light heavyweight, but not big enough to hang with the divisions top-enders.

Ohio has no plans of making a change to the professional ranks anytime soon, nor does it plan to do it solo. The OAC would present its findings to the Association of Boxing Commissioner's MMA committee, assuming the results are positive. The results would be calculated using every possible variable, debated thoroughly, and presented in a format everyone could agree on. 

The MMA committee is currently chaired by Nick Lembo of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. For those of you who do not know, New Jersey was the first state to institute the current Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.

As the leading state in regulated MMA matches per year, and with a dominating 27 percent of the nations registered amateur fighters, Ohio seems to be the perfect testing ground for such an endeavor.

No doubt the move has the possibility of allowing amateurs a more competitive and healthy weight to fight at, but what about the professionals? Assuming the results are favorable, what is the overall impact such a change could have on professional MMA?

When asking these questions, a lot of emphasis is placed on the "in-betweeners," such as Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos, Mirko Cro Cop, and Cheick Kongo, who would be removed from having to compete with the likes of Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, Bret Rogers, and Alistar Overeem.  With the UFC just starting to regain traction with the depth in their heavyweight division, the argument is validly made to not bring about such a radical change.

The problem with focusing on the removal of talent from the heavyweight division is the fighters who could excel at both lose focus. Weighing in at 230, Fedor could easily excel at both. Velasquez or JDS are moving up nicely into contendership and would not soon change those paths, at least not before such a change to the weight class would take place.

Another group of fighters who get lost in the discussion are the elite light heavyweights who could easily move up to 225 pounds and still remain competitive. It is conceivable fighters like Lyoto Machida, Shogun Rua, Rampage Jackson, or Rashad Evans could do well and test their skills at cruiserweight. It was not that long ago Randy Couture was defending his heavyweight title while only weighing 220 pounds.  Of course his last title defense was against Brock Lesnar, who walks around at over 280 pounds.

No matter how the landscape of the light heavyweight and heavyweight ranks look today, it matters little as to how it might look if and when a cruiserweight division is established, which at this time is scheduled to happen at "no specific end date." If nothing else it gives us one more thing to think about, and a new way to envision fantasy fights which may, or may not, happen.