A Claim to Shame: No. 1 UFC Possesses Control Over Only Two Weight Classes

"A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them. "

—Carl Jung

The UFC stakes a claim of being the worlds best this and the worlds best that, but I am hear to say as a fan of MMA that the world of the UFC sold through the mouths Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg is all but a myth.

The UFC is not the greatest organization in the world, it really only can claim that it holds two of the best and deepest weight classes in the world.

The light heavyweight division and the welterweight divisions are the most controlled divisions by the UFC in top 10 rankings. With all but one light heavyweight and welterweight being a non-UFC fighter.

Of course very soon the UFC will have full and complete control of the welterweight division when it fully incorporates the heavier WEC weight classes. Carlos Condit will soon become a UFC fighter and the UFC will have complete dominance of this weight division.

The UFC has seemed to have taken a path of dismantling its competition and picking and choosing the contracts they wish to renew with their company. However, the downfall of this strategy has been the loss of very good top 10 fighters in some of the best divisions.

Lightweight Joachim Hansen was offered a contract with the UFC that would see him making significantly less than his original PRIDE one.

The approach taken by the UFC seems to instead be a grooming system for future champions. Having elected to eject current proven champions and fighters from its organization in place of young and brash up and comers.

Although entertaining- this method has severely retarded certain divisions. One division that comes to mind is the heavyweight division which holds only four heavyweights out of a total of 10. However three of those heavyweights in my opinion do not belong there.

Junior Dos Santos and Brock Lesnar are two unproven fighters who have fought and beaten only one good guy. Dos Santos beating Fabricio Werdum has not fought any other significant fighters in the world scene and Lesnar who has beaten former UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture.

Randy Couture is the third person not belonging on the list, not that he lacks talent but rather due to inactivity. He had remained inactive in the UFC and fighting for quite some time and made his return only to lose.

Funny thing about the heavyweight division is that most of the top 10 all were in the UFC but were cut for one reason or another all of which were former champions in the organization: Andrei Arlovski, Josh Barnett and Tim Sylvia.

The middleweight division can stake a claim of being a pretty stacked UFC division but with an absence of a few of its fighters looking to change weight it remains to be seen how strong the division can remain. Not to mention the looming threat of Japanese promotion DREAM showcasing many up and comers in the division.

With a loss of Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson to the light heavyweight division it gives the UFC only four middleweights in the division: Anderson Silva, Thales Leites, Nathan Marquadt and Yushin Okami.

However, across the ocean there sits a middleweight challenger to Silvas throne by the name of Gegard Mousasi, along with him fresh bunch of middleweights named Ronaldo De Souza, and Zelg Galesic.

Finally in what is developing into one of the more exciting divisions in the UFC is the lightweight division. Although it only holds three legitimate top 10 lightweights it has many interesting prospects with fighters like Tyson Griffin and Frankie Edgar to name a few.

The lightweight division is still dominated by Japanese fight promotions that have under contract guys like JZ Calvan, Joachim Hansen, Eddie Alvarez, and Shinya Aoki. UFC can only stake claim to B.J. Penn, Sean Sherk, and Kenny Florian.

The only other non-Japanese-promoted fighter in the top 10 is Josh Thompson, who beat the former Strikeforce title holder Gilbert Melendez.

Of course despite the overwhelming domination by Japanese promotions in the lightweight division it still has Takanori Gomi at No. 10 despite poor showings in his last few fights.

So, despite being the biggest organization they are not the best, they are the most heavily promoted and recognized and the MMA scene is still very much divided amongst the various promotions. There seems to be not just one singular entity that can completely stake claim to the sport as the best.

The world of MMA is right now at an interesting turning point in the sport where there is no longer two entities like PRIDE and the UFC, but rather several splintered organizations.

It seems the biggest organizations or rather the ones that hold the most weight within the traditional weight divisions are the UFC, Affliction, DREAM, and Sengoku.