UFCThe Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a U.S.-based mixed martial arts organization, recognized as the largest MMA promotion in the world. The UFC is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada and is owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC. This promotion is responsible for solidifying the sport's postion in the history-books.
UFC is currently undergoing a remarkable surge in popularity, along with greater mainstream media coverage. UFC programming can now be seen on FOX, FX, and FUEL TV in the United States, as well as in 35 other countries worldwide.

I'm not quite sure I understand your statement or your question. Yes, 11 divisions will probably be 12/13 belts factoring in for the interim belts, but it's not really as simple as you make it out to be. Should a Bantamweight world class fighter not be allowed to fight in the organization unless he can make a higher weight? He's world class at BW, he should be able to showcase his talents at that weight, and if he's good enough, be rewarded for his performance with a belt. I guess I'm just not seeing how it's confusing, in my mind, a guy who fights at 135 pounds shouldn't have to bulk to 155 pounds just to keep the number of belts low. They are all separate divisions with separate people fighting, do they not all deserve a chance?

Don't the below 5"2" players deserve their own division in the NBA? Don't the < 115 lb football players deserve their own NFL division? Shouldn't there br a separate division in soccer for players that run < 2mph?

Heck yes, I say not only should there be divisions for each one of these, they should headline and push the current rosters to the bottom! Who really cares about those giant ass basketball players, it's too easy for them! Bring on the dunk free version, I've got my popcorn ready! And poodles, poodles need their own MMA division, stop this animal discrimination, they have feelings too!

Heck not just one more, we need 50 more divisions in basketball. It's completely unfair for the 5'6" players to compete in the 5'6.0002" players division, the height difference is just insurmountable.

In fact we should just abandon this discouraging concept of winners and losers too, everyone should win! The only difference would be one side wins ponies and the other wins unicorns! And no one should "fight" unless it is with flowers and rainbows, inside a fluffy cotton candy cage!

Don't the below 5"2" players deserve their own division in the NBA? Don't the < 115 lb football players deserve their own NFL division? Shouldn't there br a separate division in soccer for players that run < 2mph?

Heck yes, I say not only should there be divisions for each one of these, they should headline and push the current rosters to the bottom! Who really cares about those giant ass basketball players, it's too easy for them! Bring on the dunk free version, I've got my popcorn ready! And poodles, poodles need their own MMA division, stop this animal discrimination, they have feelings too!

Heck not just one more, we need 50 more divisions in basketball. It's completely unfair for the 5'6" players to compete in the 5'6.0002" players division, the height difference is just insurmountable.

In fact we should just abandon this discouraging concept of winners and losers too, everyone should win! The only difference would be one side wins ponies and the other wins unicorns! And no one should "fight" unless it is with flowers and rainbows, inside a fluffy cotton candy cage!

The sporting world would make everyone soooo happy then.

Way to take my post to the extreme, and not even use relevant examples. In a sporting organization such as the UFC, where their roster is already split along these weight lines, it's silly to not try to include as many world class people as they can. The organizations you name not only have no weight classes to abide by, but they also don't pit their players against each other in a combat sport where you are attempting to incapacitate your opponent. I believe I get what you are trying to say, and if the UFC had been structured differently, I would wholeheartedly be agreeing with you, assuming I understand your point correctly.

Way to take my post to the extreme, and not even use relevant examples. In a sporting organization such as the UFC, where their roster is already split along these weight lines, it's silly to not try to include as many world class people as they can. The organizations you name not only have no weight classes to abide by, but they also don't pit their players against each other in a combat sport where you are attempting to incapacitate your opponent. I believe I get what you are trying to say, and if the UFC had been structured differently, I would wholeheartedly be agreeing with you, assuming I understand your point correctly.

*Edit* I used the wrong font size

Ok yeah I was just having some fun with the extremes, so thanks for being a sport .

Even so, I understood your point, I just think it's not entirely valid and a slippery slope as well, hence the extremes I gave.

Your main point as I see it, was that the rationale for including divisions in pro sports should be whether or not every category / weight / subset of athlete within a sport deserves recognition at the very top level for their hard work and achievements within their own physical limitations.

While I agree that this is a laudable goal for sports in general, and everyone should be able to compete and achieve personal fulfillment, self-esteem, recognition and advancement from doing so, this is not the goal for mass market PROFESSIONAL sports.

I fully support divisions, tournaments, orgs etc. for every gender, physical height/weight/body types, disability / different ability. I signed up to volunteer at the special olympics, and I think those guys n girls deserve every bit of recognition and encouragement they get for their hard work and determination.

However, this is not what the criteria for professional sports is. Professional sports exist for TWO reasons and two alone. First is to find out who the best of the best are any specific physical endeavor. Not the best in a specific subset, not the consolation best, just ... the best. This is why the (male) HW division always represents the baddest man on the planet in MMA and holds the most interest, and if the guy is really slow and sloppy maybe the LHW div champ can in theory be better if they met, so that is equally interesting. These two have and always will be the star maker divisions of MMA or any combat sport.

Does that mean I don't watch or wouldn't like any weight divisions in combat sports, the same way there aren't any in most other sports I mentioned? No, even though the heavier divs hold my interest more, I still appreciate the pure poetry of an Anderson Silva fight, or the amazing athleticism of a GSP fight. Why draw the line at LW/FW then? Why care about Anderson Silva or GSP, if they aren't really the best overall, bar none (although with Anderson who knows, he might even whup HWs). That brings me to my second point ...

The second criteria for professional sports is of course THE AUDIENCE. What does the audience want to see? To what extent is the audience willing to look at smaller and, lets face it, progressively easier or weaker subsets in a particular sport, before they are basically ... bored?

For most people, that line comes somewhere at a realistic medium. In combat sports, that medium for the audience is when the competitor, irrespective of size, is still a realistic physical threat. To take an extreme, no one cares who the best fighter is under 10 years of age, because frankly they're TEN. Most grown men would bend them over and spank them, irrespective of skill. And no matter how hard they train, they'll still look like crap next to Jones or Silva.

Are Straw-weight / Flyweight men / Bantamweight Women etc. a realistic combat threat? Maybe THE best of these divisions could beat some amateur level guys in the higher divisions, but other than that they're not. I've sparred with BWs and it was really way too easy. I could just pull with my weight in the clinch and they'd go flying down, where I could lie on them for eternity. On the feet the power and range difference was ridiculous. Of course a UFC level BW would probably whup the crap out of me, just like the better pro FWs / LWs did (I was 6'3" 200 lbs MWish btw), but with Flyweights and Strawweights even that level hardly seems like a threat. Some guy mentioned going to Thailand to test ourselves against the Straw-weights, and honestly based on my experiences I really wouldn't be worried.

This doesn't mean I don't support divisions for these subsets at their own levels or professional orgs. What I don't support is FORCING them down the audience's throats when most of the audience doesn't care about them.

By all means, create lighter weight orgs and cards, that's what the WEC was for. Create women's orgs and cards and market them. Market them to their respective audiences and watch them succeed / fail on their own merit or likeability. If you want to do them under the almighty "UFC" banner, fine, make separate cards for them so the audience can pick and choose what they want, and let those cards be funded by their own revenues.

Do NOT fire top 10 Welterweights like Fitch on the world's largest stage to make room for Flyweight super-mini-mouse vs famished-atom-ant. Do not force me to either legally stop watching MMA or buy entire cards with this piggybacked content (up to 50% nowadays, and headlined even) that I and most of the audience doesn't care as much about.

On a side note this is the same reason they SHOULD NOT remove wrestling from the olympics with it's 24 million audience to make room for "modern pentathlon" (audience < 10 million) or "racewalking" (wtf? audience ... 20?) at the olympics. The whole "don't they deserve recognition too" is a slippery slope, where do you draw the line? You have to follow the figures and audience interest.

I'm not quite sure I understand your statement or your question. Yes, 11 divisions will probably be 12/13 belts factoring in for the interim belts, but it's not really as simple as you make it out to be. Should a Bantamweight world class fighter not be allowed to fight in the organization unless he can make a higher weight? He's world class at BW, he should be able to showcase his talents at that weight, and if he's good enough, be rewarded for his performance with a belt. I guess I'm just not seeing how it's confusing, in my mind, a guy who fights at 135 pounds shouldn't have to bulk to 155 pounds just to keep the number of belts low. They are all separate divisions with separate people fighting, do they not all deserve a chance?

No. Not if people don't want to watch them. What if a 95 pound guy was really good at MMA? Do we have to make a new weight class and give him a chance to showcase his talents as well? Of course not. Nobody gives a f*** because the average guy would still beat the crap out of him.

Too many belts waters down the significance of having one. I'm not willing to pretend a 115 pound man is of the same caliber as Anderson Silva or GSP.

No. Not if people don't want to watch them. What if a 95 pound guy was really good at MMA? Do we have to make a new weight class and give him a chance to showcase his talents as well? Of course not. Nobody gives a f*** because the average guy would still beat the crap out of him.

Too many belts waters down the significance of having one. I'm not willing to pretend a 115 pound man is of the same caliber as Anderson Silva or GSP.

What you choose not to 'pretend' doesn't factor in here, there is a fan base for 115 pound fighters, you are not one of them and that's okay. But the people who appreciate the technical aspects of it shouldn't be deprived of it simply because other fans out there prefer watching fighters with KO power. Why can't we all just get along? as far as being 'of the same caliber as Anderson Silva or GSP' the guys at the top are the best in their weightclass, which is what the champs are at the end of the day. Let's have GSP drop to 115 and take on a natural SW, he'd probably lose, if he could even make the cut. I can definitely see your point, but it's a weird comparison to me, you consider LW to be a good class? Surely you don't think that Bendo stands a chance against Velasquez? Does that mean he doesn't deserve a belt? Not a chance, it simply means he's the best LW .