Welcome Fight Fans,
In this post I’m going to be taking a look at the current state of the UFC’s Lightweight division, with so many moving parts I plan on looking at each of the top 3 fighters and summarizing with what fights we can expect and or hope to see in the future.
I think that most MMA fans will agree regardless of promotion lightweight seems to have some of the deepest talent pools. The UFC is no exception. At the moment the UFC’s Lightweight division... in particular, is STACKED!!
Here is the current top 15 UFC Lightweights:
At the top of the division, there are three names to take into consideration, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor and Tony Ferguson who have all accomplished great feats respectively on their accent to the top of the division. Each fighter has been taking shots at each other Via MMA media and Social Media platforms, a fight between two of these three men has been brewing for quite some time. Although fights between Khabib and Ferguson have been booked a number of times unfortunately so far due to a series of circumstances a fight has not yet materialised.
Let's take a look at the champion and the top-ranked contenders at lightweight to discuss what could be next…
Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov.
Record: 26 Wins / 0 Losses
Strengths: Pressure Wrestling, Ground and Pound
Weaknesses: Striking
Khabib Nurmagomedov fights out of Dagestan, Russia and is the current Undisputed Champion at Lightweight winning ALL 26 fights in his professional career!
Not only has Khabib been able to remain undefeated in such a talent rich division, but he has done so with complete dominance arguably never loosing even a round, other than Micheal Johnson clipping him before getting mauled I cannot remember a time he was even close to being in danger.. talking of the Micheal Johnson fight, after getting clipped Khabib manages to take down Johnson and began the mauling during which he began to talk to Johnson whilst beating him for one of the most polarising moments in Khabib’s UFC career thus far.
I was unable to locate the full clip but here is a short clip of Khabib explaining to Johnson that he deserves to fight for the title next l whilst laying down some ground and pound:
One of the main things to point out at this point is that even though Khabib has fought and won all ten fights in the UFC he has not met with any of the current top 5 ranked opponents, each fighter ranked in the top 5 will be great tests for the Khabib.
Conor “The Notorious” McGregor
Record: 23 Wins / 3 Losses
Strengths: Striking, Mental Warfare
Weaknesses: Grappling, Cardio
Conor McGregor is a charismatic fighter who has catapulted himself into super stardom. He is a fantastic trash talker and promotes his own fights better than any other MMA fighter, most importantly though he isn’t just someone who has talked his way into the limelight but he has backed up his words with spectacular performances doing what many thought would be impossible.
Conor McGregor is the former Linear Lightweight champion however after winning the belt on 12th November 2016 McGregor has not appeared in the Octagon, since then he has recently been stripped of his belt due to inactivity with his only fight since being in the world of boxing where he had a super fight with Floyd Mayweather. He is currently ranked as the number one contender in the UFC’s Lightweight division.
McGregor joined the UFC on April 6th, 2013 where he finished Marcus Brimage via a series of vicious uppercuts in the first round. He seemed to make an impact on the sport almost instantly and there was a hype around him even in his debut. Since then he has gone on to become the best trash talker in the sport and has backed up his words with impressive performances.
Will Conor be the next in line for a title shot?
Hopefully… Simply put Conor is the biggest draw and his return fight has to be for the belt, whether you love or hate him he is the biggest name in the sport and “when will he return?” has been the question that everyone has been asking for a long time. However, there are still some things which are unclear about when he will be able to return and compete as we currently wait for the fall out after the madness that was ‘Bus Gate’ at UFC 223. In my opinion, all of this will result in nothing major and likely a couple of fines will suffice and make this all go away, That being said by the time this is all wrapped up I think McGregor’s return to the octagon will be towards the end of the year. This fight seemed to be destined to happen and with the added bad blood of all of the circumstances surrounding UFC 223 will lead to this being one of if not the highest PPV event the UFC has ever had.
Although I think this is the biggest fight to be made, as mentioned I don’t see McGregor competing for some time, I think the chance of this fight happening next is a 50/50 at this point. There are speculations of the Khabib McGregor fight happening in November which would be great. As there is so much talent in this division, I would not be mad if Khabib was to sit out and wait for this fight to be made. If this is not the next title fight at Lightweight then there are still some interesting fights to be made.
Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson
Record: 23 Wins / 3 Losses.
Strengths: Well rounded game, Cardio, Unorthodox fight style, Grappling.
Weaknesses: Absorbs a lot of strikes, High-risk fight style
Tony Ferguson, what can I say… He is a very unorthodox fighter both in terms of his fighting style and also his overall personality. Although he can often come across awkward often making me cringe when listening to his interviews, at least he is authentic and is not trying to be someone else, which is refreshing considering the direction things have been trending. In modern MMA since McGregor entered the UFC some fighters have tried to emulate him and tried to pretend they are something they are not. Colby Covington is the best example of this as he is the worst of these types, but let's leave that for another day…
Tony Ferguson is currently undefeated. In his last 10 Pro fights beating very high-level opponents such as Kevin Lee, Rafael dos Anjos and Edson Barboza just to mention his most recent fights. With his only UFC loss being to Michael Johnson Via Decision back in 2012.
Up until 223, Tony was the Interim Champ at 155, he was due to fight Khabib at 223 for the undisputed title. The MMA Gods were laughing at us again on this one as Tony tore his LCL straight from the bone by tripping over a wire on a MEDIA DAY! Resulting in Ferguson being stripped of the Belt. Many people following this, including UFC president Dana White, then began to attack Tony in interviews and Social Media as there were initial speculations this was caused by kicking a metal pole ( the video of which was from the previous fight with Kevin Lee ), later when Tony was explaining how this happened. Unfortunately he misspoke and said he was wearing shades ( Ferguson is known for wearing sun glasses regularly ) leading to further comments being made by segments of the MMA community, however, it was later shown that he was wearing prescription glasses and this was simply terrible luck and all round freak accident.
Although Tony V Khabib is the fight that fans have been craving, this fight will not likely happen for a very long time. Not only has UFC president Dana White stated a number of times this fight will not happen again due to the number of times the fight has fallen apart but Tony is going to be unable to compete for the foreseeable future due to the recent freak injury previously mentioned that was sustained in the build-up to his title fight with Khabib at UFC 223.
Image Post-Surgery is shown in the picture below:
With such a serious injury I think it would be too early to speculate on what fight would make sense on his return as this will very much depend on how the division pans out over the next twelve months or so. I believe Ferguson will be back stronger than ever, I just hope that when he returns he gets a tune up fight rather than getting a straight shot at the belt.
So since Tony is out and there is the uncertainty of when McGregor will return who should get the next shot at the belt?
In my opinion, I don’t believe that there is a bad pick inside of the top 5.
Dustin Poirer potentially has the most compelling argument for a title shot after winning seven of his last nine fights with only one loss and one no contest. Even though Dustin arguably has the most valid argument for why he should get the next shot the fight that seems most interesting to me is Kevin Lee. This is mainly due to the way they stylistically match up. Khabib has fought many strikers, it would be very interesting to see if he is able to take down such a powerful young grappler like Kevin Lee.
Khabib and Lee's Wrestling styles vary, with Khabib using chain takedowns and slowly breaking opponents with short ground and pound until the opponent breaks or gets saved by the bell. Whereas Lee is more efficient with his takedowns, due to his athleticism, he uses vicious ground and pound in order to make you shrimp or defend in whatever way you can in order to open up the pass to mount or make you give up your back where he excels at rear naked chokes. The fact that Lee has an excellent grappling base and in my opinion has much superior striking to Khabib makes this the most compelling fight outside of the match-ups with McGregor or Ferguson.
The fights I would like to see next in the lightweight division:
( Not including McGregor or Ferguson )
Khabib Nurmagomedov Vs Kevin Lee
Eddie Alverez Vs Dustin Poirier
Edson Barboza Vs Micheal Chiesa
Justin Gaethji Vs James Vick
Nate Diaz Vs Al Iaquinta
Anthony Pettis Vs Paul Felder
Alexander Hernandez Vs Olivier Aubin-Mercier
Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on the current state of the top of the UFC’s Lightweight division, Please comment with your own thoughts and what fights you would like to see next?
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