Who else here thinks the UFC LW Division is underrated outside of BJ?

I personally do, and while normally I'd have some good points to support my stance, I'm fucked up and lazy right now, so I'll add some shit tomorrow. Although, I'll say I think they are all overshadowed by BJ's dominance.

I think guys like Edgar and Maynard are underrated.

I always found Kenny Florian extremely overrated. That's about it. The things people were saying about this guy before his fight with BJ. I still think Edgar's path to his meaningless fight at the TuF finale was more impressive than Florian path to a title shot. UFC confuses me sometimes with how they do their title picture.

It's a good division with a lot of good fighters. It just has nobody who can challenge BJ Penn. Thus, people think it's a division that needs some work. People judge divisions on who can challenge the champ and i don't see anybody in UFC or anybody elses LW division who can avoid be completely tooled by BJ Penn in his current form.

I think the division is just right. Tough for me to call it underrated when BJ destroys any of them with no problem. They are good and thats where I rank the division so to me its just right.

Combat and I used to have this discussion on the ESPN boards. I still think guys like Griffin, Maynard, Edgar, and Diego would beat some of Japans top fighters.

if we're talking rankings they're just right.

timthebim wrote:

I think the division is just right. Tough for me to call it underrated when BJ destroys any of them with no problem. They are good and thats where I rank the division so to me its just right.

That's what I''m talking about though, BJ overshadows the division. BJ would be a top 5 WW in the World and is without question the best LW all-time, he makes all great LWs look ordinary. Overall, the UFC LWs get little respect in most rankings and in general, a guy like Frankie Edgar has an uber impressive resume, but still gets no love.

Farmer1906 wrote:

Combat and I used to have this discussion on the ESPN boards. I still think guys like Griffin, Maynard, Edgar, and Diego would beat some of Japans top fighters.

I'm with you on this, add in Sherk still, and IMO KenFlo

oggy420 wrote:

if we're talking rankings they're just right.

If you look at the rankings from on here perhaps

Lightweight
1. BJ Penn** 90
2. Shinya Aoki 73
3. Eddie Alvarez 65
4. Diego Sanchez 55
5. Kenny Florian 51
6. Gray Maynard 49
7. Frankie Edgar 40
8. Tatsuya Kawajiri 33
9. Joachim Hansen 12
10. Sean Sherk 9

But other rankings I've seen. not so much, Sherdog dropped Diego out of their top 10, I mean really, Diego is still like a top 10 WW pretty much.

This thread is somewhat surprising in light of a recent ground swell toward the idea that the UFC's division may be over valued to some, compared to the top of the division outside of the promotion. It is hard to say given the fact the two divisions have solidified with a lot of guys who haven't fought the meaningful fighters in the other. It's not as simple as BJ's head to head over Gomi anymore.

I admit the Sherdog rankings are probably too friendly to non UFC talent, but overall a lot of MMA fans ignore non UFC fighters entirely, and in this climate of lackluster challengers inside the UFC, I think the UFC should make an effort to sign more of these guys.

First off I think Florian is head & shoulders over anyone but BJ and even though he is getting a little old to maintain top tier status, he seems to be getting better and better.

Almost every LW outside the UFC would not fare well against the UFC top 10. I think Eddie and Aoki might be ok, but would probably not win a title, much less a title shot.

I really don't know. Some of those LW guys in DREAM are pretty good though IMO. They might be overrated, kinda hard to tell.

Andrew the Raider King wrote:

First off I think Florian is head & shoulders over anyone but BJ and even though he is getting a little old to maintain top tier status, he seems to be getting better and better.

Almost every LW outside the UFC would not fare well against the UFC top 10. I think Eddie and Aoki might be ok, but would probably not win a title, much less a title shot.

Ten to one this guy has watched five or less non-UFC events live his entire life and derives the vast majority of his knowledge and opinion about non UFC mma from internet clips and forum opinion.

Well because of my lifestyle and what I do for a living, you are right. I don't get to watch nearly as much MMA as I would like, particularly overseas fights. I get to watch most of the fights from re-runs and clips from the net. So based on what you said, are you attempting to tell me Aoki or Alvarez would win the UFC LW Championship? Or that Florian isn't as good as I stated? You may be right, but if I don't research what is being discussed, I don't discuss it.

I don't think anyone could beat BJ Penn shy of WW besides GSP. So no, no LW's anywhere can beat him.

I think Ken Flo should be ranked ranked a little higher (looking at sherdog's rankings), Idk if he should be in front of Aoki or not. If Ken Flo was ranked #2 I wouldn't have a problem with it. I think Gilbert Melendez is better than his ranking would indicate though.

Who is supposed to be doing the underating here? Seems those guys get plenty of respect.

I also have to argue with King on Flo. Ken has smoked Daddy and Guida, and outclassed Huerta. Only blemish in the last 3 years is Penn.

ohiovol62 wrote:

I think Ken Flo should be ranked ranked a little higher (looking at sherdog's rankings), Idk if he should be in front of Aoki or not. If Ken Flo was ranked #2 I wouldn't have a problem with it. I think Gilbert Melendez is better than his ranking would indicate though.

Sherdog is notorious for it's horrible rankings, here's their latest.

BJ
Aoki
Alvarez
KenFlo
Crusher
Maynard
Edgar
Melendez
Sherk
Hirota

That's pretty high for Kenny, even though I'm a believer, never ahead of Aoki based on rankings though, even if u think he could beat him.

Melendez is 8th here, I think he loses to BJ, Aoki, Alvarez, Kenny, Gray, Edgar, Sherk, Diego, Griffin, Hansen, some close fights with a couple, as well as some close fights with guys not listed here, which could go either way, I think 8th is pretty good, though I may think otherwise.

Alvarez
KenFlo
Crusher
Maynard
Edgar
Melendez
Sherk


No one in this pile I can comfortably say could win more than half the fights with the rest of the pile besides maybe Kenflo, but he hasn't fought someone like Sherk or Maynard in a while...

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Alvarez
KenFlo
Crusher
Maynard
Edgar
Melendez
Sherk


No one in this pile I can comfortably say could win more than half the fights with the rest of the pile besides maybe Kenflo, but he hasn't fought someone like Sherk or Maynard in a while...

Thats a good point Wolf, for Kenflo, I would be more concerned about Maynard than Sherk. Sherk hasn't really expanded his abilities too much.

It may seem that way based on just the Edgar fight, but just a fight before that he out struck Tyson Griffin, who himself is no slouch at all in that dept. Sherk has expanded his game imo to even attempt to strike with others. That said, Kenflo's reach would be bad bad news if he tried the Sherk 2.0 binizz there.