Should UFC continue running a men’s flyweight division after this Saturday? Will the result of Cejudo vs. Dillashaw influence your answer?
David McGrath, Host – MMATorch Today Podcast
Win, lose or draw it’s time to close up the 125 lb division. There are zero compelling draws at 125. Even Mighty Mouse at his absolute height could not draw. It’s time to close 125.
Robert Vallejos, Host – MMA Talk for Pro Wrestling Fans
Continue the division? No! Continue the championship? Yes! As we have seen with women’s featherweight, you can have a champion without a division. The UFC is cutting the flyweights, so it would be foolish to continue the division in earnest. But if another fighter at 125 lbs comes around, there is no reason that one of these two men can’t go down for a title fight. The UFC is obsessed with putting a title fight or two on every pay-per-view, why not have a flyweight championship bout, instead of an obviously bogus interim title fight.
Frank Hyden, Columnist – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Absolutely, they should. The “failure” of the flyweight division is more on the UFC than the fighters. To be quite blunt, the UFC has sucked at promoting the flyweight division. To be even blunter, they suck at promoting all the divisions. Unless they have a Conor McGregor, who does the promoting work for them, or a Jon Jones, a great fighter who inspires strong emotions regardless of whether they’re good or bad, the UFC has been completely failing at their one job of promotion. The UFC should fire Dana White before getting rid of the flyweight division, not that I advocate doing either. However, it’s absurd to want to close down a competitive and good division because you don’t know how to handle it. As for the second question, no, the outcome of Cejudo-Dillashaw has no bearing on my feelings on this.
Michael Hiscoe, MMATorch Managing Editor
Regardless of the outcome to Saturday’s fight, I think UFC should, and frankly need to, continue promoting male flyweights. What I don’t think they need to do is worry about promoting the flyweights as a money drawing, main event level division. As has been mentioned here, UFC loves to have two title fights on pay-per-views these days. Having a flyweight division with a champion who is durable and can fight two or three times a year has value for that purpose. They should never be put in the position where they are expected to carry the show, but they should be in that number two spot several times per year. When the right fight comes along, such as Cejudo vs. Dillashaw this Saturday, it makes for a very good TV main event.
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Another reason to continue the flyweight division is that you never know when that next McGregor or Rousey level superstar will come along, and he could be a flyweight. There was a time when it seemed as if no one under 170 pounds could draw in UFC, and then BJ Penn proved that wrong. Several years later, Rousey and McGregor blew that notion right out of the water. UFC should keep the flyweights around, to help beef up cards a bit and to hedge their bets just in case a truly marketable star comes along.
Sean Covington, Columnist – Covington’s Corner
Just close the division because the UFC doesn’t care anyway. If the UFC doesn’t care then they won’t market any of the fighters and will run them off to other promotions. The result of Cejudo vs Dillashaw doesn’t make any difference at all.
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