by Adam Lawman
Today there was a very puzzling piece posted on BloodyElbow.com by founding editor Kid Nate. He questions that if Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard and BJ Penn are the best at 155lbs in the UFC, then they may not have the best lightweights in the world. His reasoning is that since Edgar beat Penn and in turn Maynard got the best of Edgar, that the UFC’s carousel of talent takes away from their overall success. He mentions that the UFC has 6 of the top 10 lightweights (per the rankings outlet of which they are a part of) but that the 3rd, 5th, 6th and 8th best are all outside the Zuffa owned fight organization. While I see where he is coming from, I have to disagree wholeheartedly. Sorry, Nate.
First off, the fact that there is beautiful parity between the top fighters in the UFC should not take away from their overall ranking, but actually prove that all of these men spoken of are excellent mixed martial artists and since they perform under the same roof, increase the value of the UFC. It shows that each has specific talents where they may have an edge and that there is no formula per se that number 1 will beat numbers 2 and 3 and so on, but instead that the number 3 guy may match up against a higher ranked foe in better ways.
Secondly, the four fighters in their top 10 that aren’t in the UFC are Gilbert Melendez, Shinya Aoki, Eddie Alvarez and Tatsuya Kawajiri. While they are all good, they have done the same cancelling each other out bit that he uses as one of his points to this theory. Melendez beat Aoki but Aoki has defeated both Alvarez and Kawajiri so the parity is just the same. Also, none of these fighters compete in the same organization. Melendez is a Strikeforce fighter, Alvarez works for Bellator, Aoki and Kawajiri belong to DREAM but they can perform in Strikeforce as well. So if not the UFC then who?
I think I see Nate’s logic but it would be better portrayed as there are some other world class fighters that need to join the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Melendez has been vocal about the fact that the UFC is the top of the food chain and will most definitely make a change in employers in some time. He gets it. The UFC is MMA at it’s finest.
So in summary, there are a lot of amazing fighters and great organizations in our sport however nothing, at any weight class, can compete with the UFC.
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