This past Saturday the traditional Independence Day weekend UFC event was headlined by a well known grudge match that stemmed from the WEC. The main event featured the first ever UFC Bantamweight title fight where newly crowned champion Dominick Cruz took on the only fighter to have defeated him and former WEC Featherweight champion Urijah Faber. In what became Fight of the Night, Cruz was successful in utilizing his unique fighting style en route to a Unanimous Decision and therefore made the record even 1-1 between him and Faber. Headlining UFC 132: Cruz vs Faber II, this was the first major spotlight that the lighter class fighters brought in from the WEC had received next to the FOTN performance that was showcased when Jose Aldo made his first official UFC Featherweight title defense against Mark Hominick in a bout that proved that the lighter class are more than worthy of being put on the biggest stage in the sport when they co-headlined one of the most important events ever in UFC 129: St. Pierre vs Shields. Even with this high profile showcasing, it does appear however that the immediate title fights are the only important bouts that the UFC brass pay attention to.
After title fights, it is common for many fans and analysts to expect an automatic rematch no matter how the bout may end, that is unless it is obviously a best two-out of-three rubber-match. The unfortunate case though is the lighter class divisions. While the UFC has always kept up setting #1 contenders for title fights ahead of a champion's next title bout, they have failed to do so for their newly included weight classes. Following a hard fought and entertaining fight between the defending champion and a heartfelt challenger, so many were calling for a rematch between Aldo and Hominick even after it was clear that the champion had successfully defended his title with a strong performance. While there were many calling for a rematch, others knew that Aldo would be set to defend his title against another contender who had not been named, or even considered. After UFC129: St. Pierre vs Shields, UFC brass had to figure out who to bring up into the #1 contender spot to take on Aldo having not clarified before who was deserving of such. Coming from an elite camp like Team Alpha Male and having gone undefeated, Chad Mendes became the #1 contender, even though he was not one of the most recognized contenders in the division. A problem that came from this choice was that he was never promoted much for average fans to recognize him. Average fans are used to seeing contenders rise and earn their shot at a title with high profile eliminator bouts that have always been showcased on main cards where they would be put under the spotlight. While that has almost always been the method, Mendes has been boosted from being put on the preliminary card to now fighting for a title. This connects with the worries that many die hard MMA fans had expressed when the full absorption of the WEC was announced, which was that the lighter class fighters would be used to fill up the preliminary cards. This has been avoided though as Mendes has voluntarily chosen to take a fight in the meantime against Rani Yahya rather than wait for Aldo to recover from injuries sustained during his last bout. With that, the UFC has filled in the spot with a high profile contender in Kenny Florian after his recent successful Featherweight debut. But what if Florian had lost in his debut at 145lbs? If Mendes were to lose against Yahya and Florian would have lost to Nunes, would the UFC even be able to find a suitable replacement that they could have marketed?
The Bantamweight division seems to have received some similar lack of attention itself. Leading up to UFC 132, the focus in the 135lb division was obviously on the title fight that served as the main event, but there was no attention at all to who would be the next challenger for the title. Coming into the title bout, the score between the two had Faber leading with a win over Cruz which to this day stands as his only professional loss. With the win Cruz solidified himself as the promotion's first ever Bantamweight champion and evened the score against Faber making it 1-1 between the two of them. An obvious match to make now is a rubber-match to settle the score and overlook the fact that another contender has not been officially named. A problem for deciding who will face Cruz next, other than Faber, is a similar problem that comes up for Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre where they have defeated the elite contenders of their respected divisions at least once and definitively enough that many can argue there is no need to fight them again. Cruz has defeated elite 135ers like Faber's teammate Joseph Benavidez twice, Brian Bowles to take the WEC title, and heavy hitting wrestler Scott Jorgensen to transition his WEC title to the UFC. Other than Faber, the only two names that come up when talking about Bantamweight title contention are former champ Brian Bowles and Demetrious Johnson. Bowles did not have the best showing against Cruz and broke his hand during their first encounter which forced a TKO and cost him his title. With strong showings in his last two bouts since the loss, Bowles has rebounded with an exact repeat in a rematch against Damacio Page and also earning a recent Unanimous Decision win over Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 132. Johnson has been on a role winning his last four bouts with the last two including a strong Unanimous Decision win over top Japanese import Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto and a recent Unanimous Decision win over win over former WEC division champ Miguel Torres in one of the most entertaining back-&-forth grappling matches ever in the UFC and saw Johnson fighting with an injured leg through most of the bout. While Bowles has rebounded strong and makes a strong argument for a rematch against Cruz for the title, Johnson has risen in the ranks becoming a fan favorite with his fast paced aggression and strong wrestling. Even with the credentials for Bowles including being a former champion, Johnson is seen by many to be the more deserving having not faced Cruz and presenting a new threat to the champion. Dana White has mentioned Johnson when asked about who could challenge for the title next, but has not confirmed either Faber, Bowles, or Johnson seeing as they have all fought recently and may each have their own recovery timeline, though that may help decide who gets the title shot seeing who given the green-light to fight as soon as possible.
This connects to the fear that die hard MMA fans had for the lighter class fighters, which was that they would not receive as much attention as the more main stream weight classes. While the first ever Featherweight title bout had been set as the co-main event and the first ever Bantamweight title bout had become the first of the weight classes to headline a major PPV event, the circle of contendership has received little attention. Since the inclusion of the lighter class divisions there have only been nine Featherweight and Bantamweight bouts on the main cards starting from the TUF12 Finale to the recent UFC 132 card. Mendes has only fought once in the UFC and his only fight was on a preliminary card where there was no mention of him even being considered for a title shot. The only mention of Mendes in the title picture was after Aldo defended his title and analysts were asking "so who is next". For the Bantamweight division, obvious picks for contention were former champions Bowles and Torres who were working their way back to the top. Bowles is an obvious pick because he wants a rematch against the only person who holds a win over him, and Torres is even more obvious having once been the face of the 135lb division and still considered one of the best fighters in the sport. Bowles has fought twice in the UFC with his first fight opening the main card for UFC Live: Sanchez vs Kampmann and then being put on the Facebook prelims for UFC 132 with no mention of title contention at all coming into his recent bout. Torres has lost his hype after being bested by Johnson who is expected to be declared the #1 contender sometime soon. In a way, the Featherweight and Bantamweight divisions have been treated the same attention in priority similar to the way female fighters have been treated in Strikeforce before and after their purchase where contenders in their Women's Middleweight and Welterweight divisions are usually just picked at random mostly with who is coming off a win. If the UFC wants to make a profit and prove to their viewers that the lighter class fighters are legitimate and attract regular fans to buying PPV cards with the new classes, they must promote them by including more of their bouts on main cards where mostly all the attention is focused and not put them all on the free Facebook streams that many analysts ignore considering them unimportant, and promote free televised bouts more. While the UFC is giving fans what they want streaming free preliminary bouts on Facebook where more fans have access compared to airing them on SpikeTV, they have shown little to no effort in promoting them. If the UFC wants fans to pay attention to the lighter class fighters and take them seriously and therefore buy PPVs that include the lighter weight classes, then they must do so themselves with promoting the lighter class fighters in the spotlight and showcase them more on main card bouts instead of using them to fill up space on cards. The average fan will never know who contenders are if they are not even promoted in any spotlight, used to fill in preliminary cards that many analysts ignore and that fans might miss, and especially if the fighters are coming from a promotion that was originally shown on a channel that some fans never got or never even heard of.
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