UFC May Finally Bringing in Flyweight Division. Announcement Coming Soon.

The long awaited inclusion of the Flyweight division under the Zuffa banner is finally going to be made official. This comes after the first ever inclusion of the Featherweight and Bantamweight divisions in the recent TUF14 season where the fast paced action of the lighter classes was put on display resulting in one of the best seasons ever in the short history of the reality competition series. This comes several months after UFC President Dana White said he was interested in bringing the division to the promotion following the absorption of the Featherweight and Bantamweight classes from World Extreme Cagefighting. During the existence of the WEC, a promotion bought by Zuffa that acted as the primary stage for the two weight classes and a separate roster of Lightweights, the request from fans to adopt the Flyweight division (125lbs and below) was a frequent question to promotion president Reed Harris. Harris had said multiple times that the promotion was interested and even planning on adopting the weight class in the future, but the announcement that the promotion was to be fully absorbed into the UFC with the full rosters of fighters under contract made fans question whether the Flyweight division would ever find the big stage in the sport. The inclusion of this lighter weight class would open a big opportunity to fighters in the Bantamweight division who can finally fight at their natural weight against opponents more their size. Top Bantamweights like Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez have always been underdogs to many of their opponents and usually at times have a significant height and strength disadvantage, though have persevered in the weight class . Because the Flyweight division was never on the big stages like in the UFC or WEC, the chance at earning a decent living in the sport while competing at their natural weight was highly unlikely and forced them to fight against larger opponents in the meantime. This is comparable to reigning Lightweight champion Frankie Edgar whose natural size makes him a Featherweight, but at the time he started his career the UFC did not have that weight class and chose to fight as a Lightweight, rather than at Featherweight and fight in the WEC, where he has had significant height and strength disadvantages multiple times while always having the speed advantage with his smaller size, and has persevered to defeat every opponent he has ever fought winning the UFC title and even still being the underdog when defending it. The inclusion of the Flyweight division would be perfect, allowing multiple Bantamweights to drop down to a more comfortable and even field, allow Bantamweights and competing Flyweights outside the promotion to finally reach the big stage where they can start earning more money and showcase their talents to a wider audience, and deliver even more fast paced action to the fans with future UFC cards being presented on multiple platforms on FOX, FX, FUEL TV, and still on PPV.