The Featherweight Division

The Situation

            As you all probably already are aware Lightweight contender Anthony “Showtime” Pettis has dropped down to the Featherweight division to face current champion Jose Aldo. This After Pettis beat Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and after Aldo beat another lightweight (Frankie Edgar) stood in his way. Pettis vs. Aldo will be on August 3rd. This has hopes to be a great fight. I know I personally am excited for it.

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The problem is some of the fellow featherweight contenders are upset by this. Ricardo Lamas beat Erik Koch to earn him the right to be a top contender. He beat Koch on the same night Pettis defeated Cerrone. Lamas is upset well within reason actually. He has earned a chance to fight for the title. And now he will put on hold because someone from another division decides he wants to move down. Now it would be different if Anthony had fights in the division already but he does not. So now a guy who really in some people’s eyes does not deserve a title shot is getting one. And guys like Lamas get to wait. Lamas’s response he is dumbfounded that this is happening. Claiming “I thought I already established I was the no. 1 contender. If Koch would have beaten me none of this would have happened.” (which is not wrong and I will get to that)

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However another Featherweight contender is just upset. The Korean Zombie has been out due to injury however he also has proven himself time and time again and now what? Like Lamas he has to wait longer. He is set be able to fight again mid to late summer. What has Jung Chan-Sung aka The Korean Zombie done to earn a title shot? .he submitted Leornard Garcia with a beautyful twister,ko Mark Hominick in just 07 seconds in the first round and submitted Dustin Poirier with a D’arce Choke. When Edgar dropped down he was coming off 2 straight losses. So just how unfair is the UFC being to Featherweight contenders?

Now Pettis has considered moving down to featherweight before so why did it never happen? Erik Koch (Fellow friend/teammate of Pettis) is why. Erik was supposed to face Aldo already but due to injuries it never happened. Well now with his loss to Lamas they don’t have to worry about screwing up his chances. That is why Lamas made the comment he did about this. Actually Roufusport is putting into place a great little plan to help Koch. Now this gives him time to fight again and hopefully against some big name. And gives him time to get his name in contention mix. While blocking the guy who stopped him.

Another problem with this though is that Anthony still wants to go for the lightweight title so is he going to fight Aldo and if he wins instantly drop the title to go back to the lightweight division? Well that would only make it worse. I do not know if the UFC would go for a guy holding titles in 2 divisions. So what I would like to see happen if Anthony wins is this…

If he wins I honestly believe he should have to defend it a few times and then decided to either A.)Stay at the featherweight division or B.) drop the title to go back to the lightweight division. Now If he goes with A it’s pretty self explanatory what would happen. If he goes with B I would like to see him face Lamas or The Korean Zombie and then of course face the other one so the main 2 who were impacted by this get their chance. As this is what would happen if Aldo beats Pettis. And then after at least those 2 fights he could drop the title and move back up. And this would help with Koch (if this is part of Roufusports plan) as he would have even more time to gather up some wins heck maybe have him face Aldo to get him name in the talks again.

The thing you need to understand….. Pettis has been in the position multiple times where he had to wait for his lightweight title shot and ended up screwed over so that is why he is gun shy there and taking the fight he know he has.

Overall I do think the UFC is being a little unfair to the featherweight contenders. But what can you do now?