UFC Featherweights

The best FW fighter coming to the UFC will be Jose Aldo,but who else is going to sell this division for the UFC.


The first featherweight title fight in UFC history will be on January 1,when Aldo defends his belt against Josh Grispi.

Grispi is 14-1, his only loss was four years ago, and he's been absolutely destroying people lately,most of his fights be over within the first 2 mins,He's a great young fighter,but Aldo is a huge step up in quality of competition.

Other realistic challengers for the belt could come from the Chad Mendes vs. Javier Vazquez fight at WEC 52.

The undefeated Mendes could be the next contender to take on the Aldo-Grispi winner. But he'll have to get past Vazquez, who's very dangerous on the ground and has a 15-4 record, with all four losses coming in close decisions.
Erik Koch vs. Francisco Rivera,which is also at WEC 52,is another fight that could find us another future challenger.
Koch is a 22-year-old up-and-comer with a very good ground game, while Rivera is making his WEC debut,he's built up a 5-0 record, fighting on smaller shows but I don't see either one of them as being next in line for Aldo or Grispi, but the winner could be in the mix a year from now.

Mark Hominick was rumored to be fighting Aldo next before Grispi got the fight,so it would make sense for Hominick to maybe get the first crack at the Aldo-Grispi winner.
Hominick was choked out by Grispi in the first round of their 2008 fight, but he's on a four-fight winning streak since then.

After Hominick and the winners of the fights mentioned above, the new UFC featherweight division doesn't have that many fighters to challenge Aldo,since he's already dominated the likes of Manny Gamburyan and Mike Brown,so the UFC might have to cast there net further afield and start bringing in some of the other great FW talent that ply there trade in Japan.

More than any other weight class, featherweight is where the UFC could really benefit from stealing a few fighters from other promotions.
There's Sengoku's Marlon Sandro, but he and Aldo are teammates who probably won't fight each other,so it probably doesn't make sense for the UFC to go after him yet.

Hatsu Hioki,would make for a good signing,his height and reach and well-rounded style would make him a tough match-up for most at 145 pounds.
Other fighters that could come in ready to be straight in the mix for the UFC featherweight title include Dream's Bibiano Fernandes, Hiroyuki Takaya and Michihiro Omigawa or, perhaps down the road, Bellator's Joe Warren.

but failing signing any of those,we can't forget that some 155-pounders from the UFC will probably move down to 145 now that there's going to be alot of exposure for the FW division,so we could get to see a few guys like Mark Bocek,Clay Guida, Jim Miller, Cole Miller and Joe Stevenson dropping 10 pounds,and trying to re establish themselves as title contenders at 145.

All of them would definitely add some excitement to the 145-pound division and help sell the fights.
Also we can't forget about the lightweight champion Frank Edgar,if he loses his belt to Gray Maynard,I wouldn't be surprised to see Edgar at 145 either.

But saying all that,even though it's usually stupid to predict things like this in MMA,unless Aldo moves up to LW,I still think Aldo will be the FW champ this time next year.

The young stud Charles Oliviera could also feature at 145 lb. He looks really slim and small in the division. His next fight against Miller, he will be at a huge size disadvantage. He could make 145lb i reckon...

Yeah good call on Olivera
I know Efrain came in over weight for their fight,but the size difference between the two looked massive,but olivera did look like a gangly school kid in comparison,so i don't think he'd have any troubles making FW if he wanted,,but I think he might concentrate on getting a LW title shot first.

I think the fighters that will drop to FW will be mostly your small named LW gatekeepers.
The LW division will still carry more weight in MMA,so unless that belt is completely out of reach,I don't think that many will drop down.

Stealing other promotions guys is a must for the Fw devision, thats a given theres a good chunk of that tallent in Japan...

As far as UFC guys cutting Id expect thats where we will see Frankie Edgar if the pay is as good, as soon as he looses the title I think he will be happy to cut 10lbs. Shame Torres and Faber arent in the devision cause they'd be a great fight for Edgar.

Not sure I agree because he dominaed MTB once that he wont be a threat again, I dont put MTB in the same boat as Manny. Therent a lot of current UFC Lw's I think would cut but I always wonder if it would give Sherk an option to stop taking steriods.

I dont care he does but I think he needed to to be Physical at 155 because 145ers werent getting the pay, even on my wee bros MMA fight he had to bulk up to 155 cause there werent lower weight fights on the card. If he pay at 145lbs will be the same it will be interesting to see who will make the cut to a more natural weight. Sherk to challenge for the title isnt unthinkable at 145.

Wait that should read if Sherk gives up on the Idea that hes a boxer he could challenge for the title at 145 when he lays off the roids, dont think theres any he couldnt outwrestle his own size

i cant help but think that once edgar loses the LW title whenever that might be he may drop down.