The UFC needs to add some class

For a while I’ve been saying there needs to be a new weight class to break up the UFC heavyweight division, which currently spans some 59 pounds. The old days of Royce Gracie beating up guys twice his size are gone. Size does matter. Especially if you’re facing heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar, who steps into the cage at somewhere north of 285 pounds.

Now, Dave Franklin over at Five Ounces of Pain is making the same argument, that a new “cruiserweight” class (named after the second-heaviest ship in the British navy) is needed to level the playing field a bit and limit size’s importance in the MMA equation. A 206-240-pound cruiserweight class and a 241-265-pound heavyweight class.

With The Ultimate Fighter season 10 stacked with heavyweights filling out the two divisions wouldn’t be a problem, and fighters like Randy Couture, Frank Mir and “Minotauro” Nogueira would have a division that fit them more naturally.

The biggest argument for the creation of a cruiserweight division, as Franklin points out, is that it adds another UFC title to vie for, bringing the total to 6, meaning each title could be contended twice a year, or one title defense for every UFC.