UFC Welcomes The Flyweights

By Raphael Garcia

The Zuffa family just keeps getting bigger. As if the action of UFC 140 was not enough, UFC President Dana White decided to lead into the end of the year with an announcement that will welcome one more weight class to the UFC. Enter the flyweights.

March 3, 2012 is the planned date for an event that will feature the start of a four-man tournament to crown the UFC’s first ever 125-pound champion. Four men have been chosen to step into the Octagon that evening, with the winners set to meet at an undetermined future event. UFC fans should be familiar with Joseph Benavidez and Demetrious Johnson, but casual MMA fans may not know about Ian McCall and Yasuhiro Urushitani.

McCall is the current flyweight title holder for Tachi Palace Fights. “Uncle Creepy,” as he is called, has twice appeared in the World Extreme Cagefighting organization, with two losses to show for his efforts. Back in 2009, he was defeated by current bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz by unanimous decision. Before that, in 2007, McCall tasted defeat at the hands of Charlie Valencia.

However, since that time McCall has been on a tear in the 125-pound weight class. Since his last loss he has gone 4-0 en route to claiming the TPF bantamweight title. I’m really interested to see how well McCall performs in this tournament. While other fighters may be the chosen favorites, I’m going to select McCall as a clear dark horse in the event.

The elder statesmen of the group Urushitani is the current Shooto 123-pound champion, and he is riding a five-fight win streak into this tournament. Urushitani has been well known in the Japanese circuit for his counter boxing, which has helped him rack up points towards decision victories. He also holds a victory over John Dodson, the most recent Ultimate Fighter tournament winner.

Since his teammate, Urijah Faber, entered the bantamweight division, Team Alpha Male’s Joseph Benavidez has been waiting patiently for the UFC to create this weight class, which many people have already crowned him the champion of. With his stout wrestling and improving striking, he has the ability to gain the range needed to employ his takedowns. He has been on the big stage as well, competing for the world championship at bantamweight, losing a close decision to the champion Cruz.

Johnson was the most recent challenger for the bantamweight strap, but he too was unable to defeat the much larger champion. He did display the ability to push the pace and score when needed, but that was not enough to get the decision. Johnson has been pulled out of his January matchup against Eddie Wineland to take part in this tournament.

The move to add another weight class will help fulfill White’s mantra that the UFC needs more fights. Adding a weight class will require more roster room, and this will also be a move that should provide more big name fighters to UFC cards in the future. Names such as TPF’s Ulysses Gomez would also be a great fit for the UFC flyweight division, and I do not believe it will be long before he is brought over to the organization.

The UFC continues to grow, as each year brings another announcement that excites fight fans across the board. I believe we are getting closer and closer to a time when we see weekly televised UFC events, such as those boxing matches that are featured weekly by ESPN. The more fighters the organization has under its banner, the more potential stars the UFC will have. Hopefully this is a move towards that direction, and hopefully the flyweights live up to the action-packed stereotype that is associated with MMA’s smaller weight classes.