Why not 2 weight classes for Heavyweight?

206lbs to 265lbs and everything in between.

Almost 60lbs can separate the biggest heavyweight compared to the smallest heavyweight. 186lbs and 205lbs separate the light heavyweights, that’s 19lbs if you are keeping track.

How do you feel about a division split? Maybe make the heavyweight division 206 to 230 and super heavyweight 231 to 265? You can pick any weights, just split the class up.

I am sure a lot of people who oppose the split would say “look at Fedor, he is around 230lbs and just beat Brett Rogers who is 265lbs.” The point of splitting the weight class is to remove the barrier to enter the heavyweight class. I am sure that there are a lot of light heavyweights that would be more comfortable fighting at the heavyweight class but don’t want to move up because they will be a small heavyweight.

I think that fighters like Cro Cop, Arlovski, maybe even fighters like Barnett would benefit from the switched weight classes. A fighter like Barnett would never be able to cut to 205, but 230 is a possibility. Same with Nogueira, he walks around at 230 and fights at 230.

A perfect example is when Randy fought Lesnar. Randy wasn’t out fought he just lost to Lesners pure size, the division has lost its skill set and moved to just who is the biggest fighter.

We are beginning to see a new breed of fighter in MMA. Brock Lesner, Bobby Lashley, Shane Carwin, Brett Rogers, all are fighters that must cut to get to the 265 weight limit are near the top of the weight class. Is it a fair competition when a fighter must cut to get to 265 and walks around at 280 if not more?

Having two weight classes would protect the smaller heavyweights and also open up and new level of competition for fighters to fight in.

How do you feel about a weight class split? Do you think it will open doors for new heavyweight fighters? Will we lose something by splitting the class?

By: Matt Coffman