This weekend Kamaru Usman will rematch Colby Colvington for the welterweight title. Their first fight was an unexpected banger between two fighters generally considered to be pretty boring competitors. Which got me thinking about the welterweight division and the strange limbo it has been in since GSP left it years ago.
The early 2010s was a very weird time in MMA, that I can only appreciate now after having watched the sport for so many years. While it was the era that I first became a fan of the sport, I didn’t realise how unusual it was to have so many dominant champions at once. During the early 2010s, the UFC the reigning champions were:
Jose Aldo, Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and later Demetrious Johnson would come along.
Half the UFC’s divisions were ruled by one fighter with an iron fist who was able to defeat any one who fought against them. We had the four most dominant champions of those divisions all reigning at once. Today none of those champions remain, and there haven’t been any champions nearly as dominant since.
A Life After GSP
GSP is undoubtedly the best welterweight in the UFC’s history – but he left his division an unusual way. After edging a razor thin and controversial division against Johnny Hendricks, GSP decided he’d had enough of fighting for now and hung up the gloves. Dana White said it would just be a short break, but we didn’t see GSP again for four years, when he made his brief return to win the middleweight title, and then again disappeared off into the night.
Johnny Hendricks won a controversial decision against Robbie Lawler to win the title, before losing it in another controversial rematch. Lawler had managed to fit in two extra fights in between his Hendricks bouts and arguably lost the rematch to Hendricks, but was awarded the title.
From here the title picture just gets more unusual. Robbie Lawler had two great title defences, one of them being another controversial decision. The welterweight division had gone from GSP being unbeatable, to a division where at any given moment it felt like someone could be champion – and then that feeling came true.
Woodley
Tyron Woodley knocked Robbie Lawler out and won the welterweight belt in the most ‘wait.. wut’ moment in the divisions history since Matt Serra’s title win. It’s at this point where the welterweight title fell hard from fans consciousness.
Woodley had back to back snooze fests against Wonderboy Thompson, ironically one of the most exciting fighters in the division. Both of those fights felt truly like nobody had won, and they were immediately followed up by a bout with Damien Maia.
Maia is perhaps the greatest grappler in the world, nevermind in MMA, but if he can’t take you down – the audience is in for a long night. Woodley and Maia made narcoleptics of the crowd for the full fight.
At this point in time, Woodley was so out of favour with UFC fans. GSP had often been criticised as boring due to his dominant wrestling – but this was never a complaint that I felt was actually true. GSP had exciting performances against Koscheck, Diaz and Condit. He was a conservative fighter for sure, but he never had 15 straight rounds of nothing happening.
Woodley picked up a quick win against Darren Till before facing Usman.
USMAN
Kamaru Usman dominated Tyrone Woodley, then had a cuddle and words of encouragement from his Mum. The fight was not pretty, and so far Kamaru Usman’s fights have been a mixed bag. He has certainly had more interesting fights than Woodley, having won most of his defensives by stoppage. However the feeling around the welterweight division is one of ‘whatever’. Usman is clearly a great fighter – but he’s fighting an uphill battle as the welterweight division has had so little happen in it.
It was once a deep division which made GSP’s run all the more impressive, but right now it feels as though Kamaru Usman is alone, besting fighters that don’t really belong in there with him. It’s not his fault – but right now I’m sceptical this rematch with Colby Colvington will change anyone’s mind.
