The UFC Treating Their Entire Flyweight Division Like Shit Is Pretty Frustrating

This blog is a bit of a long time coming. I’ve mentioned and alluded to this subject matter many times before in blogs about UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, but truthfully, the issue goes way past him at this point. The UFC treats their entire Flyweight Division like shit.

This particular blog is spawned by the #1 ranked flyweight in the world Joseph Benevidez, and some comments he made during his media day for UFC 225, where he will be taking on #5 ranked flyweight Sergio Pettis. Joe’s looking to continue his now six-fight win streak, and Sergio is looking to end that run and get back on track after a tough loss to Henry Cejudo. It’s one of the coolest matchups the division has to offer, and it’ll be taking place…on Fight Pass.

Benevidez said during his media day that he feels disrespected by that card placement, as “No other person, in any division, with a No. 1 ranking and six wins in a row, would be buried on Fight Pass”, and he’s 1000% right. He went on…

“You want to be respected by your bosses and peers. I’ve gone through a lot to get here. I’m doing my job. And that No. 1 ranking next to my name says I’m doing my job better than a good percentage of everyone else. It just doesn’t make sense.”

And it doesn’t make sense. Dana White claims the Flyweight Division isn’t as marketable as the other divisions, and to that, I ask: who’s to blame? Is it the flyweights, who are one of most highly-skilled divisions in the company, who constantly churn out amazing, crowd-pleasing fights? Who currently have the most talented champion on the roster who’s as charismatic as anyone with a name that’s not ‘Conor McGregor’? Or it is the UFC and their higher-ups, who publicly disrespect the division every chance they get, going as far as toying with the idea of selling it in its entirety last year? The same UFC higher-ups that haven’t put a single flyweight on a main card in 2018?

You could say, “Well Robbie, no casual fan knows who these flyweights are. Of course they’re not going to be on the main card”, but then you’re submitting to the vicious cycle that the UFC is stuck in. Of course no casuals know who they are, THEY’RE NEVER PUT ON MAIN CARDS! They’re never given the spotlight, or any opportunities to succeed for that matter. I feel like we’re in the pre-WEC days again where people are just claiming “tiny guys” can’t draw because they’re tiny. At the same time, the Bantamweight Division (ONLY TEN POUNDS HEAVIER THAN THE FLYWEIGHT DIVISION) is treated like royalty, and the Featherweights/Lightweights are some of the best and most profitable divisions the UFC’s got. Don’t tell me casuals won’t watch DJ fight because they’ll think they could beat him up but then disregard that logic when Dillashaw and Garbrandt fight.

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I mean fuck, look at this card:

Not good! Not a good card at all. Let’s take a look at the prelims.

Oh, what’s this?

That seems AWESOME, don’t it? Let’s see what the people of Twitter had to say about it…

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Oh, everyone loved it? Maybe if you put that on the main card, more eyes would be on it, and more people would share these same feelings, yeah? Yeah.

That’s just a recent example. There’s dozens upon dozens of these I could use, but the Moreno/Pantoja fight seemed appropriate because it’s fresh in my mind and while it was clearly the fight of the night, didn’t receive that bonus. I’m not sure if that seems silly to some of you, like, “Why are you upset over a fight not being called “Fight of the Night”, does that really even matter?”, but it does matter. You get Fight of the Night, you get fifty thousand dollars. That’s life-changing money for some of these guys, and on the surface, it looks like the UFC gave the (not so great) Lee/Macedo fight the bonus just to keep it out of the hands of the flyweights who they despise so much, but I digress. Back to the reason this blog is a blog.

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Joseph Benevidez vs Sergio Pettis taking place where it is at UFC 225 is just so frustrating as a fan of the sport, while CM fucking Punk is on the main card. And yes, you could argue that he’ll sell more pay-per-views than Joe/Sergio would, and that may be true, but man. Use Punk to capitalize on the fact that new, casual eyes will be on the show, and fight-swap the Arlovski/Tuivasa fight with the scrappy guys that’ll put on a show.

I’m not saying I have all of the answers, but I am saying that if the UFC didn’t treat their flyweights like shit, it’d be a win/win/win for everybody. The company, the fighters, the fans, everyone would be happier, and I don’t understand why that has been such a difficult request for them to fulfill.