What to do with the UFC Lightweight Title

Now that UFC Lightweight Champion Sean Sherk, as well as his most recent opponent, Hermes Franca, BOTH tested positive for banned substances following their title fight on July 7, what is the UFC going to do about the LW belt? Let’s first assume that Sherk’s appeal falls on deaf ears (we’ve never heard of an appeal actually being successful, but we’ll have to officially wait until August 6 to find out what the California State Athletic Commission rules); and because Franca admitted his guilt, we can rule him out of the picture for the next year, following suspension.

The clear favorite for the #1 Contender position is B.J. Penn, whose recent annihilation of former LW Champ Jens Pulver makes for a strong case. But never a fan to just give a title away, SteelSkins favors the single-elimination tournament instead!

While UFC President Dana White has stated his hatred of tournaments in the past, the Lightweight Division has experienced one in the (relative) recent past. In 2002/2003, after Champion Jens Pulver left the UFC over a contract dispute, the UFC held a tournament for the 155 pounders, featuring top contenders B.J. Penn, Din Thomas, Caol Uno and Matt Serra. The September 27, 2002 card featured Penn defeating Serra and Uno defeating Thomas, both by unanimous decision. Later, on February 28, 2003, Penn faced Uno in a bout to decide the new LW Champion, only it ended in a draw (also on that card, Thomas defeated Serra in a round-robin bout by majority decision). With no clear-cut winner, the belt went to no one, and the division folded shortly thereafter, returning just last year.

Facing mounting scrutiny about the use of steroids in the sport, the UFC could take this opportunity to shift focus and add some real excitement to an upcoming card. Rather than going with a typical tournament featuring four fighters—or even worse, just one match between the top two contenders—why not have an extended tournament featuring a wide range of fighters? A UFC event, say in September, could feature eight LW bouts between the top 16 contenders. A follow-up event in November could narrow the field from eight to four. A third-round in January or February could produce your final two, who would do battle for the belt in March or April. It’s not inconceivable and would be intensely exciting because it would provide the opportunity for dark horses.

SteelSkins knows the UFC will never go for this, and we fully anticipate seeing an announcement in late August that a LW title bout will be featured on an October card between #1 Contender B.J. Penn and #2 Contender Joe Stevenson (assuming he gets past Kurt Pellegrino next month—otherwise, due to pre-existing scheduling conflicts with other fighters, Penn’s opponent might be Roger Huerta, assuming he beats UFC newcomer Alberto Crane the same night as Stevenson’s fight).

But we’re still pushing for a big tournament. And by forgetting for the time being all pre-existing contracted fights (including the December title fight between WW Champion Matt Serra and former champ Matt Hughes), we’d like it to look something like this (the numbers refer to how SteelSkins ranks these fighters, and not necessarily to seeds; instead, we’ve matched the fighters up as fights we’d like to see):

Top Bracket

1. B.J. Penn vs. 11. Leonard Garcia

9. Tyson Griffin vs. 15. Nate Diaz

4. Spencer Fisher vs. 7. Din Thomas (this fight’s already scheduled)

6. Roger Huerta vs. 16. Manny Gamburyan

Bottom Bracket

2 Joe Stevenson vs. 13. Kurt Pellegrino (also already scheduled)

5. Kenny Florian vs. 12. Joe Lauzon

3. Matt Serra vs. 10. Thiago Tavares

8. Marcus Aurelio vs. 14. Clay Guida (also already scheduled)

NOTE: We would have included Melvin Guillard, but he is waiting out a suspension of his own after testing positive for cocaine; he’s not due back until December or January. We also would have included Frankie Edgar, however, he is medically suspended until December with a severely broken nose.