UFC Adding Featherweight and Bantamweight Divisions?

Jul 09, 2007 3:29 PM Scott White

If you make your way over to the UFC website and check out their “Title Holders” section you’ll notice that they now have Featherweight (Over 135 lbs. to 145 lbs.) and Bantamweight (Over 125 lbs. to 135 lbs.) divisions listed. Could this mean the UFC plans on introducing these divisions soon?

It would make sense considering their influx of talent at the lower weights with the purchase of PRIDE and WEC.

Some notable featherweight fighters include:

Yoshiro Maeda
Jeff Curran
Hatsu Hioki
Takeshi Inoue
Urijah Faber
Mark Hominick
Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto
Antonio Carvalho
Alexandre Franca Nogueira

If the division additions are true, the UFC may look to pick up Norifumi Yamamoto to run their featherweight division.

Notable bantamweight fighters:

Akitoshio Hokazono
Kenji Osawa
Manny Tapia
Antonio Banuelos
Miguel Torres
Kenji Osawa
Chase Beebe
Eddie Wineland

If (as this is just speculation) the UFC does plan on adding these new weights, the divisions could be featured on an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Update 245pm: Upon re-visiting UFC’s title holders page, the divisions no longer appear. Were they just testing, or did someone jump the gun updating the website before an announcement was made?

UFC • Featherweight • Bantamweight

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Comments:

1. UFCDaily.com
from http://www.ufcdaily.com
Jul 09, 2007 4:57 PM

Any chance you (or someone else) got a screen of the changes. I’d love to post a story about this.

2. David M Singer
from NY
Jul 09, 2007 5:11 PM

Unfortunately we didn’t grab a screen (as we didn’t expect it to disappear). Once I looked at it again, my browser cache of it with the additional classes was gone.

The two “weight blocks” were below the Lightweight block and looked the same as the others with no photo and no details. We used the same division names and copied and pasted the weight limits. That’s really all there was to it.

That, and I think Scott got up and did a little dance when he saw it.

3. UFCDaily.com
from http://www.ufcdaily.com
Jul 09, 2007 5:19 PM

No problem. I am super pumped about this too, especially the prospect of having Pulver face Faber for the UFC title…

4. elmersglue
Jul 09, 2007 5:58 PM

I’m sure you will eventually see Faber vs. Pulver in the WEC for the Featherweight Title. So don’t be too disappointed. lol

5. DirtyML
Jul 09, 2007 6:16 PM

You should add Chase Beebe and Eddie Wineland to your bantamweight list.

6. Scott White
from Ontario, Canada
Jul 09, 2007 6:19 PM

Added.

7. UFCDaily.com
from http://www.ufcdaily.com
Jul 09, 2007 6:20 PM

I think we will see the fight in the WEC, but the UFC is just such a big stage that it would be a great debut fight for the division’s belt, especially if they made it free on Spike.

8. DirtyML
Jul 09, 2007 6:26 PM

You da man Scott.

But yeah, I’m excited about the prospect of 135 pounders, those guys will bring it 100% the entire fight.

9. Scott White
from Ontario, Canada
Jul 09, 2007 6:42 PM

With all of the shows the UFC is putting on these days it only makes sense to add these divisions. Look at how well the lightweight division has done since its re-addition to the UFC. It has been the source of numerous great fights…

Spencer Fisher vs. Sam Stout I & II
Spencer Fisher vs. Matt Wiman
Sean Sherk vs. Kenny Florian
Sean Sherk vs. Hermes Franca
Din Thomas vs. Clay Guida
Clay Guida vs. Tyson Griffin
Frankie Edgar vs. Tyson Griffin
Roger Huerta vs. Leonard Garcia

I’m sure I am missing a few but the featherweight and bantamweight fighters are just as exciting. These guys have tons of gas and keep up a high pace for the full 15 minutes.

The UFC would be smart to pickup Kid Yamamoto because it would allow them to build him up and eventually set up a UFC champ vs. WEC champ slating him vs Faber.

10. lamar reynolds
from 85382
Jul 11, 2007 6:26 AM

the ufc is not going to have any smaller weight classes . they are letting the thier other company focus on those wright clasess

11. Scott White
from Ontario, Canada
Jul 11, 2007 6:41 AM

You’re right Dana White has stated that the plan is to let the WEC flourish with the lighter weight classes but it still wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see them eventually added to the UFC’s stable.

Dana White knows how exciting the lighter weight classes are and he is going to do whatever makes the most sense for his business. If the WEC succeeds with Urijah Faber at the helm (which they will), I wouldn’t be surprised if Dana added the featherweight division to the UFC and signed a guy like Kid Yamamoto to be the “star” of the division.

It allows them to possibly unify the titles and compete with one another.