Quote:
Originally Posted by homegrowncone
The middleweight division is so ridiculously underrated. Everyone has a tendency to just write off the division as a bunch of people who would lose to Anderson Silva, when in reality it is probably the most exciting division in all of MMA. A lot of people will say the lightweight division is more competitive but realistically I think the parallels the middleweights at this point. I can only think of one person who would pose a legit threat to B.J (Melendez) wheras at middleweight I can think of at least four people who (despite popular opinion) would pose a serious threat to Anderson.
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The best division in the world is UFC LHW because it's got like 8 of the top 10 LHW's (only missing Arona and Lil Nog).
The problem with MW is the people that can actually challenge Anderson are in other organizations. Filho, Akiyama, Lindland, Kang and maybe Lawler but I don't think Lawler moves well enough. To beat Anderson you need to be quick and have KO power or have world class sumbissions or be a world class wrestler.
As it stands, I think Filho and Akiyama have the best chance at beating Anderson but neither are in the UFC. I think Kang can do it as well and so can Hendo and Lindland but those 2 would have to fight perfectly in order to beat Anderson because they're probably looking at having to grind out a long fight.
LW there are many that would challenge BJ. Namely Gomi, JZ, Kawajiri, Melendez, Ishida and Aoki.
Of them, I most want to see BJ fight Gomi again because Gomi has clearly closed the gap bewteen the 2 in their first fight and Gomi still won round 2 of that fight.
Aoki is the other one I would really like to see. Not sure if you've seen it, but Renzo did very well against BJ and Renzo was an old man in that fight (though Penn was fat in the fight, he was fat in lots of his fights back then).
If there's anyone who can sub BJ, it's Aoki. It would be battle of the rubber guards as long as Aoki could get it to the ground (if not, BJ would dominate)and IMO Aoki is the slicker of the 2 on the ground submission wise.