After watching the fights this weekend, seeing Cruz defend his title successfully in fairly dominant fashion, I asked myself whether or not he has beatable at 135lbs? He may not be a perennial finisher, but he seems to handle all of his opponents with relative ease and grace. Is this, because he is a top pound-for-pound fighter? Maybe – but, I’m not sure that’s the case.
People are always quick to assign a P4P title to someone after a dominating performance – but, there are so many factors that need to be taken into account outside of a dominant performance in the ring (i.e. competition, weight class, age, etc). Thinking about the P4P best, I started to think about longevity as being one of those criteria that really dictates a fighter’s position on this list.
This led me to my thesis: Who will be the champ in four years? Obviously, impossible to tell who enter into each division over the next few years, but we can take a cursory glance at each of the current champs to see who we think will still be there in the next few years…
Instead of dissecting each of the current champs, and giving evidence as to why they “may” or “may not” be wearing their respective division crowns over the next few years, I thought it would make more sense to say who I think will still be champ and why:
Jon Jones (Light Heavyweight): After seeing Jones dismantle Rampage a few weeks ago, I am having a hard time not believing that he won’t be the champ for a number of years to come. He is young, well rounded in all aspects of the game, confident, and he has already fought (and convincingly defeated) some of the top brass in the LHW division. Despite being in such a talent rich division, I just have a hard time believing that Jones won’t evolve with the crop of current and future fighters in the division. In fact, I firmly believe that Jones will be the UFC’s first simultaneous two division champ (HW and LHW).
Jose Aldo (Featherweight): Most people are only familiar with Aldo’s UFC debut against Hominick in Toronto earlier this year; which I don’t think was the best display of his abilities – albeit, still a solid win. Aldo has soundly beaten every competitor he has faced in recent memory. Laser-like striking on his feet, with a great ground game; he poses a lot of problems for a lot of different fighters. His ability to dictate the course of a fight makes him scary competitor. Another important factor is that he’s only 25, and still learning and growing. There’s a lot of great talent in this division, but I just don’t see anyone taking the strap from Aldo anytime soon. Let’s just hope Kenny Florian doesn’t make me eat my words.
Believe it or not, that’s where my list ends. There are a few notables off this list, that are probably leaving a few scratching their heads – so, I will touch upon those very quickly:
Georges St. Pierre (Welterweight): Quick and short – I truthfully, don’t think that GSP will be a WW in the next four years. I am fairly confident that after he fights Diaz (yes, this fight will still happen), he will move up to MW to cement his legacy as one of the sports best.
Anderson Silva (Middleweight): I really don’t think Silva will be fighting in four years. Silva will be 40 in four years, and I don’t see Silva pulling a Couture or Henderson. I think he will leave his legacy as is; plus Silva has public stated he only has four to six fights left in him.
There are plenty of reasons that we could go through each and every fighter and argue why they should or shouldn’t be on the ‘Champ in Four Years List’ – but, I think youth, well roundedness and the level of competition in each of their respective divisions gives Jones and Aldo an advantage over the other champs.
… and that is the final word.
