Author's note: Sometimes I write about other subjects than hockey, both sports and non-sports. Not everything is hockey. This piece focus upon Sunday's UFC on Fox Sports 1 main event between T.J. Dillashaw vs. Dominick Cruz for the Bantamweight title and what looms in the distance for the division.
This week has seen the most attention turned towards UFC men's bantamweights since the division was moved into the promotion in December 2010.
It is not too difficult to earn that honor, however. Even with a title fight on the line between the champion and a challenger that never lost the belt and whose only defeats has been injuries. Bantamweights have been a hard sell to casual and die-hard MMA fans. Over the last 5 years the UFC 135 pound division has been somewhere between permanently cursed and ignored.
Mixed Martial Arts has struggled to garner eyeballs and promotion of fighters under 155 lbs until recently in the way boxing has with the possible exception of former WEC featherweight (145 lbs) and perennial UFC contender Urijah Faber, who once again is position to take advantage.
From featherweight to flyweight, the three lowest men's weight divisions struggle to make an impact in the minds of fight fans. Top contenders in the divisions rarely are on main cards, instead being relegated to prelims and internet-only streams. UFC Flyweight (125 lbs) champion Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson has been one of the most dominant fighters in the Octagon. Yet Johnson spends every fight week answering questions about why he doesn't "move the needle" in pay-per-view buys before further cleaning out his division to fans leaving the building.
Still, that is more than Bantamweight can say. At least people care about hating on the flyweights for being too small, too boring, too unknown. Bantamweight's biggest flaw is no one does in a sport where attention matters. No one is clamoring to watch or hate interchangeable fighters few know. The 5th ranked 135 lbs fighter fought out his contract last month on an internet stream. That ranking in other divisions would be reasons to headline one of an ever-growing number of UFC cards.
In fairness, there are reasons for anonymity. Its first champion, Dominick Cruz, has spent a grand total of 61 seconds in the cage since October 2011. Its current champion, T.J. Dillashaw, who fights Cruz for the title Sunday in Boston, has also faced injuries on and off. Opponents-wise, Dillashaw has been scheduled to fight the same person for the past 2 years.
It does not do much to expand on the notion of lighter fighters' marketability.
Now there's Conor McGregor at 145 lbs (and 155 lbs in March) to shatter that notion, showing it is not the size of the fighter but the size of the fight which matters. The brash Irishman has backed up his outlandish words with his fists and fighting style, obliterating a decade-long reign of Jose Aldo in less time than it takes to run to the kitchen and grab fight snacks.
Fans love him. Fans hate him. Both will pay $60 to watch the new Featherweight champion McGregor, one of the few MMA fighters to jump into the mainstream consciousness every time he fights. McGregor is big enough where in the fightocracy of attention and money, he commands both in spades.
At this point the money fight is not for a title. It is with McGregor. At last month's UFC on Fox event, three of the night's victors called McGregor out as their next opponent.
His aura is big enough to be a presence over everything in the MMA world. Websites will have lower-card fighters comment on his fights or media appearances in the guise of promoting a fight. (If you are a fighter and need to where you are in the eyes of fans, it is not a good sign when your story is about names that sell like McGregor or Ronda Rousey or Jon Jones.)
Attention is everything in the world of fighting sports, and in the case of 135 lbs, the undisputed champion of attention is Faber. The "California Kid" may be bordering on middle age, but he has positioned himself to have a grudge match with whomever comes out with the belt Sunday.
Not bad for a guy on a one-win streak.
Faber was supposed to face Cruz two title fights and 3.5 years ago for the third time (Faber handed Cruz his only career loss in 2007 while Cruz defeated Faber in 2011) in a main event PPV fight promoted by both being coaches on "The Ultimate Fighter." That fight fell through when Cruz suffered the first of three major knee injuries. There remains unfinished business.
And Faber, who recently coached the Ultimate Fighter against McGregor, has all the ingredients of a built-in rivalry that goes above the belt with Dillashaw. The champion used to train at Faber's Alpha Male gym before a split and move to train with the former head coach happened early this year. Either fight is intriguing, more than Sunday's fight for the lineal championship between two similarly styled fighters that will be the first title fight on Fox Sports 1.
Cruz is no stranger to that backhanded compliment of an honor. His previous title fight, against Johnson nonetheless, was the first on Versus back when Versus was a thing.
Oddly enough since Cruz has been gone, he has done the impossible in keeping relevant. Thanks to an analyst position at Fox, the one-time champion has spent more time on television than any other bantamweight fighter. He was the second-highest profile fighter in the division when injured in 2012 and remains the same in 2016, only with a better gift of gab to go with a quick fighting style.
That, when it comes down to it, is the issue. If McGregor and Faber's path of building a fight or four has taught anything, it's that promotion matters just as much as backing up inside the cage.
This is finally happening at 135 lbs, where the two true champions are finally meeting and have stakes on the line Sunday and down the road. Dillashaw has two intriguing fights win or lose. So do Cruz. So does Faber for that matter. Even getting away from the triumvirate, Aljamain Sterling - the #5 bantamweight who fought on the prelims - has been his most intriguing during Sterling's search for finding out his true value.
Still, it says a lot about where the division was that the most noise Sterling, who has finished his past three opponents, has made is in the search of more money.
How that turns out will be intriguing and so is that point. It's been a forgotten group of fighters to promote or watch, but for the first time in a long time there are reasons to care or even hate the UFC Bantamweight division.
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