Trading Shots: Could the UFC really scrap the men's flyweight division?

Could the UFC’s flyweight division really disappear? It’s something the company has considered, UFC President Dana White revealed during his public spat with the division’s champion, Demetrious Johnson. Now retired UFC and WEC fighter Danny Downes joins MMAjunkie columnist Ben Fowlkes to discuss the situation.

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Downes: Ben, you can add another name to the list of disgruntled UFC fighters. This past week flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson went public with his contractual issues and wrote a statement chronicling the saga.

The list of grievances was fairly predictable. Johnson had issues with his pay, opponents, and how the UFC was marketing him. What was uncommon, though, was finding out that the UFC threatened to shut down the entire 125-pound division if Johnson didn’t go along with plans to have him fight T.J. Dillashaw.

As you can imagine, UFC President Dana White’s response was also predictable. He basically called Johnson a liar (no mention if there were tapes), and said Johnson wasn’t that great anyway. What are we supposed to make of all this? Is there anything noteworthy about this public disagreement, or is it more kindle for the fire burning over at UFC headquarters?

Fowlkes: Seems pretty noteworthy to me if the UFC is considering shuttering one of its divisions, all while White walks back his very recent praise for the company’s most dominant champ.

You mentioned the fact that the UFC president disputed Johnson’s claim that he’d threatened to close the men’s flyweight division if Johnson didn’t take the fight with Dillashaw under the terms offered. But White also said that closing the division is a real possibility, something the UFC has been considering for several years.

Why is that, do you think? It’s not because the fights aren’t any good. You know that as well as I do. It’s not because there’s not enough talent to keep the division stocked. It’s solely financial. The UFC doesn’t feel like it’s making enough money off the weight class, so who cares if one of the very best fighters in the world is there? That might not be enough to save it in the end.

That’s troubling to me. It suggests that this sport is subject to the financial whims of the UFC, which of course we kind of knew already. But isn’t it still a little crazy to think that the UFC might really consider getting rid of a pound-for-pound great just because he doesn’t bring in enough cash?

Downes: No, I wouldn’t find it crazy in the least. Then again, I’m not sure what constitutes a real threat. When you’ve been caught in as many flip-flops and untruths as White, what are we supposed to believe?

Do I think White threatened to close the entire division? Yes. But I also think he means that threat about as much as he meant the following:

• He’ll cancel Michael Bisping vs. GSP and give Yoel Romero the title shot.
• He has no interest in signing Holly Holm.
• Ben Askren “needs more experience” before he can compete in the UFC.
• Jon Jones will never headline another pay per view event.
• The UFC isn’t making a dime on the Reebok deal.
• Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor is never going to happen.
• Mayweather vs. McGregor is absolutely going to happen

Every public debate involving White and a fighter or manager plays out the same way as this one. We can’t selectively choose to believe his threats and discredit his boasts. Each statement should be taken with the appropriate amount of salt. What we call “lies,” White would probably call “negotiation tactics.” We may think he goes to the intimidation well too many times, but he’s out there importing snow to his driveway while you haggle with the snowplow guy over how much to clear yours.

Let’s just say that the UFC does shut down the flyweight division. You’d have the typical outrage cycle of a couple days while the majority of fans would shrug their shoulders. I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be tremendously unfair to Johnson, but what recourse does he have? There are only 28 flyweights listed on the UFC website. They can give all of them two choices: 1) Compete at bantamweight, or 2) go fight somewhere else. What do you think most of them will choose?

The UFC is a business, not a sport. And now it’s part of a large conglomerate. The primary focus is profit. Sure, corporations will change unpopular choices if there’s enough outcry, but do you expect that to happen? If the UFC announced the end of the flyweight division tomorrow, and booked a McGregor return fight the very next day, how many articles bemoaning the end of the 125-pound division do you think we’d see?

Fowlkes: I’m glad you brought up Askren. He serves as a pretty good example of the power the UFC can wield in this sport, and not always for good.

Obviously, he’s a capable enough fighter for the UFC, but odds are he’ll never get the chance to prove it. His style isn’t terribly exciting, so there aren’t a ton of people outraged over that, but still, it reminds us that skill alone isn’t enough to get you on the biggest stage in this sport.

That’s not how it works in most other pro sports. You don’t hear about basketball players being forced to ply their trade in Europe because the NBA commissioner doesn’t like them. But the UFC operates by its own rules, which is how we ended up here, wondering if the UFC will trash an entire division over a dispute with one of the best pure fighters in all of MMA.

You might be right that, practically, White and the UFC could get away with that. But MMA is still a relatively young sport, and I’m not sure the thing the de facto stewards of it should be doing right now is testing the absolute limit of what they can get away with. If you do it that way, you might not realize you’ve gone too far until you can no longer make it back.

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Danny Downes, a retired UFC and WEC fighter, is an MMAjunkie contributor who has also written for UFC.com and UFC 360. Follow them on twitter at @benfowlkesMMA and @dannyboydownes.