Fans, media and fighters alike have been wondering for what seems like an eternity when the UFC welterweight division’s top fighters would be booked for fights, but there was no news for a long time. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, three massive fights at 170lbs were revealed over the weekend, and finally welterweight is back on track. After months of uncertainty, it seems like the UFC welterweight division is finally back to normal.
The first domino to fall came late last week, when BJPenn.com reported that the UFC was targeted an interim welterweight title fight between top-ranked contenders Rafael dos Anjos and Colby Covington. The two are set to meet in the main event of UFC 224, which takes place May 12 at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. RDA has gone 3-0 since moving up to welterweight, including a dominant win over Robbie Lawler in his last outing, while Covington is 8-1 as a welterweight, including a one-sided win over Demian Maia in his last outing. Both men are very deserving of fighting for a title.
Of course, the problem that some people have with making an interim title here is that Tyron Woodley is the UFC welterweight champion right now. But Woodley has also been part of the problem that led to welterweight becoming stagnant for such a long time. As impressive as Woodley was fighting four times in a 12-month period from August 2016 to July 2017, he hasn’t fought in nine months now, and his return isn’t imminent. He’s also openly been calling out for superfights against the likes of Conor McGregor, Georges St-Pierre and Nate Diaz, and has pretty much ignored callouts by the top contenders like RDA and Covington.
The UFC clearly doesn’t want to wait much longer, so it made the decision to introduce an interim title while Woodley is out, which in turn will force Woodley to defend his welterweight bout against the RDA/Covington winner. Based on merit, it’s not fair to Woodley that there’s an interim belt now considering he’s defended his belt three times since winning it, but the division couldn’t wait around for him any longer.
With RDA vs. Covington booked, the matchmakers started to get to work, and two more huge fights at 170lbs are set to take place in the coming months. The first is a main event matchup at UFC Fight Night 130 between strikers Darren Till and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, which goes down May 27 at Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. BJPenn.com also reported that matchup. The UFC had already pegged Till as the headliner of the Liverpool card but he needed a dance partner. While there were rumors Thompson was injured, clearly he’ll be ready to go by May as he’s accepted this fight against Till, and it should be a great one. Till is one of the UFC’s brightest up-and-comers and with a 4-0-1 record in the welterweight division, including a TKO win over Donald Cerrone in his last fight, but he needs a big win to take him to the next level. A victory over Thompson, who is 9-2-1 in the UFC, would certainly be the statement win Till needs to prove the doubters wrong. This should be an incredible fight between two men known for their standup skills, and the fans in England should be very happy the UFC got this fight booked.
The other big welterweight fight coming up is a main event fight between Kamaru Usman and Santiago Ponzinibbio, which goes down at UFC Fight Night 129 on May 19 at Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile. The UFC has already confirmed this fight is official. Usman is 7-0 in the UFC and Ponzinibbio is 8-2 and riding a six-fight win streak so this is a terrific matchup as well. Usman has been getting ducked for a while by some of the welterweight division’s top guys, but Ponzinibbio is a warrior and took the fight, which may prove to be a bad matchup for him based on Usman’s takedown skills.
Then again, Ponzinibbio has great striking and cardio so it makes things interesting. Either way, it’s a great fight on paper and kudos for the UFC for making this fight.
While the state of the UFC welterweight was up in the air for a while, all of a sudden the division is looking in great shape. While it’s disappointing the champion Woodley is still on the shelf and can’t defend his title, it’s great to see the UFC go ahead and book three great fights: RDA vs. Covington, Till vs. Thompson and Usman vs. Ponzinibbio.
The UFC welterweight division is finally back to normal, as many of the top fighters in one of the sport’s deepest weight classes finally have fights again. The next few months of fights should prove to be spectacular.
