By T.P. Grant

Mixed Martial Arts can be a difficult sport to follow at times, to all but the most hardcore of followers of the sport it can seem a confusing mess of weight classes and champions. The UFC roster currently sits at over 500 fighters, not to mention the thousands of fighters outside of the promotion, so it’s understandable to have a hard time keeping so many names straight.

So to help with that, FloCombat is going to run down each UFC weight class and highlighting fighters that the new or casual MMA fan should be watching.
Lightweight is very likely the deepest division in MMA, and for years has been a shark tank of talented fighters. BJ Penn became the first marquee UFC Lightweight champion but following his decline the title has been bogged down in immediate rematches and injuries for the last six years. The tide seems to be turning as several of the best lightweights are set to return to action at some point this year, and there a number of exciting fights to be made.

Rafael dos Anjos

The current UFC Lightweight Champion, Rafael dos Anjos recently was forced to pull out of his highly anticipated super fight with UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor due to a broken foot. That injury likely cost dos Anjos a good deal of money and publicity because his pressuring and kick heavy striking game, paired with nasty top game, likely would have chewed up McGregor over the course of 5 rounds.

Rafael dos Anjos at one point in his career looked like he was doomed to toil in the mid-tier of Lightweight, a notoriously hard position to break out of due to the depth of the division. In his first 8 UFC bouts dos Anjos went a dubious 4-4. But in late 2011 dos Anjos moved to the Kings MMA gym to train under Rafael Cordeiro and since then has gone 10-1, winning the UFC Lightweight title last March.

Rafael dos Anjos has only defended his title once and there a plethora of interesting fights still at him at Lightweight in addition to a possible McGregor fight down the road.

Khabib Nurmagomedov

It is an understatement to say that a lot of MMA fans are excited that Khabib Nurmagomedov is returning to the cage this year. In 2013 one of the major stories in the UFC was the large influx of talent from Russia as the state sponsored combat sports gyms began to shift their focus to MMA, and Nurmagomedov was the vanguard of that new generation of Russian talent to the UFC. Nurmagomedov grew up in Dagestan, a region of Russian known for producing elite combat sports athletes. Khabib and his brother Abubakar, a top Welterweight prospect, were raised by their father, an internationally decorated Freestyle Wrestler and Judo black belt. Khabib grew up wrestling and then transitioned over to Combat Sambo, where he won a world championship before moving to professional MMA.

In 2012 Khabib made his UFC debut and ran off five straight wins in two years. He uses a relentless chain wrestling attack, taking opponents down for short bursts of offense on the mat and then letting them up only to throw them back down. In 2014, Khabib won a clear decision over Rafael dos Anjos and was only a fight away from a title, but repeated injuries have sidelined Khabib since that fight.

Khabib is set for is return in the main event of a Fox card against Tony Ferguson this spring, and questions abound on how he will look after so much time off. If Khabib has stayed sharp he will be right back into the title picture and the Lightweight division will have a serious contender on its hands.

Tony Ferguson

A stand out athlete in high school, Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson wrestled in college and earned the title of All-American twice. Ferguson graduated from school and took a day job in marketing and tended bar on the side. One night while bartending Ferguson met an MMA coach and was asked to come to the school to teach some wrestling classes, Ferguson began pursuing an MMA career shortly afterwards.

Ferguson took his first pro fight in 2008 and after three years on the regional scene Ferguson qualified the 13th season of the Ultimate Fighter, coach by Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos in 2011. Ferguson won the show and since then has put together a 10-1 UFC record. An excellent athlete, Fergusons style is geared towards finishing fights with heavy strikes on the feet and dynamic submissions on the mat. Ferguson is set to talk on Khabib Nurmagomedov on Fox in April, with the winner likely becoming the top contender in the Lightweight division.

Beneil Dariush

Originally a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitor, Beneil Dariush won several major championships as a lower belt and competed with some of the top names in the sport. Under Rafael Cordeiro Dariush, has developed into quite the striker on the feet, using pressuring footwork to trap opponents on the cage and then unloading heavy punch/kick combinations. On the ground Dariush has a punishing top game with pressure passing and submission oriented grappling. Dariush is currently riding a 5 fight win streak, though his most recent win is generally considered a decision that should have gone against him. Dariush is scheduled to Michael Chiesa and is working to establish himself as a contender at Lightweight. Win or lose, Dariush is an up-and-coming fighter to keep an eye on.