I don't know man, coming from strikeforce, lookin at what Cormier did at HW I really wouldn't have had a problem with him coming to the ufc and being given an immediate title shot a weight below. Sometimes there needs to be a carryover.
I don't have a problem with gsp fighting for the mw title, by hook or crook he defended his title 8 or however many times and never lost it technically. So if he wants to move up good he should have don't that 3 years ago if he wasn't such a coward. My problem is that he's facing bisbing when there is already a queue number 1 contender.
For Cormier, that'd be a bit different. He'd been fighting at HW and was the tournament champion, so at least there's some groundwork but even Anderson Silva had to come in and fight Chris Leben before he got a crack at Rich Franklin...and those two examples at least would be fighting for belts in divisions they had already been proven in.
Here's some of the issues I have here though and there are a bunch I admit,
. It's not a real superfight. One of the guys isn't the champion and is already at the front of the line in his own division to fight for a belt...in a grudge match too. So if TJ wins we lose all of the stories that took years to develop and TJ ends up in a division with one or two interesting match-ups against guys who aren't draws before he's in DJ's same position...lacking interesting opposition.
. What happens if DJ or TJ gets hurt before the fight? Does TJ go back to 135? Does he get a title shot immediately since he was the number one contender or has he forfeited that right (especially if DJ is the one to get hurt). Who gets the shot at Cody now? Cruz would want that but if Rivera beats Almeida, he's got a case too and god forbid TJ wants back in the division...
. TJ didn't even wrestle at 125 in college, dude hasn't made weight for that class in his adult life in any competition. Borg has weight issues but at least we know he can perform at 125.
. What happened to all the weight cut outrage? We've got new rules being put in place to stop extreme weight cuts but it's not a problem to ask TJ to do a major weight cut at his size? The precedent isn't great.
. On top of that, this continues a running trend of fighters skipping the line in divisions they've put no work in. Everyone at Middleweight is sour right now off the GSP issue; Featherweight is only just now about to recover from Conor's skipping out on the division and outside of the top three it's lost all of it's shape rankings wise; meanwhile at Lightweight, Tony Ferguson can't even get an opponent for an interim title fight...we're really gonna try this again with another two divisions and even include a guy who already has a title fight? I don't like it.
Of course TJ vs DJ is more interesting than the 125 contenders if you overlook weight cut worries, but there's a lot that can go wrong and a lot of fighters that will have a right to be mad. Divisions needs some damned structure and bringing in a non-champion to break the division ranks isn't gonna do anything to help that. If TJ actually wants the DJ fight, he can jump down and fight Borg or Cejudo and prove he can make the weight AND perform...but reality is dude's just in a rush for any gold to take that. Otherwise he could sit back and just fight Cody when dude gets back or demand an interim fight; he wanted that Cruz rematch so badly right?
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