Amadi's Take
AMADI: Nothing surprising about Ben Henderson's win over Jim Miller in impossible to predict lightweight division
Aug 17, 2011 - 2:50:39 PM AMADI: Nothing surprising about Ben Henderson's win over Jim Miller in impossible to predict lightweight division

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By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist

When it comes to MMA discourse, retroactively discrediting a fighter's accomplishments following a loss seems to be as natural as taking a breath. After Benson Henderson's dominant performance against Jim Miller this past weekend, many seem to be in awe of the fact that Henderson was actually able to dismantle a fighter on a seven fight winning streak in the UFC, and a man who in many people's eyes was the uncrowned number one contender to the UFC Lightweight Championship.

If anything is surprising about Henderson defeating Miller, it's the fact that it actually surprised people. After all, the exact same thing happened just this year at UFC 127, when Dennis Siver was able to the kibosh on George Sotiropoulos' seven fight winning streak.

It's almost as if fans and media are in such a rush to find "the guy" at 155 pounds that they lose sight of the fact that there are at least five fighters currently in the division that could wind up being "the guy," and even more fighters who were recently derailed, but could just as easily fit the bill.

Melvin Guillard is on a five fight winning streak, Clay Guida is on four fight winning streak, as is Dennis Siver, and even a fighter who flies a bit more under the radar like Donald Cerrone has rattled off three straight UFC wins (five straight wins in total).  The fact is, at least one or more of them will lose, only to join fighters like Ben Henderson, Mark Bocek, Anthony Pettis, Rafael Dos Anjos, Jim Miller, Evan Dunham, and George Sotiropoulos on their quest back to contendership.

As the sport progresses and fighters gain more exposure through deals like the one that the UFC has reportedly finalized with FOX, the type of parity that exists in the lightweight division could become the norm. This is even more likely to be the case once Strikeforce inevitably is dissolved into the UFC, and each division grows nearly twice in size.

With the UFC being the only game in town for the foreseeable future, title opportunities are likely to be more scarce, losses are likely to be less damning, and the competition level will likely be substantially increased.

The way the MMA landscape continues to change, the first casualty of that change (other than negotiating power for the fighters) is likely to be hype. With the continued growth of mixed martial arts taking place before our eyes, one has to wonder how much longer virtually unproven commodities like Jon Jones and Cain Velasquez can be declared long-reigning champions well before their first title defense.

If the competition level at 155 pounds is any sign of things to come, it would be downright foolish to make long term predictions about any fighter moving as far ahead of their contemporaries as Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva have.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @JasonAmadi. Maybe I'm "the guy."