UFC on ESPN+1 Primer: You Want to See a Division Killed in a Night?

The UFC is having their inaugural ESPN show later this month, and headlining UFC on ESPN+1 is a match-up between bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw and flyweight champ Henry Cejudo. If Dillashaw wins, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the UFC keeps the flyweight division alive for another second.

(If Cejudo wins, it’s hard to imagine them keeping the division alive much longer as well, but that’s beside the point.)

You see, the UFC has been shedding its 125-pound male roster like a snake shucking off its skin. And though they haven’t set a firm date on when they’re shutting things down at flyweight, you have to think it’ll be soon.

But nothing will make it sooner like Dillashaw taking the belt from Cejudo. Remember: Cejudo somehow, someway managed to dethrone longtime champ Demetrious Johnson, and since Johnson kind of killed any spark the division might have had, his departure meant the UFC could stop wasting its money on a weight class no one cares about.

Which isn’t to say Cejudo isn’t good – he’s a former Olympian, he’s damn good. But he’d probably move the needle more as a bantamweight… so the UFC is likely hoping that Dillashaw puts an end to the division once and for all by becoming a double-champ.

Will the UFC on ESPN+1 fight be good? Probably.

But being good isn’t going to be enough to reverse course on this ship. Unless Cejudo wins, and does so using heretofore unseen superpowers like telekinesis and teleportation, that division is toast. And if Cejudo loses… it’ll be toast that much sooner.