While it’s miles behind the Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions, WEC is putting together a decent Lightweight division. I’m not the biggest Chris Horodecki fan in the world. I really feel he enjoyed the benefit of being a big fish (metaphorically speaking) in the small IFL pond. Still, he’s got some measure of talent and is better than at least one other (former?) WEC Lightweight, Bart Palaszewski (which cannot possibly be spelled correctly).

Add to Horodecki the divisions’ other top guys, Varner, Henderson and Cerrone, the next tier of guys such as Rob McCullough, Shane Roller, Danny Castillo, and (maybe) Dave Jansen, and that’s a decent little division. It’s not rivaling the UFC’s stacked Lightweight division, but, with all due respect to Josh Thomson and Gil Melendez, it’s superior to Strikeforce’s stable of Lightweights by and large.

For me, I’d say WEC’s Lightweight division is approaching the talent level of DREAM’s Lightweight division. It’s not quite there yet, but a year from now, who knows?

For my own edification, I’ve put together a list of who I feel are the top guys in each division.

DREAM
Shinya Aoki
Joachim Hansen
Eddie Alvarez
Tatsuya Kawajiri
Mitsuhiro Ishida
Gesias Cavalcante
Vitor Ribiero
Katsunori Kikuno
Andre Amade
Luiz Firmino
Katsuhiko Nagata

WEC
Jamie Varner
Ben Henderson
Donald Cerrone
Rob McCullough
Shane Roller
Danny Castillo
Dave Jansen
Chris Horodecki
Ricardo Lamas
Anthony Njokuani
Marcus Hicks

Strikeforce
Josh Thomson
Mitsuhiro Ishida
Gilbert Melendez
Billy Evangelista
Lyle Beerbohm
Rodrigo Damm
Duane Ludwig
Jorge Gurgel
Mike Aina
Connor Heun

Sengoku
Mizuto Hirota
Satoru Kitaoka
Kazunori Yokota
Eiji Mitsuoka
Sergey Golyaev
Jorge Masvidal
Ryan Schultz
Clay French

UFC
BJ Penn
Kenny Florian
Gray Maynard
Frank Edgar
Diego Sanchez
Sean Sherk
Tyson Griffin
Joe Stevenson
Clay Guida
Nate Diaz
Kurt Pellegrino
Jim Miller