Dana White: UFC bringing in a Women's strawweight division

Rumors surfaced a month ago that the UFC would be starting up a 115 lb. division sometime early next year, Shannon Knapp shot down the idea, but now it appears the UFC is charging ahead.

Joe Camporeale-US PRESSWIRE

Good new, bad news. The good news is, the UFC is going to be bringing on a lot more women fighters soon, and pulling them from one of the strongest, deepest divisions in women's MMA. The bad news is, this could deal a major blow to an Invicta organization already on wobbly legs. Dana White announced recently that the UFC will be starting up it's own Women's strawweight division giving a Zuffa home to the smaller women in the MMA landscape. Fox Sports has the story:

"I''ll give you guys something nobody knows yet. We're actually working on bringing in another division for the women, which I said would never happen for a long time," White told hosts Brendan Schaub and Bryan Callen. "125lbs or 145lbs?", asked Schaub. "Neither....115lbs", replied White.

Questions about where Dana's "never" quote for a second women's division comes from aside, (I can't remember him saying the UFC wouldn't be doing a second women's division), this seems to be an idea that the UFC has been pecking away at for some time. Some of their recent signings at 135 lbs. have been incredibly undersized for the division, even leading Jon Anik to suggest (perhaps slyly) that fans may eventually see these fighters scrapping in a lower division. While 125 has little talent to offer at the moment, the strawweight division is flooded with high caliber fighters. Claudia Gadelha, Carla Esparza, Joanne Calderwood, and Tecia Torres, just to name a few.

If the UFC can enter into another talent sharing agreement with Invicta it may give both organizations a chance to put on a lot of great fights, but so far the current 135 lb arrangement has led to very few fighters under UFC contract appearing on Invicta cards (Sarah Kaufman is the only one that springs to mind). Once the UFC officially kicks off the division it will be interesting to see what fighters immediately make the jump. No premiere date has been announced for the new division, but I expect it will be sometime early next year.

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