Eddie Alvarez vs. Shinya Aoki To Crown First-Ever WAMMA Lightweight Champion
Eddie Alvarez
The World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts (WAMMA) has announced that it will recognize the winner of the New Year’s Eve lightweight bout between Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki, WAMMA’s number 2 and 3 ranked lightweights respectively, as WAMMA’s first-ever lightweight champion.
The bout is slated to take place on December 31st in Saitama, Japan at the Saitama Super Arena during FEG’s “FieLDS Dynamtie!!”.
UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn is currently WAMMA’s top-ranked lightweight, but WAMMA Chief Operating Officer Michael Lynch, in a press release announcing the title match, explained that the winner of the upcoming bout is still deserving of the title.
“WAMMA’s board of directors supports the WAMMA pollsters in their recognition of B.J. Penn as the number one rated lightweight fighter in the world,” said Lynch. “However, Penn has not fought since May 24 and isn’t scheduled to compete again until January 31. His Jan. 31 fight will be contested at welterweight against Georges St. Pierre for the UFC’s 170 pound crown. If Penn wins, UFC President Dana White has already stated that Penn’s next fight will be a welterweight title defense against Thiago Alves. Needless to say, Penn’s future as a regular competitor in the lightweight division is uncertain.
“With our number two and three ranked lightweight fighters scheduled to compete on one of the sport’s biggest stages, we felt that the fight was worthy of determining WAMMA’s first-ever lightweight champion. But we’re a fan-forward organization and we are aware of the criticism. If after the St. Pierre fight it becomes clear that Penn’s future is at lightweight, WAMMA will approach the UFC with the hope of facilitating a fight between Penn and the WAMMA lightweight champion.”
The 155-pound title will be the second championship issued by WAMMA, who currently recognizes Fedor Emelianenko as their undisputed heavyweight champion. Emelianenko will put his title on the line on January 24th against former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski in the main event of Affliction: Day of Reckoning.
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Makes a lot of sense doesn’t it ?
WAMMA will become the WBA & WBO of MMA mark my words
thats actually quite concerning really
WAMMA is bs bottom line the best and reconized #1 LW in the world is simply BJ Penn bottom line…
Im interested in this bout because Shinya Aoki is fight Eddie Alvarez i could care less about the piece of tin they call the WAMMA belt o and they stated some diareeha that BJ Penn isnt in contention for the WAMMA belt because he hasnt defended in his weightclass in 6 months therefore i would like to ask WAMMA to officially strip Fedor of his WAMMA HW title for he wont have defended his title in 6 months by the next time he fights (if the Affliction card still happens; July 19,2008 ~ Jan 24,2009)
Also i believe that both Aoki and Alvarez might just end up in the UFC because they both are at the end of their contracts, I THINK
Well with Elite seeming not willing to just die who knows with Eddie i would love to see Eddie & BJ fight in the UFC and with Aoki i’m not sure who he is contracted to.
Aoki is i believe signed with FEG, and damn Elite not dying sucks but i also think him and Shields were at the end of their contracts with ProElite anyways like 1 or 2 fights left, but thats just off of my boggled mind rightnow
Obviously Aoki is with Dream that was a f*** up my myself
I’m so incoherent today damn alcohol !
Maybe you should wait till later in the day to start drinking then.
I agree that Fedor should be stripped based on their claims of why BJ isn’t recognized.
what a joke WAMMA is. if BJ is Ranked as the number one guy, why isnt he the champ? looking for loop holes to avoid giving UFC fighters the belts cause the UFC thinks your a joke is BS and a waste of everyones time. Ironicly WAMMA was created cause they were suppose to end controversy over who is the best at each weight, yet BJ hasent loss to any LW and is getting bumped due to his fight next year against a top 5 PfP WW. so do we take away Fedor’s title? he hasent fought in how long and wont fight till the week before BJ, is Mir the new WAMMA champ? (he did stop big Nog, something Fedor couldnt do) haha what a F*ckin joke, someone please stop these clowns, please!
Breaking new: WAMMA says Anderson Silva not the best Middle weight in the world, due to inactivity and going between weight classes. new WAMMA middle weight champ is…Steve from Boise Idaho! he recently beat his kid brother in the backyard. Congrats Steve!
Congrats to Steve, thats too funny anzstar
im kinda serious as much as I am a fan of Fedor, they should strip him of the WAMMA ugly aassss HW title
haha, congrats Steve!
Josh Barnett v Gilber Yvel for the vacated WAMMA HW title @ Affliction II “IF it happens”
Now that I have a bit more time, I will reply to the story…
I don’t really care about the WAMMA belt, as I think most people don’t care about the WAMMA belt, except *maybe* the fighters that hold it, Affliction, and WAMMA. I’m looking forward to this fight, with or without the fictional WAMMA belt being on the line. I do think Alvarez will pick up the win.
If both fighters are in fact nearing the end of their contracts, I think they stand a good chance to at least be pursued by the UFC. Whether or not they will sign with the UFC I think is up to them. Are they willing to sign an exclusive contract? I think that both of them have some clearly intriguing match-ups in the UFC.
The possibility of Aoki signing with the UFC raises a question for me though. Would he be allowed to wear his tights in the UFC? I’m not sure the UFC rules, but it seems no one wears anything but shorts there.
I dont believe the AC’s would allow the pants, now what he could do for more “grip” (for grappling) is wear some “man panties” and the wrap his knees in a fashion that alows mobility, flexability and movement, yet i dont think the straight pant would be allowed
F WAMMA
Yeah, I think you’re right about the pants. I suspec he probably would wear the “man panties” and then wrap his knees like you said.
I’m tending to agree with the general consensus here- The WAMMA title is a superfluous formality, at best.
It’s a pretty belt…who wouldn’t want that???
I think there are too many belts to begin with …. UFC, MFC , AFL , DREAM , shooto, DEEP .. yada yada yada . One more is no big deal . I dont think everyone should be so worked up over a belt . The fight is a good fight between two guys . Who cares what the belt means ? If you dont like it , just dont recognize its value . They will go away sooner than later if they suck that badly
There we go .. make the “YADA YADA ” belt . We’ll get drunks from the local bars to beat the crap out of each other for it . Wooooooooo
I have no issue with different organizations having “their” belts, truly there are few belts that mean anything in MMA anyways… its similar to being a AAA allstar, you’re good but not quite there my boy..
WAMMA is an organization they’re a make believe governing rankings body (what the fuuuck does that mean) who hands out belts to whom they deam worthy that isnt in the UFC, they have zero power and a shiny 3 disc belt that looks worse than the old 60’s boxing belts
Dr. Doom thats make HOBO which reconizes the champion of bumm fights we can be the governing body of that and have the same amount of class and power as WAMMA, F**** WAMMA, cheers
why are my comments being moderated i didnt even post a link, im a nice guy owell
I know Eddie spoke with UFC and decided not to fight there because they offered so little. As Eddie’s strength and conditioning coach, we don’t anticipate any problems with his pendig win over Aoki. Eddie will simply out power and strike Aoki.
In regards to the WAMMA, I think their decision to not crown BJ as the belt holder is related to the uncertainty of BJ’s eventual weight class to contention. In other words, he may stay in the welterwights after his fight with GSP. The mentioning of the lack of fighting from him in the last 6 months is to support the uncertainty, not to solely justify the decision not to give him the title.
Thank you for the “inside info”, now if Shinya or as u state Eddie win the WAMMA strap I don’t doubt that either one wouldn’t be proud to be that “companys” champion.. As a majority of us fans see it as a simple sham (not discrediting either fighter).. Now stating that I would have to also state that Eddie and Shinya are respectfully #2 and #3 in the world (no need to argue who falls where,it will cleared up soon enough), the uncertainty of where Penn will end up fighting (weight class) is up too where Joe Silva says he needs to defend which belt at what time..
As far as the UFC offering Eddie “so little” I can’t objectively for an opionion on that statement for I don’t know the actual # (nor am I asking for said number) but if Eddie believes he deserves more fair enough, I do wish and hope to see him in the UFC sometime in the near future as there is always room for negotiations…
Onto the fight, no doubt in my mind that Eddie is the more powerful person/striker (cheers to your work), let’s not forget that the asian dude Aoki is pretty good at working subs so I hear, I have a hard time seeing Eddie just run through Aoki but crazier stuff has happened before (Mir tko’d Nog).. I’m a fan of both and they are great at their games I expect a wonderful give and take between the two and I’m interested to see who comes out the victor (o wait I won’t be able to see it, damn) nevertheless I thank you for your insight and best of luck to Eddie he is a hell of a competitor and I believe that he will have his hands full with Aoki, I also don’t have a bet on who will win but if it stays standing we know who the fav will be there, cheers