Imagine jumping in a time machine and going back to the year 2010 to tell UFC executives that, some day, they’d be depending on those plucky little bantamweights in back-to-back events. I imagine they’d have some questions.

The first couple dozen would probably revolve around your time machine, and why you chose to use it for, of all things, enlightening sports executives about the realities of the very near future.

But after that, my guess is they’d wonder what dramatic social and cultural changes could have possibly taken place in just six years to give us a world in which fight fans finally appreciate the work of the 135-pounders.

Had there been a revolution? Did all the light heavyweights become pacifists? Had welterweights been outlawed?

And the thing is, I’m not sure how I would explain it to them. Back when the WEC was Zuffa’s little-brother organization for fighters lighter than the 155-pound threshold, there seemed to be little more than a subtle undercurrent of support for the smaller fighters, and even that only among the hardcores.

Fast-forward to this week, and you have two UFC events in six days in which the bantamweights – even some of the very same people who populated the WEC – are the main attraction.

Consider Sunday’s UFC Fight Night 88 event. The headliner saw Cody Garbrandt (9-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) announce his presence with a brutal first-round pummeling of the previously unbeaten Thomas Almeida (20-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC). The “UFC Fight Pass featured prelim,” in which the promotion picks one of the attractive fights it thinks it can spare and reserves it for online subscribers, was another bantamweight match-up, which saw Bryan Caraway (21-7 MMA, 6-2 UFC) hand Aljamain Sterling (12-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) his first career pro loss.

Then there’s UFC 199 this Saturday, which is headlined by two title fight rematches, only one of which promises to be competitive. That’s the one between Dominick Cruz (21-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC), who was the WEC’s bantamweight champion back when the bosses pulled the plug on it, and Urijah Faber (33-8 MMA, 9-4 UFC), who was the closest thing the WEC ever had to a bankable star back when he was the featherweight champ.

The last time these two fought, at UFC 132, it was a frantic five-round battle that was easily the best fight on the card. The rubber match promises to be just as action-packed, and if it’s not the “Fight of the Night” bonus award winner in the end, it’ll probably be due to the considerable competition from the featherweight match-ups on the card (looking at you, Max Holloway and Ricardo Lamas).

In fact, just try to imagine the UFC now the way it was back in 2010. That means no fighters lighter than lightweight – and, for that matter, no female fighters at all. That means no Conor McGregor, no Ronda Rousey, and a bantamweight-sized hole in both last weekend’s and this weekend’s cards.

What it means, really, is a total lack of the sort of the fast-paced yet technically brilliant fighting we’ve come to expect from the smaller fighters. It means a lot fewer little guys to save UFC fight cards from heavyweight lulls.

But why now? Why has bantamweight in particular become such an interesting weight class of late, just like featherweight before it?

If I had to guess, I’d say the increased exposure and opportunity that came with Zuffa’s decision to fold the WEC into the UFC is a big part of it. You can actually make a living as a 135-pound fighter these days. You can even get a main-event spot on a UFC fight card.

And since there isn’t a huge market in the wider pro sports world for men who clock in well below 6 feet and 200 pounds, some of the best athletes in the entire sport are the ones in divisions like bantamweight, as well as featherweight and flyweight. They’re also the divisions fans have slowly learned to depend on for high-speed action fights.

I’m not sure if that’s a consequence of UFC executives believing in the little guys before most others did, or if it’s just a result of the decision to give up on showcasing them in their own lower-tier promotion.

What I am sure of is that a lot of these cards would have much weaker lineups without the Cruzes and Fabers and Garbrandts and Caraways of the world to bolster them. That seems like something worth thinking about this Saturday night as two 135-pounders close out a rivalry that’s worth the price of admission all by itself.

For more on UFC Fight Night 88, check out the UFC Events section of the site. And for more on UFC 199, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.