The Death of Heavyweight MMA

[PEDS Help me Post]

With the absolutely destroyed HW division in its worse shape ever, are we seeing the end of high-level HW mixed martial arts?

We are currently left with only THREE proven elite HWs whom are still active :

Stipe, Overeem, and Werdum.


We've lost Cain Velasquez, Mark Hunt and Derrick Lewis to injuries. It's possible we may never see any of them compete again, and if they do it will likely be at a compromised level.

USADA has robbed us of Junior Dos Santos, Ben Rothwell and the Brock Lesnar.

Brett Rogers is in jail for grabbing men's cocks in elevators.

Ngannou is promising but he's almost completely untested. The UFC division is so bad that he is ranked #4 despite his best win coming over Andrei Arlovski, whom was going into the fight riding a 3 fight losing streak. Atrocious.

Tybura is decent but doesn't seem like he'll be the "future of the division" - neither is 40 year old Oleinik. Struve might drop dead at any moment.


Outside the UFC, the most compelling attractions are Vitaly Minakov and Blagoi Minakov. However, it seems like the UFC doesn't seem to keen on spending the money on them.



Who is going to save the HW division?

 

[Rea_ctor]

Unfortunately MMA is at its biggest in America, and any larger athletic guys choose other sports first where the money is, don't think that'll ever change, but it also means we have really good lower divisions as it gives an outlet to the smaller Athletic guys who wouldn't cut it in major sports only due to size.
I'm surprised we don't have more eastern European or Russians at the top level, they have some big dudes, I think in Russia Sambo is still preferred maybe.

 

[Hard To Tell]

MMA heavyweights are bottom of the barrel level athletes.

 

[snugglecakes]

HW division in its worse shape ever

this is hardly the worst shape HW has been in. When it was ruled by the likes of arlovski and Timmay probably takes that cake.. and goin back further is probably when it was ruled by the likes of Kenny and Dan severn.

IS the current HW division even really bad at all? This current title lineage is pretty outstanding. It went from brock to chain to JDS n back to cain to wedum to Stipe into a title defense against the true number 1 contender. It's not like the division got turned on its head like a certain other division with a champ who hit n run double dick pilled himself out of the title without even losing in the cage, casting a shadow of doubt over that weight's entire championship legitimacy. You could perhaps make the argument that HW got a little iffy when Cain's chronic injuries made him lose a fight he would have otherwise won, but i personally think Werdum's style is just the perfect answer to Cain's style. Cain wants to take people down and be on top while werdum wants people to get ontop

 

[PEDS Help me Post]

Unfortunately MMA is at its biggest in America, and any larger athletic guys choose other sports first where the money is, don't think that'll ever change, but it also means we have really good lower divisions as it gives an outlet to the smaller Athletic guys who wouldn't cut it in major sports only due to size.
I'm surprised we don't have more eastern European or Russians at the top level, they have some big dudes, I think in Russia Sambo is still preferred maybe.

MMA may be biggest in America but the biggest hotbed of talent is definitely Eastern Europe. The region dominates the Olympics in wrestling, boxing and Judo - as well as combat sambo. They've also historically already had some of the most dominant HWs in MMA and other fight sports (Igor V, Fedor, Karelin, Klitschko Bros, etc).

It would be nice to see the UFC sign some of the HWs from those areas. Outside of the obvious Minakov and Ivanov duo, I would like to see them pick up Goltsov (despite him coming off a bad loss), Pavlovich, Mokhnatkin, and maybe Zelimkhan Umiev.

 

[Hard To Tell]

Unfortunately MMA is at its biggest in America, and any larger athletic guys choose other sports first where the money is, don't think that'll ever change, but it also means we have really good lower divisions as it gives an outlet to the smaller Athletic guys who wouldn't cut it in major sports only due to size.
I'm surprised we don't have more eastern European or Russians at the top level, they have some big dudes, I think in Russia Sambo is still preferred maybe.

Boxing is still way more popular than MMA in Russia an Eastern Europe. Boxing has actually had a big resurgence in this part of the World recently.

 

[PEDS Help me Post]

this is hardly the worst shape HW has been in. When it was ruled by the likes of arlovski and Timmay probably takes that cake.. and goin back further is probably when it was ruled by the likes of Kenny and Dan severn

It was only ruled by Timmy and Andrei in the U.S. Pride had a great roster of HWs at the time.

Now the entire sport of MMA has like 4 elite HWs left.


Where are all the Olympic wrestlers like Coleman and Couture? Where are the high level black belts like Werdum and Noguiera? The high level sambo guys like Fedor, Igor and Minakov? The kickboxers like Crocop, Hunt and Overeem?

Nobody is crossing over into HW MMA anymore at all.

 

[Exarch01]

How the hell does Brett Rogers make your list?

 

[Rea_ctor]

Boxing is still way more popular than MMA in Russia an Eastern Europe. Boxing has actually had a big resurgence in this part of the World recently.

Again there's just way too much money in boxing for the UFC to compete, the money still isn't going the right places in MMA unfortunately.

 

[Rea_ctor]

MMA may be biggest in America but the biggest hotbed of talent is definitely Eastern Europe. The region dominates the Olympics in wrestling, boxing and Judo - as well as combat sambo. They've also historically already had some of the most dominant HWs in MMA and other fight sports (Igor V, Fedor, Karelin, Klitschko Bros, etc).

It would be nice to see the UFC sign some of the HWs from those areas. Outside of the obvious Minakov and Ivanov duo, I would like to see them pick up Goltsov (despite him coming off a bad loss), Pavlovich, Mokhnatkin, and maybe Zelimkhan Umiev.

That's part of my point I wonder why more guys from round that part of the world aren't being signed, have KSW or any Russian Orgs got decent heavyweights?

 

[Legendary]

Blagoi Ivanov

 

[whougonnacall]

The ufc has simply neglected recruitment for that div

 

[elwani]

Soon only the Conor division will be left.

 

[Persuadertron]

someone said the shock and awe of "cagefighters" has subsided.

and all of the pride and old school ufc heavies like mir, barnett, andrei, nog fan favorites have been near ran off into irrrelevance.

and the best heavyweight ever is getting shit canned in fights.

And reebok allows new dudes no unique personalities.

and theyre fuckin all on steroids.

mcgregors fault somewhere too.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

I dont even consider Reem and Werdum to be all that these days tbh. Reem is nothing like what he was at his horsemeat peak and Werdum is fucking 40 years old. Stipe is a great fighter who would be near the top in any era, but the current division makes him look a hell of a lot better than he is. No way is he 1st RD KO'ing Reem or JDS in 2011.


Someone needs to throw big money at guys like Miljain Lopez and Teddy Riner to come in and save the HW scene.

 

[Aberlour]

Overeem is not elite any more. His chin is shot, he does that weird running away thing that seems to be getting more & more popular and he only throws / looks for single shots. His combinations and the way he stalked opponents used to be a thing of beauty.

 

[cyrusthevyrus]

With the absolutely destroyed HW division in its worse shape ever, are we seeing the end of high-level HW mixed martial arts?

We are currently left with only THREE proven elite HWs whom are still active :

Stipe, Overeem, and Werdum.


We've lost Cain Velasquez, Mark Hunt and Derrick Lewis to injuries. It's possible we may never see any of them compete again, and if they do it will likely be at a compromised level.

USADA has robbed us of Junior Dos Santos, Ben Rothwell and the Brock Lesnar.

Brett Rogers is in jail for grabbing men's cocks in elevators.

Ngannou is promising but he's almost completely untested. The UFC division is so bad that he is ranked #4 despite his best win coming over Andrei Arlovski, whom was going into the fight riding a 3 fight losing streak. Atrocious.

Tybura is decent but doesn't seem like he'll be the "future of the division" - neither is 40 year old Oleinik. Struve might drop dead at any moment.


Outside the UFC, the most compelling attractions are Vitaly Minakov and Blagoi Minakov. However, it seems like the UFC doesn't seem to keen on spending the money on them.



Who is going to save the HW division?

Overeem is not elite any more. His chin is shot, he does that weird running away thing that seems to be getting more & more popular and he only throws / looks for single shots. His combinations and the way he stalked opponents used to be a thing of beauty.

Overeem and Werdum are quite old, they will retire soon. UFC should get Minakov for example, but they let the division die.

 

[snugglecakes]

It was only ruled by Timmy and Andrei in the U.S. Pride had a great roster of HWs at the time.

Pride was a phony yakushi influenced steroid induced farce full of People who should have been 205ers. They only seemed good because they were only facing other undersized heavyweeights and japanese cans. All the top pride heavyweights were around the 220-230ish pound range who should have been 205ers and they all got murked once they faced true Heavyweights. What was fedor's best pride win.... Cro cop and nog? Mirko was an utter fail once he started facing actual heavyweights. Nog is also a small 230ish pound heavyweight who got outsized and destroyed against true heavyweights. Literally all the top pride heavyweights were small heavyweights and some of them were even roid induced blown up middleweights such as kevin randleman and even Josh barnet's 250ish pounds also turned out to be roid induced phoniness as he shrunk down to the 230s once the usada pressure started heating up but caved in anyway and went back on the juice n set the record for most high profile drug test fails ever.

Pride was more entertaining than it was skillful. Heavyweight was just as trash in pride during that era as it was in the US.

 

[cyrusthevyrus]

Blagoi Ivanov

I made a thread on that one, seems UFC have no interest in getting Minakov or Ivanov.

 

[norsuu]

usada robbed us Barnett too. Ufc must sign new blood (minakov, kharitonov, and some more..)
We need josh, cigano, ben, lesnar fighting back....and cain & hunto aren't finish....i love the hw division and i hate usada