UFC LHW division is completely dead. Where are the rising contenders?

[Jin Akutsu]

With DC moving up to fight Stipe, Jones on his yearly fuckup routine, and the only mildly promising contender in No Time losing convincingly to DC, what's left?

I just pulled these rankings from UFC.com

1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Volkan Oezdemir
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Jimi Manuwa
5 Ilir Latifi
6 Ovince Saint Preux
7 Mauricio Rua
8 Misha Cirkunov
9 Corey Anderson
10 Patrick Cummins
11 Jan Blachowicz
12 Tyson Pedro
13 Gadzhimurad Antigulov
14 Gian Villante
15 Jordan Johnson *NR

Gus, Volkan, and maybe Glover are the only top guys left and there is next to no prospects coming over the horizon.

Is LHW doomed?

 

[MadDogMahoney]

I don't know about "doomed" but it is definitely a shallow division. Out of those mentioned Tyson Pedro is a legit prospect. Also I think Tapology may provide a more accurate list of rankings, imo. Latifi has also been looking good, you have to admit.

 

[bigma]

There are a number of prospects coming out of Eastern Europe. Looking at the card this weekend, the Craig-Ankalaev fight will feature one of them. Otherwise, I agree. It's been an ugly division for a while. Jones's dominance was the only interesting feature. DC is special, but he's not captivating in or out of the ring.

 

[cyrusthevyrus]

 

[Bubblun]

There are so many russians outside the UFC nobody cares about, but they are scary.
In the UFC there is Kadyrov cousin Abdul Kerim Edilov, the guy is a bad man.


Not considering Tyson Pedro a legit prospect because he lost to Latifi it's a joke, the guy is talented and was born into mma.

Most of the beloved former champions and contenders at 205 became famous almost overnight, so it's more a matter of fans' perception.

 

[Sapp]

Are you going to update the rivalries in your sig?

 

[Aldo145]

Wish krylov would of stayed. Big fan of his.

 

[Treeloy]

Yeah its hurting bad. They better start scouting lhws fast

 

[ObamaPhoneLady]

Guys would rather fight at MW or HW than dedicate years to working their way up to title contention at LHW, only to have Jones make his once a year reappearance and beat them half to death in a steroids and cocaine induced rage, then commit another felony and abscond with the belt.

 

[Hotora86]

Bader, Davis, McGeary, Chael, Vassell and Nemkov are in Bellator
Narkun is in KSW
Krylov is in FNR
Yusupov is in M-1 / GTC

Maybe time for Romero and Jacare to move up as soon as DC retires?

 

[wookie brawl]

I get ya. It seems the lhw is lacking hype and star quality even though it has big names like Gustafson, Manuwa, OSP, Glover and Vulkan. All killers but lacks drawing power. The division definitely needs Jon Jones.

 

[Hotora86]

And Rashad, seeing how shallow it has gotten, has decided to join the puddle!

https://www.tsn.ca/evans-returns-to-lhw-meets-smith-at-ufc-225-1.1025586

 

[Hotora86]

I get ya. It seems the lhw is lacking hype and star quality even though it has big names like Gustafson, Manuwa, OSP, Glover and Vulkan. All killers but lacks drawing power. The division definitely needs Jon Jones.

Why does it need Jones?

Do we really need to see him beat all those guys AGAIN and then get caught doing roids/drugs/whatever AGAIN?

 

[Organic Damage]

It almost seems like HW has more going for it these days.

The problem with LHW is that all the guys near the top have decisive losses on their records so there's no way to build N'Gannou-esque hype for them.

 

[Kanemura]

They lost Nikita Krylov to the Russians and they keep food poisoning Saprabrek Safarov before his matches. Counterproductive if you ask me

 

[Peyow]

Behind Gustafsson (who already lost to dc), Latifi is the most legit threat to the title right now, maybe Glover. Tbh though i dont see either of them testing dc either
Bader was on the cusp of a title shot, i think UFC shouldve done what they could to keep him and Krylov
Maybe they should sign a McGeary or talk the likes of Jacare, Rockhold or Romero (when he loses to Bobby Knuckles again) into moving up

 

[Chad W]

there are some pretty promising LHWs outside of the UFC. multiple sherdoggers have already mentioned krylov. there is also Narkun at KSW who just beat Khadilov as well as Nemkov in bellator who just completely chopped down McGeary. the likelihood is that neither of these guys are arriving to the big leagues anytime soon though. prospects of the current UFC 205 division looks pretty dim

 

[adifighter86]

Tyson Pedro needs some push right now.

 

[UL]

the ufc is dying

not just the LHW division

 

[Sakuraba7]

Magomed Ankalaev and Gadzhimurad Antigulov are both solid prospects.


Personally, I don't know why they don't re-schedule the Russian guys to fight more often. They get injured once and don't get another bout for the rest of the damn year. Same with when someone can't get a Visa, like how many events have they had outside the US?
Sultan Aliev couldn't make the December card, then why not schedule him for Brazil? Taisumov was completely healthy and even asked to fight on Poland but they snubbed him. Scheduled him for a NYC card knowing he can't get a Visa, and now he's shelved again. He'll end up fighting once a year again AND he can't get a ranked opponent.

Antigulov (LHW) was scheduled for "Fight Night: Emmett vs Stephens" and he reportedly pulled out with an injury. But they had him on Fight Pass prelims. Even though 13 of his last 15 fights ended in the 1st rd, and he got POTN on his debut. He easily beats the LHWs on the maincard that night. You can bet he ends up getting a fight vs some no-name and not see him again for a year. The best prospects are lingering on FP where nobody sees them! Zabit another one.