The HW Golden Era...that never happened

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TheChosenKing

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This was the state of the UFC HW division going into 2012:

Title Contenders:

Junior Dos Santos(C), Cain Velasquez, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Daniel Cormier

Vets/Gatekeepers:

Roy Nelson, Ben Rothwell, Shane Carwin, Bigfoot Silva, Big Nog, Cro Cop, Frank Mir, Mark Hunt, Gabriel Gonzaga, Cheick Kongo, Stefan Struve, Pat Barry

Prospects:

Stipe Miocic, Travis Browne, Brendan Schaub, Matt Mitrione

Make no mistake about it. This right here is the best HW division in MMA history. Better than Pride. Better than Strikeforce, Affliction, or anything else you can name. The talent and "star" power on this roster is over the top.

This division boasts a full 6 HW GOAT contenders in their primes: Cain, JDS, Werdum, Ubereem, DC, and Stipe. To go along with that there had a large stable of quality veterans, gatekeepers, and prospects filling out the division. We were set up for the Golden Era of the HW division.

So went wrong? How did we go from that to what we see today? How did we manage to miss out on that Golden Era and all of those great match ups?

Well long story short: Ubereem gets suspended in 2012, JDS gets ruined in 2013, Cain becomes forever injured after 2013, Cormier drops to LHW, and Stipe doesn't emerge until its too late. That basically left us with an era consusting of Werdum beating up on vets and gatekeepers.

And that my friends is the story of the greatest HW era that never happened.
 
It's very simple

Reem pissing hot ruined everything

JDS getting an easy defense against Mir set him up for two brutal beatings from Cain, who couldn't stay healthy so the other contenders had to kill each other off while he recovered from his injuries.

We could've seen the best HW fight ever, in prime Ubereem vs prime sea level Cain
 
2004 account said:
Seems like you weren't around for the hw golden era... Or else you'd know it occurred in pride during the early to mid 2000s.
Click to expand...

That was the golden era that actually happened. But we were set up for an even better one in 2012.
 
TheChosenKing said:
This was the state of the UFC HW division going into 2012:

Title Contenders:

Junior Dos Santos(C), Cain Velasquez, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Daniel Cormier

Vets/Gatekeepers:

Roy Nelson, Ben Rothwell, Shane Carwin, Bigfoot Silva, Big Nog, Cro Cop, Frank Mir, Mark Hunt, Gabriel Gonzaga, Cheick Kongo, Stefan Struve, Pat Barry

Prospects:

Stipe Miocic, Travis Browne, Brendan Schaub, Matt Mitrione

Make no mistake about it. This right here is the best HW division in MMA history. Better than Pride. Better than Strikeforce, Affliction, or anything else you can name. The talent and "star" power on this roster is over the top.

This division boasts a full 6 HW GOAT contenders in their primes: Cain, JDS, Werdum, Ubereem, DC, and Stipe. To go along with that there had a large stable of quality veterans, gatekeepers, and prospects filling out the division. We were set up for the Golden Era of the HW division.

So went wrong? How did we go from that to what we see today? How did we manage to miss out on that Golden Era and all of those great match ups?

Well long story short: Ubereem gets suspended in 2012, JDS gets ruined in 2013, Cain becomes forever injured after 2013, Cormier drops to LHW, and Stipe doesn't emerge until its too late. That basically left us with an era consusting of Werdum beating up on vets and gatekeepers.

And that my friends is the story of the greatest HW era that never happened.
Click to expand...
And on top of that we had guys like Fedor who couldn’t be secured in the ufc.

Get your flame suit ready TS because there’s a lot of Fedor fans here who will blast you, but I get your point, and I think this is a solid thread.
 
2004 account said:
Seems like you weren't around for the hw golden era... Or else you'd know it occurred in pride during the early to mid 2000s.
Click to expand...

I won't argue with you there. Pride HW division was beast. The big fight feel you felt watching back then was second to none. But that 2012 top 5 (in the condition those guys were in at the time) is hard to beat. I think Barnett was in there somewhere briefly too, although his best days were behind him and he had an extremely brief stint in the UFC that particular time.
 
TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle said:
Even though it didnt live up to its full potential that early 2010s division was still easily the strongest HW has ever been in the UFC.
Click to expand...

That is the shame of it all. I feel like the UFC did such a great job acquiring talent, making the right match ups, and overall managing the division from the Pride merger through 2011.

Coming off the merger they had a little mini tournament between Couture, Nog, Sylvia, Mir, and Brock. After Brock eventually emerged out of that group as the undisputed HW champion they were able to line up 3 consecutive undefeated #1 contenders for title shots: Carwin, Cain, and JDS. Coming into 2012 they had Ubereem set up for a title with Cormier or Werdum sure to follow.

That is what great division management looks like.
 
incinerate said:
I won't argue with you there. Pride HW division was beast. The big fight feel you felt watching back then was second to none. But that 2012 top 5 (in the condition those guys were in at the time) is hard to beat. I think Barnett was in there somewhere briefly too, although his best days were behind him and he had an extremely brief stint in the UFC that particular time.
Click to expand...
Yea for sure, I mean both eras are comparable. I'm not that close minded as to say it isn't debatable. But I feel skill wise, relevance wise, and historically the pride hw division was a bit better. It's all subjective though.
 
Zebra Cheeks said:
And on top of that we had guys like Fedor who couldn’t be secured in the ufc.

Get your flame suit ready TS because there’s a lot of Fedor fans here who will blast you, but I get your point, and I think this is a solid thread.
Click to expand...

I still consider the Pride era to be the Golden Era due to the fact that most of the big fights were able to happen when they were supposed to happen.

But that 2012 roster was something else.
 
Ive been waiting for the HW golden era for 20 years. The division is weak, hopefully the talent pool gets deeper but it hasnt happened yet. Finding a HW with 5 rounds of cardio is like finding a unicorn. Stipe might be the closest to it but even he gets exhausted.
 
theleerygoose said:
Ive been waiting for the HW golden era for 20 years. The division is weak, hopefully the talent pool gets deeper but it hasnt happened yet. Finding a HW with 5 rounds of cardio is like finding a unicorn. Stipe might be the closest to it but even he gets exhausted.
Click to expand...

that's because finding a 240lb man who can wrestle and fight with another 240lb man for 25 minutes is a unicorn. look at boxing, they don't even expend half the energy that MMA fighters do and even top HW boxers gas. same with HW wrestlers, they don't wrestle for 25 minutes.
 
I agree. Pride Era had Fedor but other than that guys like Nog and Cro Cop weren’t on the same level as the guys TS mentioned.
 
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