Bottlenecks in LW and LHW... good or bad paths?

[Rubios]

I'm assuming some premises you could agree on or not, let's discuss.

#1 Islam wants to move up but not to face Belal, his team mate. I can't see Shavkat beating Belal yet if he stays with Khabib's team. He will only be defeated by father time. On top of that, Shavkat is injured.

So I'm foreseeing Islam winning vs Arman, getting the record for most title defenses @ LW and then... if Belal stays as the champ, he could rematch Charles or face Topuria.
If he wins again (heavy favorite in my book) he matches Silva's winning streak.
Again, if Belal keeps the belt (besides Shavkat, I can't see anyone beating him until his age catches up and he downfalls) he could go for another fight @ LW and set the first 17 winning streak.
Sure, people could argue it's still Jones if you don't mind PEDs, and that he defended twice against a former FW (Volk) and maybe Topuria.
But at the end of the day he'd have the official record facing... Gaethje, Gamrot or whoever comes next.

TL;DR If Islam gets to beat Arman (hardest challenge IMO) and Belal keeps the belt @ WW so he doesn't move up, he should be on the way for a 17 winning streak all time record. In fact, his biggest challenge could be making weight x3.

#2 If/when Pereira beats Ank, he wouldn't move up to HW until Jones/Tom happens. And we all know it's a big IF (I hope and believe it will get done, but it'll take time). So, in the meantime the HW belt gets resolved, his big fights are DDP or Khamzat.

Even if Jones faces and beats Tom, he will retire and vacate the belt so sooner or later Tom should be champ. But it'll take long.

I'm foreseeing DDP beating Strickland, convincingly this time, AND Khamzat. In fact, I think Sean will be his tougher test.
If Alex gets past Ank, he would have swept the division. Same with DDP if he wins the rematch vs Sean and then Khamzat.

TL;DR If Alex beats Ank and sweeps the division but the HW belt is on hold for long, he'd have to wait until DDP or Khamzat move up for a big fight. He'd be 38 by then. Moving up to HW to face Aspinall approaching 39 would be NUTS even for Poatan, so maybe it never happens 8(

P.S. If Alex gets to fight @ HW, no matter the outcome (Aspinall is the most dangerous man alive IMO so he gets destroyed) he'd be even more legendary.

 

[rollthedice]

looks like gibberish to me, did not read

 

[VinceArch]

The Suredawggers have already decided to hate Islam regardless of if he keeps winning or if he loses his next 4 fights.

 

[Kenny Powerth]

I hate to tie everything back to Connor and Danar but this is now the precedent

Remember when Connor held the FW belt for almost 3 years without defending? Fighting in multiple weight classes.

The blue print is there and others fighters want to follow. Danar allowed it and now he's gotta deal with it.

 

[Ozze]

Hoping that none of that happens and all champions just defend their belt on their natural weight class.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

Anytime a division is lacking star power or talent rules will definitely be broken. Ie Alex vs Jon has a stronger possibility of happening because the heavyweight division is empty.

DDP/Khamzat is a different story. They want to keep the middleweight division going and Khamzat has plenty of future pay-per-view potential at MW. Bad business to make this fight happen so soon

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Anytime a division is lacking star power or talent rules will definitely be broken. Ie Alex vs Jon has a stronger possibility of happening because the heavyweight division is empty.

DDP/Khamzat is a different story. They want to keep the middleweight division going and Khamzat has plenty of future pay-per-view potential at MW. Bad business to make this fight happen so soon

I think Dana does not want Pereira vs Jones because Alex is his cash cow now (not that he sells a lot but he fights every other month) and Jones is retiring. Tom vs Jones is the money fight right now anyways.. that is what everybody wants to see.

Khamzat will fight for the title for sure after Strickland. I'm guessing around international fight week.

 

[Harlekin]

Belal ain't his teammate, he just trained additionally at the Nurmagomedov camp for his last fight afaik.
I could be wrong though.
Wasn't he with Roufus for some time.

 

[Rubios]

C'mon, these are not only plausible scenarios, but actually very probable ones.

And I think the implications could be huge.

#1 Islam gets past Arman and Belal keeps the belt at WW.
I don't know either if they could be considered "team mates", but Islam has stated (at least to DC, IIRC) that he doesn't want to fight Belal.

Implications: one more win (Oliveira rematch? Topuria?) and he matches Silva's winning streak -16-.
Arman + two more wins and he sets a new all-time winning streak record with 17.

#2 Alex beats Ank but the HW belt takes its time to get figured out.
Implications: Poatan would have swept the division and the only big fight that makes sense is Khamzat or DDP (that would have swept the division too) moving up.

*Off the record, I believe DDP beats Strickland convincingly this time and defends successfully vs Khamzat.
Retrospectively, SS has been the toughest for him.

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

I'm assuming some premises you could agree on or not, let's discuss.

#1 Islam wants to move up but not to face Belal, his team mate. I can't see Shavkat beating Belal yet if he stays with Khabib's team. He will only be defeated by father time. On top of that, Shavkat is injured.

So I'm foreseeing Islam winning vs Arman, getting the record for most title defenses @ LW and then... if Belal stays as the champ, he could rematch Charles or face Topuria.
If he wins again (heavy favorite in my book) he matches Silva's winning streak.
Again, if Belal keeps the belt (besides Shavkat, I can't see anyone beating him until his age catches up and he downfalls) he could go for another fight @ LW and set the first 17 winning streak.
Sure, people could argue it's still Jones if you don't mind PEDs, and that he defended twice against a former FW (Volk) and maybe Topuria.
But at the end of the day he'd have the official record facing... Gaethje, Gamrot or whoever comes next.

TL;DR If Islam gets to beat Arman (hardest challenge IMO) and Belal keeps the belt @ WW so he doesn't move up, he should be on the way for a 17 winning streak all time record. In fact, his biggest challenge could be making weight x3.

#2 If/when Pereira beats Ank, he wouldn't move up to HW until Jones/Tom happens. And we all know it's a big IF (I hope and believe it will get done, but it'll take time). So, in the meantime the HW belt gets resolved, his big fights are DDP or Khamzat.

Even if Jones faces and beats Tom, he will retire and vacate the belt so sooner or later Tom should be champ. But it'll take long.

I'm foreseeing DDP beating Strickland, convincingly this time, AND Khamzat. In fact, I think Sean will be his tougher test.
If Alex gets past Ank, he would have swept the division. Same with DDP if he wins the rematch vs Sean and then Khamzat.

TL;DR If Alex beats Ank and sweeps the division but the HW belt is on hold for long, he'd have to wait until DDP or Khamzat move up for a big fight. He'd be 38 by then. Moving up to HW to face Aspinall approaching 39 would be NUTS even for Poatan, so maybe it never happens 8(

P.S. If Alex gets to fight @ HW, no matter the outcome (Aspinall is the most dangerous man alive IMO so he gets destroyed) he'd be even more legendary.

"So i'm foreseeing"
"If Belal keeps the belt"

"If/when Pereira beats Ank"

I prefer to just watch the fights. I don't even know if certain fights will even happen. I don't want to end up like this guy........

 

[Bones The Goat]

Jones brutalizes Tom and Alex and decides to finish out his contract which would have four fights remaining

 

[Rubios]

C'mon, these are not only plausible but very probable scenarios.
In fact, this weekend we could have one of them in sight.

If Islam gets past Arman, he'll not only set the LW defense record with 4: he'll be one win away from AS 16 winning streak
He has stated he doesn't want to fight Belal, that could retain the WW belt vs Shavkat. We don't even know when they'll fight -both of them being injured-, and I favor Belal ATM.
Yes, I agree: Shavkat is amazing, but sill.

So Islam could take another LW fight vs a contender he'd be a big favorite against. A Charles rematch, Ilia... sure, if it's Ilia some people will argue "he only faces FWs", but at the end of the day the 16 will be there.

Then, he would be in the position to break an all time winning streak record.

He could go for the WW belt, assuming father time has taken the belt off Belal by then.
Or he could sign his last LW fight trying to secure the best stakes at the record. If he's able to keep making the weight, I'd go for the later for sure.
vs Gamrot, Hooker, Justin... whoever is at the top.

TL;DR If Islam beats Arman and stays @ LW, he'll be two fights -in which he'd be a heavy favorite- away from setting the all-time winning streak record.
Besides that, he'd set the LW title defense record at 6, double the current one.

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

The UFC belt is simply no longer the end all, be all prize that it used to be, both to many of us long time fans who have seen these divisions sort of stall out, and also the contenders themselves. Ilia was talking about 55 before beating Volk, Khamzat is still waiting for a title fight due to his wanting to campaign at both 70 and 85, and its mostly just slowed down his trajectory if anything. The days of guys looking to rack up record numbers of divisional defenses are probably gone, save for the Pantojas and Poatans.

There's likely no way to surpass what guys like DJ and Bones have done in UFC title bouts, so our current crop of champs are in a bit of a pickle as far as what they want to do once they get the belt.