Change my mind: Heavyweight is a dead division.

[The DanaWhite]

its always been the shallowest least skilled for sure. It has had some good periods but the shallowest and least skilled for sure. Now im not saying they arent skilled but def top to bottom less than the other divisions. If a lightweight fighter entered the ufc with the skills of some of these hw debuts they would be absolutely demolished

 

[Negator402]

Lol what heavyweights? Their champ is Bader and #1 contender is Kongo. Everyone else is trash, besides Minakov.

Exactly. Bellator HW is UFC castoffs.

 

[Evangelion]

Exactly. Bellator HW is UFC castoffs.

Or old Af former Pride fighters(yes in 2020). Ufc just needs to clear the stagnation. Force Stipe to do the third fight with DC or strip him and make Bigi vs Ngnnou for the title

 

[Willy Knuckles]

Or dead

See: Aaron Hernandez

Are you saying Aaron Hernandez killed himself because he was powerful? Lmaoo

 

[DelanoRunnymede]

Dead division, yet most of the top 5 would smoke Jones, who people claiming the p4p GOAT. Blaydes looked really good, N'gannou is an incredible athlete, and there isn't a man on the planet that Stipe couldn't beat.

 

[eddymotto]

Honest question - what do you think was the best era(s) for UFC heavyweight division?

UFC HW was clearly second rate during PRIDE. A lot of that talent then ended up
in Affliction & SF.

in terms of excitement I guess it would have to be when Brock came into the sport? That was def high point for casual interest


Influx of strikeforce talent was really interesting time

 

[THEfightsAREfixed]

You don't really understand the sports world if you can't understand why the HW division is thin and there a ton of 155 and below

 

[rjmbrd]

Heavyweight has 45 guys signed to it right now, which is roughly HALF the depth of both 155/170. Its a paper thin division and we're shuffling around old farts because its not competitive compared to the divisions below.

It also has the oldest average age of any top 10.

Until the entry level UFC pay goes up substantially, we're not going to attract great heavyweight sized athletes of an appropriate age to MMA.

 

[Oeshon]

Dead divisions are a good thing. It creates room for opportunities.

You will see LHW move up if it's dead so that they can contest for a title

Young blood will move in also

Already got Ngannou and Blaydes, but I'm sure we will have some other exciting heavyweightsnto come in the next couple years too.

People forget that JDS came out of fking nowhere when he fought and beat Werdum

 

[zippo88]

Volkov has talent and potential, still pretty young for HW. Pavlovich is also the future of the UFC’s heavyweight division.

 

[nhbfan8080]

Honest question - what do you think was the best era(s) for UFC heavyweight division?

UFC HW was clearly second rate during PRIDE. A lot of that talent then ended up
in Affliction & SF.
in terms of excitement I guess it would have to be when Brock came into the sport? That was def high point for casual interest
Influx of strikeforce talent was really interesting time

UFC is having a talent crunch because previously they cannibalized all the other leagues and were sitting pretty for a while but now many of their top stars have gotten injured/old. The UFC depends on other promotions to do the initial tough work of building up the stars for them.

 

[spinup]

Volkov has talent and potential, still pretty young for HW. Pavlovich is also the future of the UFC’s heavyweight division.

Reug Reug will eat them both alive when he comes to the UFC.

 

[Herwald]

It's taken a hit as far as talent goes cause of USADA and UFC's lack of interest in big guys, but if it were so easy there - more LHWs would move up. Similar thing with LHW - it appears to be a deserted wasteland, but tough to get wins there when all these MWs move up.

 

[Lenny4Guvnor]

The Heavyweight division will never die because of what it is, the best of the best.

Irrespective of actual skill, athleticism, career record or anything else, every other belt in every division has an accompanying asterisk and a footnote which says something like *Not actually an ultimate Ultimate Fighting Champion because they're not allowed to fight Heavyweights due to fear for their heath & safety.

The current state of the UFC heavyweight division may be poor to fans of the sport, but to the average Joe with only a passing interest in the sport, the only division and belt they care about and are willing to buy a PPV for is the division of the fighters who are just too badass, huge and strong to even compete with the majority of the UFC.

 

[DrawK]

LHW is far far worse. Look at the top 10.
1. Santos
2. DC
3. Smith
4. Reyes
5. Anderson
6. Jan
7. Gus
8. Volkan
9. Glover
10. Rakic
Jones has either beat everyone or is a tier higher skill wise. There are 0 interesting matches at all for him. Hes already beaten the top 3 and Reyes is just a straight left and Anderson has inferior hands and wrestling. LHW desperately needs some life injected into it.