Heavyweight might be the weakest it's ever been

blaseblase

blaseblase

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I just realized there are so many questions about everyone at the top of the division. Either they are unproven in certain areas or they have a glaring weakness.

Jones - looked bad against Santos and Reyes, got a quick sub against a striker. No idea what he looks like standing against other heavyweights or fighters who can grapple.

Stipe - is 40 and hasn't fought in two years. We have no idea how good he is at this point.

These two will fight each other and both retire, leaving us without any answers.

Aspinall - very promising but still fairly unproven, hasn't fought a top 5 guy. Beating Tybura doesn't mean much.

Pavlovich - we really don't know much about him other than he hits hard and ends fights quickly. His ground game is still completely unproven.

Gane - very good striker but with Jones subbing him easily he still needs to show he can hang with grapplers.

Almeida - promising grappler, hasn't shown any striking and hasn't fought anyone relevant.

I feel like Blaydes and Volkov are the only guys near the top that I have a good read on their skill set and they aren't good enough to be champion.
 
blaseblase said:
I just realized there are so many questions about everyone at the top of the division. Either they are unproven in certain areas or they have a glaring weakness.

Jones - looked bad against Santos and Reyes, got a quick sub against a striker. No idea what he looks like standing against other heavyweights or fighters who can grapple.

Stipe - is 40 and hasn't fought in two years. We have no idea how good he is at this point.

These two will fight each other and both retire, leaving us without any answers.

Aspinall - very promising but still fairly unproven, hasn't fought a top 5 guy. Beating Tybura doesn't mean much.

Pavlovich - we really don't know much about him other than he hits hard and ends fights quickly. His ground game is still completely unproven.

Gane - very good striker but with Jones subbing him easily he still needs to show he can hang with grapplers.

Almeida - promising grappler, hasn't shown any striking and hasn't fought anyone relevant.

I feel like Blaydes and Volkov are the only guys near the top that I have a good read on their skill set and they aren't good enough to be champion.
Click to expand...
You cannot tell me the skills in the heavyweight division has not decline after watching this

 
I mean there are actually lots of good fights on the horizon at HW. Gane/Aspinall/Almeida/Pavlovich. Then you have Jones as champ, Stipe or Blaydes might still be relevant. Fun guys like Black Beast and Tuivasa. Then middle of the road guys like Volkov, Spivac, Tybura, Romanov.

To me it's not that different when the division was Carwin, Lesnar, JDS, Cain. The top guys basically were the division at the time. It more or less was similar. The only difference is we had Pride and UFC vets that had name value that made it seem bigger. I feel like HW is in the middle of a transition of letting go of the old names.
 
Tweak896 said:
I mean there are actually lots of good fights on the horizon at HW. Gane/Aspinall/Almeida/Pavlovich. Then you have Jones as champ, Stipe or Blaydes might still be relevant. Fun guys like Black Beast and Tuivasa. Then middle of the road guys like Volkov, Spivac, Tybura, Romanov.

To me it's not that different when the division was Carwin, Lesnar, JDS, Cain. The top guys basically were the division at the time. It more or less was similar. The only difference is we had Pride and UFC vets that had name value that made it seem bigger. I feel like HW is in the middle of a transition of letting go of the old names.
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There are too many unknowns. How does Pavlovich do in a fight that goes past a round? Can Aspinall's chin stand up to top heavyweights? Is Almeida more than a one dimensional grappler?

Stipe isn't relevant, he has no interest in fighting unless it's for the belt. He and Jones are completely irrelevant to the future of the division.

I can envision a scenario where Jones retires and Gane just wins back the belt.
 
blaseblase said:
There are too many unknowns. How does Pavlovich do in a fight that goes past a round? Can Aspinall's chin stand up to top heavyweights? Is Almeida more than a one dimensional grappler?

Stipe isn't relevant, he has no interest in fighting unless it's for the belt. He and Jones are completely irrelevant to the future of the division.

I can envision a scenario where Jones retires and Gane just wins back the belt.
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The unknowns are why it's interesting. There is a new crop of HWs that seem top level. I agree with Jones+Stipe leaving soon, but people are complaining about the division now. They both might have another fight after they fight each other.
 
HW has been pretty bad for a long time now
LHW isn't much better at this point either
 
blaseblase said:
I just realized there are so many questions about everyone at the top of the division. Either they are unproven in certain areas or they have a glaring weakness.

Jones - looked bad against Santos and Reyes, got a quick sub against a striker. No idea what he looks like standing against other heavyweights or fighters who can grapple.

Stipe - is 40 and hasn't fought in two years. We have no idea how good he is at this point.

These two will fight each other and both retire, leaving us without any answers.

Aspinall - very promising but still fairly unproven, hasn't fought a top 5 guy. Beating Tybura doesn't mean much.

Pavlovich - we really don't know much about him other than he hits hard and ends fights quickly. His ground game is still completely unproven.

Gane - very good striker but with Jones subbing him easily he still needs to show he can hang with grapplers.

Almeida - promising grappler, hasn't shown any striking and hasn't fought anyone relevant.

I feel like Blaydes and Volkov are the only guys near the top that I have a good read on their skill set and they aren't good enough to be champion.
Click to expand...
We know how good Stipe is. The guy has 24 fights, 18 in the UFC, 8 UFC title fights, most defenses in UFC HW history. He just turned 41 one month ago and 41 isn't the death knell it is in the lower weight classes. Jon is 36 so its not like the age difference is huge.

You can make posts about why anyone's accomplishments mean very little.
Shogun Rua's Pride GP run is considered one of the best in history:
But is you Sherdog it then it means little. He beat Rampage a one dimensional slow sloppy fat striker. Little Nog, not Big Nog. Skinny Reem not Ubereem, Arona who was never any good and disappeared which proves it.

See how easy it is to disregard anything. Beating Tybura means something.
 
I wouldnt say it's weak, it's in disarray, maybe not enough fights going on to, not enough dominant players, you've got the tafas that are studs, all of them, pav, aspin, volk, blaydes, gane, their skill is not so robust, but they're good and any of them can bring the fight to the champ, at most, you'll get a 2:1 favorite IMO, unlike strictland/izzy.
 
MMA HW will never reach its potential unless something drastic causes the pay to double. Athletes that size are much happier throwing a ball through a hoop, smashing homeruns or chasing the QB instead of eating punches.
 
it’s pretty bad now imo. it was good for a while, beginning roughly around the time brock came around, with cain, jds, etc. it got really good when ufc absorbed strikeforce. before all that it sucked, but that’s because the best hws we’re outside the ufc.
 
Bro, there was a time when 40 year old, way past their prime former Pride Hw's dominated the rankings(Werdum, Overeem, Mark hunt, JDS, AA)
 
What a noob! Apparently Newbie doesn't realize we had the same mofos in the HW top ten for 15 years. Go make another "hot take" thread that you know nothing about.
 
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