Heavyweight might be the weakest it's ever been

[Deleted member 587672]

This thread title has been rehashed since 1999

 

[jeff7b9]

UFC ... SUCKS at promoting fighters.

Its a discredit to the term Fight Promotion.

They have not built any new stars in years. I would say pretty much since Conor & Ronda who both peaked around 8 years ago.

But but but what abouy Izzy and OMalley?


They promote THEMSELVES.

Modern UFC is absolute shit at building ANY new fighters. Guys like Curtis Blaydes and Ankalev should be very well known established names. They are the Ricardo Aronas and Sergei Kharatarnovs of this era.

You knew EVERYONE in PrideFC and that org was on in Japan and next to impossible to even watch live in much of the world.

They had excitement and fanfare. It felt like the matches were important.
Shit blew up and confetti fell from the sky. They were STARS. There was a level of respect. They had individual images and not this bullshit brand first uniform deal where the promoter steals all the endorsement money from the fighters.

Lack of competition will always lead to top down corruption. Now the "best fighters" take a backseat to the "brand"

/rant

 

[Deleted member 587672]

what/when would we consider "peak HW" era?

2008.

I think the better HWs existed a little before that but collective depth within the UFC was around 2008/9 onwards.

Gonzaga.
Crocop.
Dos Santos.
Werdum.
Couture.
Carwin.
Big Nog.
Yvel.
Lesnar.
Congo.
+ others.

Loads of depth. Loads of hype.
Plenty of truly dangerous HWs.

 

[PlayTheGame]

Really? I think it’s the most interesting since 2011-2015 era.

 

[Thesnake101]

UFC ... SUCKS at promoting fighters.

Its a discredit to the term Fight Promotion.

They have not built any new stars in years. I would say pretty much since Conor & Ronda who both peaked around 8 years ago.

But but but what abouy Izzy and OMalley?


They promote THEMSELVES.

Modern UFC is absolute shit at building ANY new fighters. Guys like Curtis Blaydes and Ankalev should be very well known established names. They are the Ricardo Aronas and Sergei Kharatarnovs of this era.

You knew EVERYONE in PrideFC and that org was on in Japan and next to impossible to even watch live in much of the world.

They had excitement and fanfare. It felt like the matches were important.
Shit blew up and confetti fell from the sky. They were STARS. There was a level of respect. They had individual images and not this bullshit brand first uniform deal where the promoter steals all the endorsement money from the fighters.

Lack of competition will always lead to top down corruption. Now the "best fighters" take a backseat to the "brand"

/rant

That's cool and all but Pride was never as big in the US as the UFC, neither back then nor now.

 

[Natural Order]

It’s a joke and anybody saying otherwise is a delusional moron.

Easily the worst it has been, globally, ever.

 

[Ares Black]

it's not so bad. I mean, how would Tim Sylvia, fare against the current crop of HWs?

Poorly

 

[William Munny]

Agreed. Look at the current top-10. Tim wouldn't beat any of them, I don't think.
#14 and #15 would probably be his first wins.

side note:
Your av is soooo good.
Haven't watched that jawn in a while!!

I'm trying to get a gif Avatar of this image. not sure how I go about doing that.

 

[Blue_Ribbon]

Believe it or not, the HW ranks have been the weakest they have ever been forever, according to people.

 

[Gang Sign Luke]

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)

And the division was way more exciting back then.

 

[markg171]

You cannot tell me the skills in the heavyweight division has not decline after watching this

Funny cause last time an expert striker fought a well rounded fighter for the HW championship it ended in 2 minutes instead of going to a decision.

 

[L0ki]

There's good stuff coming.

I was saying mix and match Gane, Aspinall, Blaydes, Sergei, Volkov and a couple others and there should be good matches coming for a pretty long while.


Hel, even worse case scenario: let's say you're right and it's not some of the monsters of yesteryear (which are my favs), it should still be enough to put on good matches and give fight fans a good time.

 

[markg171]

They have not built any new stars in years. I would say pretty much since Conor & Ronda who both peaked around 8 years ago.

But but but what abouy Izzy and OMalley?
{huh}

They promote THEMSELVES.

Ronda and Conor also promoted themselves. As did every other celebrity in history.

It's almost like the other 95% of their time they're not officially "working" covers more time or something.

Modern UFC is absolute shit at building ANY new fighters. Guys like Curtis Blaydes and Ankalev should be very well known established names. They are the Ricardo Aronas and Sergei Kharatarnovs of this era.

You knew EVERYONE in PrideFC and that org was on in Japan and next to impossible to even watch live in much of the world.

Those fighters are absolutely more well known than their equivalents back in Pride were. Any even casual MMA fan today could tell you who they are and would know them from at least some fight. Ask them who Arona is and they'd have no idea. They'd know who the major champs were and that's it, and they'd know them because of what they did after Pride.

The only people who knew what was going on in Pride were the dorks on the internet.

 

[markys00]

Def not at it's best, but it's been worse before

 

[markys00]

Blaydes is def good enough to be champ

 

[Deleted member 587672]

It’s a joke and anybody saying otherwise is a delusional moron.

Easily the worst it has been, globally, ever.

Nice argument.

 

[SeattleFightFan]

This bring back memories of Mir being hurt, Sylvia being hurt and/or suspended, and Arlovski beating the likes of Cabbage and Eilers. EDIT and Buentello.

Poor Eilers.

"Eilers tore both minuscus in his knee, had no ACL whatsoever, two broken hands, a broken nose, and a badly sprained ankle."​

The fight ended in the first round. That's a bad 4 minutes.

 

[RemyR]

Pride > UFC

 

[Natural Order]

Nice argument.

Your eyes should be all you need for an argument. HW MMA is barely even alive in 2023.

 

[Deleted member 587672]

This bring back memories of Mir being hurt, Sylvia being hurt and/or suspended, and Arlovski beating the likes of Cabbage and Eilers. EDIT and Buentello.

Poor Eilers.

"Eilers tore both minuscus in his knee, had no ACL whatsoever, two broken hands, a broken nose, and a badly sprained ankle."​

The fight ended in the first round. That's a bad 4 minutes.

And Matyushenko.