Rewatch HW is stalled/dead? Let's crunch some numbers:

[650lb Sumo]

Here are the top seven HWs (I chose seven as I would say they become irrelevant to the belts after that).

Fights in the last five years:

Jones: 2
Tom: 9
Ciryl: 9
Volkov: 11
Pav: 7
Blaydes: 8
Almeida: 12


Fights in the last two years:

Jones: 1
Tom: 3
Ciryl: 2
Volkov: 3
Pav: 4
Blaydes: 3
Almeida: 5


Fights for the Belts in the last five years:

2024-11-16 Jones beat Stipe Defended Belt
2024- 7-27 Tom beat Blaydes Defended Interim Belt
2023-11-11 Tom beat Pav Won Vacant Interim Belt

(Jones was scheduled to fight Stipe on 2023-11-11, but pulled out due to injury just over a fortnight beforehand - Interim Belt created.)

2023- 3- 4 Jones beat Gane Won Vacant Belt

(Ngannou leaves the UFC, vacating the belt.)

2022- 1-22 Ngannou beat Gane Unified Belts
2021- 8- 7 Gane beat Lewis Won Vacant Interim Belt

(Ngannou can not agree with the UFC on (terms for) his next fight, and an Interim Belt is created.)

2021- 3-27 Ngannou beat Stipe Won Belt
2020- 8-15 Stipe beat DC Defended Belt

Fights for Belt: 8
Of which - for Interim: 4
Of which - for Normal: 4

(So less than one fight for the Normal Belt per year.)

Time elapsed since the Normal Belt has been defended: 5 months
Time elapsed since the Interim Belt has been defended: 9 months
Time the Interim Belt has been held: 1 year, 5 months


Fights for the Belts in the last two years:

2024-11-16 Jones beat Stipe Defended Belt
2024- 7-27 Tom beat Blaydes Defended Interim Belt
2023-11-11 Tom beat Pav Won Vacant Interim Belt

Fights for Belt: 3
Of which - for Interim: 2
Of which - for Normal: 1

Please point out anything I got wrong or missed out, I'll be back later.

 

[markantony20]

every time I look at heavyweight I regret that I was too young to watch PRIDE when it was around.

 

[TITS]

No, let's not.

 

[Hymen Crusher]

every time I look at heavyweight I regret that I was too young to watch PRIDE when it was around.

This is right. It was fucking awesome but even ufc was good. Tim arlovski mir all three of those dudes would have gave good fights to the other dudes in pride. Ah what a time to be alive

 

[nostradumbass]

Just skimmed the OP, but Jon wasn't scheduled to fight Tom when he pulled out, he was scheduled to fight Stipe, and Pavlovich was the backup, then Jon pulled out and instead of Stipe fighting the backup fighter, they pulled him too and called Tom and lied to him to get him to take it by telling it was an "interim title" while still treating him like any other contender after he won, and a year and half later he still hasn't fought for the title and they've made him fight more contenders.

 

[orca]

avwrage 1 fight per year for a HW champ
but complains oldman jones wanting to prepare 6 months

 

[tritestill]

Jon is holding up the division, everyone outside his trolls know this ..even his trolls know this actually

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

every time I look at heavyweight I regret that I was too young to watch PRIDE when it was around.

You need to get out and smash puss while you still can, young man!

 

[Thy]

there's a heavyweight division?

 

[BroScienceTalkatWork]

UFC loses fighters to the construction industry.. Let alone NFL and MLB

 

[Neck&Neck]

2 fights in 5 years
That’s cocaine Conor level fights

 

[TimeToTrain]

F Jones. He ducked a rematch against Reyes and Jan Blachowicz, and ducked Francis now ducking Tom. His legacy is pathetic, full of PEDs, eye pokes, hiding from USADA, fighting hand picked opponents who did not deserve a title shot, cancelled an entire PPV because he did not want to face Chael Sonnen last minute, the list goes on.

 

[Aurelian]

Jon is holding up the division, everyone outside his trolls know this ..even his trolls know this actually

He is, but there isn't much of a division to hold up speaking title wise.

Tom has beat Volkov, Blaydes, and Pavlovich already.
Gane has already got two title shots.
Almeida is interesting I'll admit but he did lose to Blaydes for whatever that's worth.

When Jon either retires or fights Tom, HW is going to be a dead ass division until a new crop of HW's appear on the scene. It's going to be rematch and trilogy city.

 

[tritestill]

He is, but there isn't much of a division to hold up speaking title wise.

Tom has beat Volkov, Blaydes, and Pavlovich already.
Gane has already got two title shots.
Almeida is interesting I'll admit but he did lose to Blaydes for whatever that's worth.

When Jon either retires or fights Tom, HW is going to be a dead ass division until a new crop of HW's appear on the scene. It's going to be rematch and trilogy city.

Don't be glib bro.

 

[Aurelian]

Don't be glib bro.

It's the damn truth and you know it. I want to see Jon and Tom fight as soon as possible, and for the division to move on. I'm just saying there isn't much of a division that is in dire need of expeditious movement.

 

[Aurelian]

UFC really needs to do something about the HW division in terms of investing in it. Do some in-depth scouting and open up their own sponsored gyms somewhere. Find athletic big men and pay them a salary to train if they have to do that.

The HW division is pretty ass outside of a handful of elite fighters.

 

[theincognito]

UFC really needs to do something about the HW division in terms of investing in it. Do some in-depth scouting and open up their own sponsored gyms somewhere. Find athletic big men and pay them a salary to train if they have to do that.

The HW division is pretty ass outside of a handful of elite fighters.

The problem with that is they would suck at fighting. We've seen it time and time again. You need actual fighters.

The only realistic solution is let them juice to their hearts content. Then you might see things like Khamzat (or whoever) at 240, body like a prime Mark Coleman.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

This is right. It was fucking awesome but even ufc was good. Tim arlovski mir all three of those dudes would have gave good fights to the other dudes in pride. Ah what a time to be alive

I would add as well that the UFC HW division around the turn of the millenium was very good as well, arguably better than Pride's before they started to bring in people like Nog, Fedor and Crocop.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

UFC really needs to do something about the HW division in terms of investing in it. Do some in-depth scouting and open up their own sponsored gyms somewhere. Find athletic big men and pay them a salary to train if they have to do that.

The HW division is pretty ass outside of a handful of elite fighters.

I think you see back in the day a lot of the best HW's really needed to be scouted, they didnt tend to be guys who spent years and years in small orgs building up, big orgs needed to come in for them relatively quickly.

Camps like BTT, Chute Boxe and RTT basically operated that way, they had strong links to orgs and would offer fighters a relatively quick path to the big leagues to get them to switch to MMA.

You can earn big money at HW these days of course but its a much more uncertain path, a career like say Tom Aspinall's is probably not going to attract as many guys who have potential for good careers in other sports or just careers generally. I could image todays Fedor for example staying as a Judoka.

The current system I think is run because its quite cheap for the UFC, they don't need to risk money on prospects who might fail, they sign more guys who've proven themselves across years. I think HW generally as well they've been getting away with its innate appeal, two big guys slugging it out until someone goes down will draw decently well even if there not elite level talent.

 

[andgonsil]

Conclusion: Almeida deserves the TS