Undefeated and unproven Aspinall: new Chimaev or new Costa?

[Gregoire1]

There were a lot of undefeated (or fighters with fluke early career losses) fighters going for the title, but some became S-class and some hype trains were derailed after title fights.

S-class, who proved their level even in championship fights: Chimaev, Jones, Topuria, Islam (Charles), Merab, Ngannou 2nd time, Volk

Derailed: Costa, Reyes (not in Jones fight, but after), Gane, Umar, Yan 1st time, Ngannou 1st time

Khabib, DC and Colby are borderline cases because Khabib never fought with any of real S-class after title, DC, even with losses to Jones and losses to Stipe, proved after it that could compete with the best of S-class, but always loss eventually to supertops, and Colby lost close fights both times to S-class in the fight and declined after it.

Aspinall's next fight is for the title, fight real test for him - Gane. How do you think, will he prove S-class or will fail expectations?

 

[tastaylvr]

According to your logic none of your s fighters fought other s fighters either but khabib is left out for some random reason lol

 

[GOATtalks]

lol, at saying that Aspinall is unproven, when he’s beaten half of ranked fighters already. Beating Volkov, Pavlovich, Blaydes, Spivak and Tybura in the fashion that he did is all you need to know. He’s the real deal and he should’ve the undisputed champ with one title defence already. Even if he loses to Gane, he’s already proven he’s elite

 

[The Bloody Nine]

Surprisingly retarded, even after reading the title.

 

[Ara tech]

The sport in 2015 was more competitive than the sport in 2010.
Also, the sport in 2020 was more competitive than the sport in 2010.
And now, the sport in 2025 is more competitive than the sport in 2020.

The sport did not have peaked yet, it's a new sport, and we did not have reached the golden era, yet. There is no goat or S-tier fighter, but per Era, and every 5 year we have an era. Shamil Musaev is an S-tier fighter outside of the UFC. Nemkov is also one.

Umar is S-tier, losing to Merab due to a broken hand a cardio issue was not a fall from grace.

 

[Gregoire1]

lol, at saying that Aspinall is unproven, when he’s beaten half of ranked fighters already. Beating Volkov, Pavlovich, Blaydes, Spivak and Tybura in the fashion that he did is all you need to know. He’s the real deal and he should’ve the undisputed champ with one title defence already. Even if he loses to Gane, he’s already proven he’s elite

Maybe its beacuse HW today is extremely shallow? But even here he didnt beat top-2 guys like Almeida and Gane yet.

Imagine him in 2012 - he need to be deal with Cain, JDS, DC, Werdum, Lesnar, Reem, Mir ect ect
or in 2017- Ngannou, Stipe, Cain, Reem, Werdum, Ngannou, JDS
or in 2019 - Ngannou, Stipe, DC
or in 2023 - Jones, Stipe, Gane

 

[Gregoire1]

The sport in 2015 was more competitive than the sport in 2010.
Also, the sport in 2020 was more competitive than the sport in 2010.
And now, the sport in 2025 is more competitive than the sport in 2020.

The sport did not have peaked yet, it's a new sport, and we did not have reached the golden era, yet. There is no goat or S-tier fighter, but per Era, and every 5 year we have an era. Shamil Musaev is an S-tier fighter outside of the UFC. Nemkov is also one.

Umar is S-tier, losing to Merab due to a broken hand a cardio issue was not a fall from grace.

Yep, maybe Umar will prove S-class like Ngannou 2nd time or DC after losing to Jones. But broken hand blabla is denied. Exuses. He loses fair and square. All fighters could give exuses why they lose.

 

[Ara tech]

Maybe its beacuse HW today is extremely shallow? But even here he didnt beat top-2 guys like Almeida and Gane yet.

Imagine him in 2012 - he need to be deal with Cain, JDS, DC, Werdum, Lesnar, Reem, Mir ect ect
or in 2017- Ngannou, Stipe, Cain, Reem, Werdum, Ngannou, JDS
or in 2019 - Ngannou, Stipe, DC
or in 2023 - Jones, Stipe, Gane

Heavyweight is the least competitive weightclass, as it is the weightclass where the talent pool is extremely poor, and the number of fighters extremely low.

 

[Gregoire1]

Heavyweight is the least competitive weightclass, as it is the weightclass where the talent pool is extremely poor, and the number of fighters extremely low.

Agree, but its if we compare p4p (number of fighters, skills ect). Its weightclass where even 15th ranked (in less talented and less competitive class) would beat 1st in MW and maybe LHW. So, its first and only absolute weightclass. Like Iverson is much more skilled than Shaq, but Shaq is much better player overall.

 

[Trabaho]

So LHW D class is Jon Jones only ? Who could DC not beat. Rumble couldn't stop him twice.
He beat DC at HW ?

 

[Thy]

i don't think he's undefeated. But he's had a bunch of fights and if u like watching fights, you'd see he's "proven" whatever the f that means.

Imo he wins a bunch. Might lose once or twice more in his career tops. But also a high possibility he finishes out his career with no more losses.

 

[Tweak896]

OP makes a point, if Aspinall had the same scrutiny Khamzat did on his rise up,
Burns=Pavlovich
Usman=Blaydes
Whittaker=Gane?

I'm just saying that hype machines usually fall as quick as they rise with KO artists. HW is a thin division though. There's literally on 2 guys on the HW roster Aspinall hasn't beaten that mean anything (Gane and Almeida).

But if that was Aspinall's competition in earlier HW eras when it was stacked, you could poke more holes. However the dude can only beat who is matched ahead of him.

Still possible his hype train goes undone like DDP. Many argue size and athleticism for Aspinall the same way or even mention his BJJ background. He could get exposed for terrible wrestling defense, we've only seen him defend 1 takedown against 10 day notice Spivac in the UFC.

 

[GOATtalks]

Maybe its beacuse HW today is extremely shallow? But even here he didnt beat top-2 guys like Almeida and Gane yet.

Imagine him in 2012 - he need to be deal with Cain, JDS, DC, Werdum, Lesnar, Reem, Mir ect ect
or in 2017- Ngannou, Stipe, Cain, Reem, Werdum, Ngannou, JDS
or in 2019 - Ngannou, Stipe, DC
or in 2023 - Jones, Stipe, Gane

lol, your post has like zero sense.

First of all, Almeida isn’t top2. He’s currently ranked #5 and he lost to Blaydes.

Secondly, HW division isn’t more shallow than 10 or 15 years ago, you’re just extremely biased towards fighters of older generations. If you would look at the rankings of the past 5-10 years, fighters like Lewis, Blaydes, Volkov, Tybura remain basically in the same positions.

2025


2019




2017

 

[Limeade]

There were a lot of undefeated (or fighters with fluke early career losses) fighters going for the title, but some became S-class and some hype trains were derailed after title fights.

S-class, who proved their level even in championship fights: Chimaev, Jones, Topuria, Islam (Charles), Merab, Ngannou 2nd time, Volk

Derailed: Costa, Reyes (not in Jones fight, but after), Gane, Umar, Yan 1st time, Ngannou 1st time

Khabib, DC and Colby are borderline cases because Khabib never fought with any of real S-class after title, DC, even with losses to Jones and losses to Stipe, proved after it that could compete with the best of S-class, but always loss eventually to supertops, and Colby lost close fights both times to S-class in the fight and declined after it.

Aspinall's next fight is for the title, fight real test for him - Gane. How do you think, will he prove S-class or will fail expectations?

What is S class? Do they grade differently in Europe or something?

In America, we have first class and A grade. But no S.

Tom will fight and beat anyone you put in front of him.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

The idea that Gane is the "first real test" is laughable. We just saw him get a contentious decision over a guy Tom steamrolled in the first round. Solid chance he would lose to Blaydes and Pav too.

 

[Dionysian]

So many threads reinforce the notion that Sherdoggers have no idea about what they're watching...

 

[SteveMR]

So many threads reinforce the notion that Sherdoggers have no idea about what they're watching...

I don't think I've ever lost more brain cells reading a thread here and I've been around a long time

 

[Rampage_Jackson]

Retard alert

 

[Rampage_Jackson]

OP makes a point, if Aspinall had the same scrutiny Khamzat did on his rise up,
Burns=Pavlovich
Usman=Blaydes
Whittaker=Gane?

I'm just saying that hype machines usually fall as quick as they rise with KO artists. HW is a thin division though. There's literally on 2 guys on the HW roster Aspinall hasn't beaten that mean anything (Gane and Almeida).

But if that was Aspinall's competition in earlier HW eras when it was stacked, you could poke more holes. However the dude can only beat who is matched ahead of him.

Still possible his hype train goes undone like DDP. Many argue size and athleticism for Aspinall the same way or even mention his BJJ background. He could get exposed for terrible wrestling defense, we've only seen him defend 1 takedown against 10 day notice Spivac in the UFC.

Tom trains with ranked HWs who attest to his wrestling and jits. I don't think its that much of an unknown. He can grapple.

 

[BlackStrap]

There were a lot of undefeated (or fighters with fluke early career losses) fighters going for the title, but some became S-class and some hype trains were derailed after title fights.

S-class, who proved their level even in championship fights: Chimaev, Jones, Topuria, Islam (Charles), Merab, Ngannou 2nd time, Volk

Derailed: Costa, Reyes (not in Jones fight, but after), Gane, Umar, Yan 1st time, Ngannou 1st time

Khabib, DC and Colby are borderline cases because Khabib never fought with any of real S-class after title, DC, even with losses to Jones and losses to Stipe, proved after it that could compete with the best of S-class, but always loss eventually to supertops, and Colby lost close fights both times to S-class in the fight and declined after it.

Aspinall's next fight is for the title, fight real test for him - Gane. How do you think, will he prove S-class or will fail expectations?

I'm going to say that the

There were a lot of undefeated (or fighters with fluke early career losses) fighters going for the title, but some became S-class and some hype trains were derailed after title fights.

S-class, who proved their level even in championship fights: Chimaev, Jones, Topuria, Islam (Charles), Merab, Ngannou 2nd time, Volk

Derailed: Costa, Reyes (not in Jones fight, but after), Gane, Umar, Yan 1st time, Ngannou 1st time

Khabib, DC and Colby are borderline cases because Khabib never fought with any of real S-class after title, DC, even with losses to Jones and losses to Stipe, proved after it that could compete with the best of S-class, but always loss eventually to supertops, and Colby lost close fights both times to S-class in the fight and declined after it.

Aspinall's next fight is for the title, fight real test for him - Gane. How do you think, will he prove S-class or will fail expectations?

I like the inclusion of Ngannou there, only because I do not rank homie as highly as the balance of the bunch.

I think Aspinall is like an Ngannou. I see him being a champion, but I do not see that aura of invincibility. Even his stalemate with Jones suggests a certain vulnerability (I would have preferred to see him rampage through the balance of the division during that time- though I appreciate why he did not. He may not even have been allowed to.).