Why do the heavier weight classes never seem to have any prospects?

Gluhov said:
You act like nfl snatches up all the big men. For every athlete that makes it there's thousands that only end up with shitty liberal arts degrees.
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And those guys are the lesser athletes.
 
jeremyemilio said:
You need to groom HW prospects properly. A KO loss against a past his prime fighter with a name derails him for years, and possibly forever.

Alternately, a well past his prime fighter with a horrible recent record but good name recognition can put himself back into the mix with a single win over a young gun.

That's why young prospects on the rise and older legends on the decline are NEVER supposed to meet. You make these match-ups only AFTER the young prospect has successfully made it to his title shot safely, or lost to another prospect who will, therefore, make it to HIS title shot safely.

Everyone in the prize fighting world has understood this since the beginnings of prize fighting.

Zuffa hasn't been informed.
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Yeah no. Cain got through Nog with ease. And JDS got through Cro Cop.

Name examples of prospects who got derailed by older legends. Duffee? He's been fighting for 8 years and this is his second UFC stint. He's not a prospect and he's not gonna be elite. If he were gonna make it to a title shot he would be good enough to get through Mir.
 
7437 said:
This. The idea that the NFL is taking all the large athletes is really stupid, and really common.
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Football , basketball , pro wrestlers , NHL are all viable options and size helps in those sports / sports entertainment .....plus big guys tend to not have to fight as much do to their size and it's just harder to find big athletes IMO
 
Athletic guys that are HWs have more sport choices than the smaller weight clases. That, combined with the fact that there aren't as many people who would weight over 240 pounds while being in shape makes it really hard to find HW prospects.
 
IngaVovchanchyn said:
Big guys have shorter life spans. So a 21 year old HW is already like 35 in flyweight years.
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Are you sure about this? I'd expect flyweight careers to last less because flyweights rely on speed, which starts fading much sooner than strength. Is there a flyweight who has competed past the age at which Randy Couture retired?
 
Most LHWs are over-fluffed MWs usually. HW talent is sparse, and spread out over too many promotions.
 
fatties, maybe? too many of them?

nah, if they are that big and have the athleticism they can make more cheddar elsewhere. Someone else said it already. Solid thinks.
 
felmmando said:
Are you sure about this? I'd expect flyweight careers to last less because flyweights rely on speed, which starts fading much sooner than strength. Is there a flyweight who has competed past the age at which Randy Couture retired?
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HWs have shorter life spans. Not shorter careers.
 
fightdonttweet said:
Yeah no. Cain got through Nog with ease. And JDS got through Cro Cop.

Name examples of prospects who got derailed by older legends. Duffee? He's been fighting for 8 years and this is his second UFC stint. He's not a prospect and he's not gonna be elite. If he were gonna make it to a title shot he would be good enough to get through Mir.
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Travis Browne and Stipe Miocic come to mind. Both still in contention, but Stipe got bumped back at least a year, and probably more, by JDS.

Browne isn't as strong a contender, but we probably shouldn't have found that out before he had a chance to make a real run. Instead he gets Bigfoot, Reem, Barnett, Werdum, and AO (with Gonzaga and Shaub thrown in for good measure).

If you're trying to develop a prospect, that's not the way to go about it.
 
jeremyemilio said:
Travis Browne and Stipe Miocic come to mind. Both still in contention, but Stipe got bumped back at least a year, and probably more, by JDS.

Browne isn't as strong a contender, but we probably shouldn't have found that out before he had a chance to make a real run. Instead he gets Bigfoot, Reem, Barnett, Werdum, and AO (with Gonzaga and Shaub thrown in for good measure).

If you're trying to develop a prospect, that's not the way to go about it.
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How exactly do you develop a prospect at HW anyways? Especially in the UFC
 
Because big men are pussies and don't want to fight people their own size. They are only tough when they bigger than their opponent.
 
HenryFlower said:
How exactly do you develop a prospect at HW anyways? Especially in the UFC
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The way they developed Cain.

Put him in against lesser competition. Then a couple of guys with some experience but without a great resume. Then he gets a single fight against a past his prime name, and if he wins that, it's a title shot.

But to do that, you need to cut guys like Zombie Nog, and hold onto guys like Cheick Kongo.
 
IngaVovchanchyn said:
HWs have shorter life spans. Not shorter careers.
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The average NFL player lives to be over 50. Fighters of all sizes tend to be retired by that age; it seems that whether an athlete lives 2 years or 20 past his retirement should make no difference to his career.
 
I think it could be many things.

I don't necessarily think it's because big, talented men are going for the bigger payday. Fighting as a way of making money, even big money, just doesn't sound pleasurable to many people--getting punched in the face for a living. So it could be that, I guess.

Or maybe most men aren't able to get to that weight until they're in their thirties, which means they've passed the prospect phase of life. Fighters are doing cardio all day, so it's probably hard to keep a high weight when you're metabolism is high through youth.

But who knows. Giants once roamed the earth. They will again. The Heavyweights will multiply.
 
felmmando said:
The average NFL player lives to be over 50. Fighters of all sizes tend to be retired by that age; it seems that whether an athlete lives 2 years or 20 past his retirement should make no difference to his career.
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The average NFL player isn't a HW. The big guys have sharply increased chances of dying prior to 50.
 
GSPrush1 said:
With the lighter weight classes, espeically Lightweight, there always seems to be new, young, and exiting up and coming prospects. But with Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight there never seems to be any prospects on the horizon. So my question is, why do the heavier weight classes never seem to have any new contenders but the lighter weight classes do?
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Most of the Light Heavy Weight prospects have been losing their fights. Jan Blachowicz recently lost his UFC fight. Ilir Latifi was a prospect but isn't doing that great. Ryan Jimmo did terrible. Gian Villante was just starting to get noticed after his win over Corey Anderson but then got KO'd in his last fight. Patrick Cummins has done decent but not great. Tom DeBlass lost his UFC fights and is now in Bellator.

I suspect there are a lot more prospects in light weight classes since the average person in very good physical shape is below 205 pounds.
 
jeremyemilio said:
Travis Browne and Stipe Miocic come to mind. Both still in contention, but Stipe got bumped back at least a year, and probably more, by JDS.

Browne isn't as strong a contender, but we probably shouldn't have found that out before he had a chance to make a real run. Instead he gets Bigfoot, Reem, Barnett, Werdum, and AO (with Gonzaga and Shaub thrown in for good measure).

If you're trying to develop a prospect, that's not the way to go about it.
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Browne was 30 years old when he started fighting top guys.

Was he supposed to remain a prospect until he was 40?
 
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