You may disagree, but to me this is very clearly the most talented, most in depth, and most exciting the heavyweight division has ever been. And it's not even close. I've been a UFC fan since the beginning, but I started REALLY paying attention around 2004. The giants of the sport then were Tim Sylvia, Andre Arlovski, an injured and completely absent Frank Mir, and a bunch of faces I remember and whos names I would butcher if I tried to spell them. I remember Paul Buentello, he was cool, but Andre knocked him out in something like 20 seconds. These guys were interesting, scary, and all very different from one another. The different part made it very fun. Arlovski was the most well-rounded. Hell, he was probably the only one you could consider well-rounded by today's standards. But at that time, that even made him different.
When I look at what we have in the heavyweight division now. Holy shit. We have SO many dangerous and talented guys now. The coolest thing is this: Yes, the heavyweight division could still easily be considered the weakest of the men's divisions, and that probably has a lot to do with the fact that there aren't that many people who are that fucking big, but we still get fighters who are very DIFFERENT from one another. And because even the lighter punchers still punch so God damned hard, ANY of them could still win on a given day. Yet the talent and well-roundedness is light years beyond where it once was.
Stipe, Werdum, Cain, Overeem, JDS, Lesnar?, Browne, Carwin?, Arlovski, Barnett, Mark Hunt, Derrick Lewis, Struve, Rothwell, Bigfoot, Nogeria?, Ngannou!.
Compare the fighters of now to the fighters of 2004, and ever since.
We have the best of both worlds right now guys. Enjoy it while it lasts! There is nothing to be complaining about where the heavyweight division is concerned, unless it's something like "I wish Cain was more fun."
But some of these guys personaliites. Especially the ones on top at the moment, Stipe and Werdum. If you haven't watched the post-fight press conference with Werdum, I encourage you to. That guy is one of the most likable, and INTELLIGENT guys out there. And funny as hell. And he WANTS to go back to Cleveland to fight Stipe because he loved that he was getting booed! And by the way, if you're from Cleveland you may be a great person. But Cleveland, you were collectively a giant asshole at UFC 203. But it still gave the place a certain cool energy. Cleveland has a reputation to me as a sort of fighting city, like Philly. And who is more of a Rocky type figure than Stipe Miocic? He seems like a guy from back in time, like a Jack Dempsey. And look at his potential match ups in the future with people from all different parts of the world: Ngannou, Lewis, Struve who once knocked him out, what about Brock Lesnar? How would that go? Plus the obvious names on top. This is like watching real life action figures fighting one another.
I know, you didn't read.
Fuck the UG
