This is why fans miss HW PRIDE from 2000-2006 and HW UFC/Strikeforce/Bellator/DREAM/KSW/M-1 2010-2012.
Jones vs Stipe is not a great HW fight in 2024.
Ngannou vs Joshua was never a great fight for MMA or boxing.
Tyson vs Paul?
At this rate fans are better off watching boxing replays from the 70’s and 90’s or HW MMA fights from the era’s mentioned above than dealing with this current crap.
I would say the current HW landscape is not 10% of what it was in 2010-2012.
For the “premier” division to lose 90% of its appeal over a twelve years is not a good thing.
Brendan Schaub was literally top 10 during that time. Hah.
Jones is better than the entire list.
Aspinall is better than all of them (at the time) besides Cain.
Gane would beat most of them. Pavlovich too. Blaydes beats half of them. Then there’s non UFC HWs like Francis who is also better than a lot of them.
It’s not that bad a division right now actually. It’s more spread out across promotions than I would like though.
Schaub had a couple big wins over Gonzaga and Crocop but nobody considered him top 10 in the world really and he did not remain up there or try to continue to compete in the division for long.
I’m not just talking about just the talent but the fights that took place. Go back and look at all the big HW fights that took place between 2010 and 2012 and compare it to 2022-2024.
The 2010-2012 list of big and entertaining fights is gonna be 10x longer.
That top ten does not capture the whole picture of the depth at all though.
DC, Stipe, Hunt, Arlovski, Konrad, Minakov, Volkov, Sylvia, Rizzo, Kongo, Crocop, Gonzaga, Kharitonov, Rothwell, Nelson, Abdurakhimov, Struve, Ishii, Monson, Aleks, Oleynik, Yvel, Invanov were all there and lower in the rankings in 2011 and 2012.
Jones is such a great HW that he spent the first 12 years of his career not fighting the HW’s at all?
Is not fighting any of the best HW’s in the world for 12 straight years and then demanding a challenger who has not won a fight in four years really your benchmark for HW greatness? Jesus Christ I’ve heard it all now.
It had more exciting fighters and bigger personalities and names at that time, no question.
Jones is such a great HW that he spent the first 12 years of his career not fighting the HW’s at all?
I didn’t say he has a great HW legacy but I don’t see myself picking anyone on that list against him. Cain at the time would have been tempting though.
I’m also noticing that Carwin isn’t on the list for some reason. He challenged for the title around that time so that doesn’t make sense.
Werdum is 46 and he recently submitted the fighter who just won the PFLlator HW title.
Fedor is 46 and he recently KOed the guy who is ranked 26th in the world.
Oleynik and Kharitonov are 43 and 46 and still top 50 HW’s in this current landscape.
Arlovski is 45 now and he is still the 25th ranked HW in the UFC.
You can look at Schuab’s ranking but thats not the whole story of the depth then and now.
13-10 former MW Jake Collier is ranked 29th in the UFC HW division right now.
Carwin is ranked 6th in the 1/01/2011 rankings but I’m not sure the date of the rankings you posted. His last fight was summer of 2011.
There are not many all time great HW’s close to their prime competing right now, especially in the UFC. What Stipe is doing is not called competing.
Yes the UFC top 5 HW’s are very skilled and dangerous.
Very few all time great HW’s in the UFC at the moment. 2010-2012 was far superior to this shit.
Because the only one on that list he would even accept a fight with would have been Shaub lol.
Guy admitted he wouldn’t even be willing to fight Cormier at HW because the risk of losing was too high lol.
