Ngannou has already beat the top 3 ranked contenders… Stipe, Gane and Blaydes.
Jones is supposedly fighting at HW this year.
Lets see what happens with UFC booking an int. title fight.
Tuivasa, Aspinall, Tybura, Daukaus, Spivak, Pavlovich and Romanov have all managed to go 5-0 or 4-1 in their last five UFC fights. Arlovski has as well though we know he is not a surging contender like say 15-0 Romanov.
Gustaffson is having his second go at HW after he lost to Werdum when he meets Rothwell in April. Real interested in seeing if he can make the transition.
Lewis and Volkov while suffering recent losses are still top 20 HWs.
Blaydes vs Daukaus and Tybura vs Rozenstruik are booked for March/April fights.
Division could be interesting over the next year or two.
Daukaus and Aspinall are real threats to anyone ranked above them…
I’m rooting for Daukaus but he is gonna have to catch him early or really dig deep to beat Blaydes. He is a 3-1 dog.
And with that, Blaydes remains a top 5 HW.
The division really is good once you get to the top 10 its just not very active and exciting with all the issues surrounding Jones, Ngannou, Stipe always being at war with the UFC these days.
In terms of the title shot, Blaydes is in a tough spot. 8-2 in his last 10 but has not fought and beat Stipe or Gane yet and has lost to the champ 2x.
If UFC booked say Blaydes vs Tuivasa or Aspinall they would risk killing off a fresh contender with the guy who is already 0-2 vs the champ so I feel like that disqualifies him from those fights right now. Same thing with the Stipe and Gane fights.
UFC is gonna have to get something going here, the champ is gonna be out all or most of the year and as far as an int. champ goes… Stipe has not fought in a year and Jones has not fought in two years.
Anyway UFC needs to book a int. title fight and Stipe/Gane/Blaydes/Aspinall/Tuivasa/Jones are the only real options here. If Ngannou is gonna be out all year they could just book a unofficial four man for the int. title but they don’t ever intend to announce anything like that and I’m sure Jones would refuse to fight two fights for int. gold instead of one, Stipe probably would as well. Guess they could do Stipe Gane to see who gets to fight Jones for the int. belt. Who knows what they are working on.
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I agree. HW is heating up again and I like it
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Yeah its heating up as long as UFC can get Stipe/Ngannou/Jones active again. It would kind of suck if all those guys maybe fight once a year in the next year or three years and then retire over burnout and financial conflicts with the UFC. Division takes a huge temporary hit if it loses Ngannou/Stipe/Jones around the same time after it just lost DC/Overeem/JDS/Werdum,Cain.
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Looks like Jones wants to fight this summer. I’d expect Jones vs Stipe/Blaydes/Gane for the int. title this summer. They might book another one of those guys and Aspinall/Tuivasa as the co-main or a Fight Night the week before the Jones PPV so they got a backup fighter if someone in the int. title fight falls out.
Good thread.
The heavyweight division has sucked longer than any other.
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I feel if ngannou got the money he wanted it would be a different story.
That guy is extremely marketable
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I guess we’ll see a lot more of Romanov in the future. He’s still in his early 30s and has all the tools. I am calling Aspinall vs Romanov for the title in 2023
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I agree. The HW division is looking decent for the first time in years.
Lots of exciting fights.
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Romanov is a great prospect. Hes fighting my man Boser next and i hate to see either lose but thays the game i guess.
I went theu the roster the other day and was shocked by how many heavys the UFC has now. I hope we see an uptick in the matches scheduled
We will see what Tuf 30 the Heavyweights brings us (Mohamed Usman)
