The UFC heavyweight division is falling apart.
At best, it’s a nag with two broken legs trying to race against a field of less known, but far more aggressive and focussed competition. I wrote in a piece in January saying that if the UFC heavyweight division didn’t get an injection of talent, it wouldn’t recover on its own, and since the only serious pickup the division has made in the last few months is Shane Carwin, who was impressive at UFC 84, it’s impossible to say that the division has done any real work to recover.
They haven’t invested their money in a single top ten heavyweight since signing Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, they’ve failed to put UFC champion Randy Couture back in the Octagon and they’ve turned Nogueira into their paper champion by matching him up with the incredibly undeserving Frank Mir, hoping that having both fighters coach a season of the Ultimate Fighter series will give them time to develop a serious contender.
In the meantime, Affliction has put together a single card consisting of four former world champions (three from the UFC and one from Pride), ressurected the career of legend Pedro “The Rock” Rizzo (a three time UFC top contender) and speckled the roster with more top ten big men than the UFC has on their entire roster.
In the last 20 UFC cards, there have been two heavyweight title fights, and while it’s understandable that the UFC might take some time to try and resolve the contract disputes with Couture, the contractual issues aren’t the reason why it’s taken so long. It’s the result of an incredible ineptitude for signing and resigning top talent.
It seems like any heavyweight that wins in the UFC automatically fails to retains his contract. Andrei Arlovski beat Fabricio Werdum to become the only fighter on the heavyweight roster with a winning streak and the UFC couldn’t sign him. Andrei has since been signed to Affliction and will fight on the Banned card. His opponent, Big Ben Rothwell, should have been signed by the UFC when he entered the free-agency after leaving the IFL. Rothwell is on a thirteen fight win streak.
The UFC brass also failed to resign former champion Tim Sylvia after he beat Brandon Vera. His ending of Vera’s undefeated streak may not have led people to consider him a contender to fight Nogueira, as he won by way of a boring decision, but given that most of the fighters in the UFC had lost one of their last three fights (including Mir, who’s now the top contender, Werdum, who’s behind him in line, and Vera, who gets billed as the next rising star), Sylvia looked pretty good.
There’s only a handful of guys who are arguably top ten heavyweight on the UFC roster, and while Fedor Emelianenko has had his #1 spot disputed because of his inability to fight top competition, there’s no doubt in my mind that the Affliction division he’s now a part of is far more exciting than the basket of cans now making up Nogueira body of competition.
You won’t see people doubt Nogueira’s ranking, whether they call him one or two, but he’s very much alone in the UFC division he’s now presented with.
I do have a solution for the UFC, and while it’s not a pretty one, it’s one that would work if they put some money into it.
Sign a dozen heavyweights. Pick up lesser names from small shows, guys like Christian N’Pumbu and Tony Bonello, and some cult legends like Bobby Hoffman and Travis Fulton. They aren’t expensive, but they are exciting and they’ll give fights with some story and some substance. The division may not improve immediately in quality, it may not get immediate recognition, but when fans see how exciting and how good some of the small show fighters are, it will ressurect some of the credibility of the division, and it’s so severely lacking right now that any credibility at all would be worth the money.
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June 15th, 2008 at 11:24am
I’ll have to agree with Fedor, I never bought the argument that a fighter does not deserve a title shot or deserve to fight a guy because of his record. If that were the case, Franklin-Silva probably would have never occurred. Was that a stretch? People bemoaning Fedor’s inability to fight top competition should also note that his choice of opponents has as much to do with the promotion and the willingness of the opponent to sign or ability to compete at the time. During his Pride years there was no question concerning his matches. 2 so-so competitors in 2007, give the guy a break.
I think its way too early to call Big Nog a paper champion. He beat a healthy Tim Sylvia. 16-8-0 Couture did not deserve the title shot he got because he came off two defeats against the LHW champion of the time and of course the victory over the 8-5-0 Van Arsdale.
Sure the Banned card is the UFC HW division we would like to see, but it will be only a matter of time before some of the young HW upstarts begin to sprinkle the UFC HW division with talent and entertainment. While Banned may be able to pay out great sums, hopefully they will be able to produce as many cards as the UFC? We will see. In the mean time, I think Arvloski may end up in the UFC again.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:37am
Vee,
It is hard to say that Randy didn’t deserve the shot, when he actually beat the champ in that fight.
I don’t think Affliction will be able to put on as many cards as the UFC, but if they produce 6 solid shows a year, they could generate enough revenue to keep the company going.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:59am
For a moment ignore the victory against an injured Sylvia and his popularity . . . ability to get people exicted about the card. I know I am asking for a whole lot of leeway.
Given the circumstances prior to the fight, Couture’s record, and his age he probably would not have been given the fight.
I’m all for an entertaining fight. I would have rooted for the Couture-Sylvia fight just to watch an entertaining fight. As much as I would enjoy an unknown fighter putting on a great show. Tim Boetsch and Houston Alexander in their first two UFC fights. And that recent newcomer in the HW division with the awesome KO victory.
All in all, I think it is really too early to call the HW the great collapse. Out of all the recent high-priced former Pride signees how many of them actually proved their worth and mettle INSIDE the Octagon*? I’m sure Cro-Cop was a huge disappointment. (Very aware of NOG, WANDERLEI, etc.)
June 16th, 2008 at 12:21pm
Vee,
Good post. It is a lot of leeway but you make sense. In a way he received the title shot on his name as much as talent, but he still made the best of it.
It isn’t a total collapse yet, but if they keep going down this road it could be in trouble.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:20pm
Maybe some time around mid 2009 but between now and then it is not difficult for a relatively unknown HW combatant to cause a huge upswell in interest from one single fight. Gabriel Gonzaga was relatively a no-name until he decapitated Cro-Cop. Please ignore his following defeats where he was dominated.
I’m more of an optimist, hoping for exciting matches in the future. Even if the HW division does not pick up, the LW, WW, MW and especially LHW picture looks pretty good. Liddell & Rampage could leave right now and that division will still be exciting.
I don’t know the deal behind Ben Rothwell, but why wasn’t he signed?
June 16th, 2008 at 1:23pm
Curtis, just because he won doesn’t mean he deserved to be there. If Frank Mir wins, I’ll still say he didn’t deserve the fight.
For the record, I was shocked a little pissed when Silva got the title shot ahead of Marquardt. I thought that was a little wierd. Silva proved that he was a monster. The difference for me is that Silva wasn’t coming off a loss three fights ago. He had beaten a bunch of solid guys.
I agree with Vee about Couture. I didn’t take his win over Big Tim that seriously, given that he had a bunch of opportunities to finish, and didn’t. Obviously, I looked at him differently after the Gonzaga fight.
Again, I’ll point out that I started talking about this six months ago and absolutely nothing had improved. If anything, the division has gotten worse with the losses of CroCop, Sylvia and Arlovski. And the promise of a negotiation with Fedor, Barnett, Rizzo or any of the guys they’ve lost is increasingly unlikely.
You may say this division is still standing, but look at the number of heavyweight fights on the upcoming cards, and you’ll see what I mean. They are running out of matchups. It’s closer than you think before this boat starts to think.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:19pm
Are you serious, Josh?
Bobby Hoffman?
Travis Fulton?
I honestly don’t think that the UFC is in dire need of a wifebeater and a racist…
June 16th, 2008 at 2:22pm
You got me there Josh, because I feel the same about Mir. I have always thought he was overrated.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:08am
Curtis, I’m glad you see it that way.
Preach, they’re dicks, but they’re damn good fighters with more experience and ability than 80% of the division under contract at 265.
If you don’t think that this division needs to be thickened up, then you’re delusional. And, Preach, whether or not you like the guys (and they’re not the best people), they’re solid fighters.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:01am
I never said that the division didn’t need to be thickened up, so no need for you to call me names.
And “dicks” would be quite the understatement. People throw fits over the Diaz Brothers behavior, so what do you think would happen if the UFC would give a guy who’s not only a subpar-fighter (and that’s what Fulton is, sorry. The only decent opposition in the last 5 years were Rothwell, Wiuff and Horn - and he lost against them) but also a well-known racist who says that blacks and latinos are the cause for AIDS and have to be eradicated.
As for Hoffman: a win over Buentello five years ago hardly qualifies for another shot in the UFC. Not at age 42 (at least Coleman has name-value), and not as a convicted wifebeater.
It’d make more sense for the UFC to bring in guys like Tengiz Tegoradze, Mustapha Al Turk, Rafael Calcavante, Chris Tuchscherer, or to take Roy Nelson under contract as soon as the IFL perishes. Or bring back a guy like Travis Wiuff. Hell, even Brad “The Hillbilly Heartthrob” Imes would be a better option to widen the division than Hoffman and Fulton.
Or they should just do what they do now: scout the sport for actual prospects like Shane Carwin, Neil Wain or Cain Velasquez, people with ability and talent…
June 17th, 2008 at 12:53pm
What’s really sad is that Fulton would beat most of the guys in the division right now. He’d be able to submit Kongo, Hardonk, Sanchez and the rest of that pack of monotonous strikers fairly easily, and probably McCully as well.
All of the guys that you mentioned are under contract. That’s what’s really sad, and I’ve thrown their names out there before. I’ve added N’Pumbu to that list, Grove, and a handful of other prospects.
Wiuff has been fighting at 205 and while he did just beat Fujita, I think he’d rather fight smaller competition.
I like Carwin and Velasquez, but I don’t think Wain will be a big deal. We’ll see, though. Honestly, I think that all of the guys you mentioned (particularly Mustapha Al Turk, who I’ve come to like alot, and Tengiz).
I’d love to see Imes back in the UFC. The guy had back to back gogoplata wins not to long ago, and that’s pretty impressive for a heavyweight. My suggestion was to bring in guys who are seasoned to test this new talent, the new guys that the UFC should bring in, not to bring them in and make them title contenders.
July 20th, 2008 at 10:51pm
Nice thread guys.