Has the UFC Heavyweight Division Lost Its Power?
During the late 2000s and most of the 2010s, it seemed like the UFC Heavyweight Division was the division to watch for MMA fans. With the likes of Cain Velasquez, Stipe Miocic, and Daniel Cormier, the heaviest division in the UFC had immense star power and decorated champions. Fast-forward to the present day, and the division is seen as inferior to the previous eras, defined by inactivity, injuries, and unathletic fighters. The biggest question is: what happened to the UFC Heavyweight Division?
The big players in previous eras of the Ultimate Fighting Championship have all grown old and retired, cementing their legacies as some of UFC’s greats. Miocic and Cormier headlined several events during the 2010s, with both having the belt for a considerable amount of time. They and several other fighters created a lot of hype for the division, sustaining a great amount of hype for each fight. After Cormier retired in 2020, Jon Jones, regarded as the greatest of all time by many, announced he would be moving up to heavyweight, producing extreme excitement for UFC fans. However, since then, Jones has only fought twice in a span of five years. This has resulted in a peculiar period for the division as there have been very few high-profile fights.
As Jones’ inactivity halted the division’s excitement, young Englishman Tom Aspinall became the Interim Heavyweight Champion back in 2023, in which he knocked out Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295. Aspinall repeatedly called out Jones to fight him, but Jones had bigger intentions of doing a superfight with light heavyweight superstar Alex Pereira. However, Jones then retired during Summer 2025, which promoted Aspinall to Undisputed Champion of the division. This past October, Aspinall would fight Ciryl Gane to headline UFC 321 for the undisputed title, but the fight would end in a no-contest due to an eye poke from Gane. While there are intentions of rescheduling the fight to a later date, there is no specific timetable for Aspinall to return.
In the midst of this Heavyweight title debacle, many ranked fighters in the division have fought each other multiple times in years past. Yet, most show no signs of becoming champions anytime soon. Many fans even noticed that a recent fight between Tai Tuivasa and Tallison Texeira at UFC 325 was very uncoordinated and lackluster, due to the fighters’ exhaustion and poor athleticism. This differs from some of the previous athletes to have entered the division, with fighters like Cormier, Jones, and Alistair Overeem each showing elite skills, coordination, and endurance in their fights and training.
Until we get a confirmed announcement on the Aspinall vs. Gane rematch, the Heavyweight Division sits in an odd position. There hasn’t been a clear-cut fighter that’s led with the same prowess and consistency as someone like Miocic or Velasquez. Many rumors speculate that Pereira could move up to Heavyweight to fight Jones at the White House, sparking a highly-anticipated battle that could serve as the fight of the year. Nevertheless, the division is still not what it used to be.
