What the hell happened to the UFC\u2019s heavyweight division? When did it become such a blight on the UFC\u2019s regularly scheduled programming? The bigger-bodied fighters used to carry with them a premonition of bad things to come in the best way possible, but now watching heavyweights is like watching a gastrointestinal tract digest a calzone.<\/p>\n
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In boxing, there has always been a romance to the heavyweight fight. It\u2019s been a constant baton pass from generation to generation. During the \u201cgolden era,\u201d names like Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, George Foreman and Earnie Shavers roamed the ring. Before then we had Rocky Marciano and Joe Louis<\/a> and Sonny Liston, and after them we had Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis. Today, you still have Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk and the promising young Moses Itauma coming for them all<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the UFC right now, we have Waldo Cortes-Acosta, a 34-year-old upstart who is on a three-fight win streak. To his credit, Waldo has finished all three of those opponents, making him a rare throwback to better times. Yet it\u2019s grim out there otherwise. The division is gassing out big time.<\/p>\n Rizvan Kuniev (left) and Jailton Almeida engage in a slow-moving heavyweight fight during UFC Fight Night event on Feb. 7, 2026 in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n (Chris Unger via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Tom Aspinall is out indefinitely as he undergoes eye surgery after getting gouged by Ciryl Gane, and that rematch remains a consolation prize for Aspinall\u2019s never-realized unifying title fight with Jon Jones (who retired, unretired, and now is retiring again \u2014 maybe). It doesn\u2019t get the blood pumping that Jones is out there talking about his arthritic hip<\/a>, either. He says he\u2019s interested to \u201cforge\u201d the post-UFC version of himself he\u2019s to become, news that hits this thirsty fan base like gull poop from above.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The 37-year-old Alexander Volkov, who is ranked No. 2, is coming off back-to-back split decisions. He hasn\u2019t won an end-of-the-night bonus in five years. Sergei Pavlovich, ranked No. 3, began his UFC career avoiding the scorecards for eight fights, yet now listens to them being read with all the sophistication of a prig at the opera house. His past three fights have all been decisions. Curtis Blaydes ran into Kuniev in his last fight, and let\u2019s just say the good people of Azerbaijan spent the rest of the night hoping nothing would trigger a flashback.<\/p>\n Kuniev? Serghei Spivac? Marcin Tybura? Shamil Gaziev? All north of 240 pounds and yet not a one of them can move a needle. And Jailton Almeida looked like he\u2019d rather be anywhere than locked in a cage fighting an overgrown man in his last couple of outings. He has declared he\u2019s returning to light heavyweight, where the hope is he can at least find an ounce of urgency.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Not that UFC couldn\u2019t have spiced things up. There have been numerous chances. They could\u2019ve brought back Francis Ngannou, even if he is the \u201cbad person\u201d Dana White insists he is<\/a>. Ngannou is seen by many as the best heavyweight in the world, and since he still had his title when he left, that would\u2019ve jump-started the heavyweight ranks, or at least diverted attention from the sinkhole it now finds itself in.<\/p>\n![\"LAS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2b0ebc00-06b1-11f1-a5d7-12ee4ac3d77f.jpeg\"\/)
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