The Current State of The UFC Light Heavyweight Division

 The Current State of The UFC Light Heavyweight Division 

Let's Start Here 

The dust has settled now from UFC 259 now we can see clearly we three divisions stand. The first we see/ the first we’ll talk about is the most recent the Light Heavyweight division. We can finally talk about some MMA without casuals getting their feelings hurt too much. The wounds were fresh early in the week if you saw Twitter. Nonetheless Jan Błachowicz defended his 205 pound gates and crown by beating Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in the main event by unanimous decision. The Polish Power Błachowicz defended the Light Heavyweight honor with the win. Saying you can’t just come up here and think we are stuck in the mud easy sitting the ducks. That leaves us to talk about the rest of division, and where it stands today. 

How UFC 259 Light Heavyweight 

UFC 259 had a great impact on the Light Heavyweight division even not including the main event. Obviously the main event had the greatest impact on the division considering the championship was on the line. Nothing changed champion wise but the division’s future is way more clear now. There won’t be a double champ struggling to bounce up and down to defend weight classes. Or hold the belt hostage to get money fights. The division has a clear champion, it's Jan Błachowicz the Polish Power. Who will be an active champion defending the 205 crown regularly according to him. UFC 259 displayed two other Light Heavyweight fights. The first being on the Early Prelims with Kennedy Nzechukwu winning a slug fest by knocking out Carlos Ulberg. Ulberg was the favorite going into the fight but got into the fight Nzechukwu would want throwing blow for blow with the bigger man. Ulberg kept his hands down which cost him. Nzechukwu landed a knockout blow in the second round to bring home the win. Which was a great showing for the 28 year old in a wide open division on a huge card. The second Light Heavyweight fight was a big one on the main card between Aleksandar Rakić and Thiago Santos, two top 5 fighters in the UFC Light Heavyweight rankings. Rakic fought the fight he had to, kept a high pace, kept out of Santos range but didn’t give him nothing, won the fight with speed and precision striking leading him to a unanimous decision win over a higher ranked opponent. Rakic has earned himself a title shot after Glover Teixeira or maybe he needs another win we will break it down when we get to the top 5 in the division. UFC 259 had a significant impact on the UFC Light Heavyweight division which is wide open now. 

20-16 by MMA Rankings 

20 Roman Dolidze

19 Ed Herman 

18 Alonzo Menifield 

17 Devin Clark 

16 Mauricio Rua 

Outside the UFC regular rankings we have the outsiders who are looking in at the UFC top 15. The 19th ranked Ed Herman is a three fight winning streak. He is a very streaking fighter before that winning streak he was on three fight losing streak. He’s 40 so he needs to get work quickly since he isn’t getting younger. Luckily for him the next title fight at Light Heavyweight will be between two men older than 35. The next man up 18th ranked Alonzo Menifield is on a two fight losing streak losing to Ovince Saint Preux and a man who we will talk about in the next coming moments 17th ranked Devin Clark. Alonzo Meinfield has a scheduled fight against William Knight on March 27th at UFC 260. Knight is on a winning streak Meinfield has lost twice to fighters who are ranked above the Knight fight makes sense here. Devin Clark is as well booked for a fight. The 20th ranked Roman Dolidze has already figured out who’s an unbeaten 8-0, and looking to make an immediate impact on the division. Dolidze will step in on March 20th Fight Night against Trevin Giles. The man who beat Meinfield who we were just talking about Devin Clark actually will be going down in the rankings for his next fight. He will be going against Ion Cutelaba who is on two fight losing streak. Clark lost to Anthony Smith in his last contest and didn’t look too good. A win over a lower ranked fighter is good for his confidence. One of these guys got to get a win. It'll help tell the story for the division more. The fight to make between 20-16 in the rankings is Ed Herman against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. They are both 40 years old, there is no clear fight for either one, this could be Shogun's last fight. Why not give yourself a chance in the last one? Herman can fight a legend rewarding him for his three fight winning streak. It’s also someone higher in the rankings. Seems like a perfect matchup. That 20-16 rankings is pretty simple: the fights are booked. No one is really on a winning streak. A lot of guys are going back and forth in the rankings. We’ll get more answers for this part of the division over the next 2-3 weeks. 

15-11 by UFC Rankings

15 Jamahal Hill 

14 Paul Craig 

13 Ryan Spann 

12 Jim Crute 

11 Misha Cirkunov 

Now here we are here the fighters worth mentioning to the UFC to put them in rankings of the top 15. The first scrap of them is a good bunch of fighters or young to mid age who could be in a position to make a run. The 15th ranked Light Heavyweight Jamahal Hill was supposed to fight the 14th ranked Paul Craig on March 20th as the co main event on a Fight Night. Craig announced on his Instagram that Hill was forced out of the fight but a rematch on a later date will be booked. Craig after losing to Alonzo Meinfield back in June of 2019 has been on a roll. Going 3-0-1 over the last four fights. Hill at 29 is 8-0-0 NC. He got a no contest over testing positive for marijuana after a TKO win over Klidson Abreu. So in reality Hill is 9-0. The fight made a lot of sense style wise, two hot fighters inside the top 15 who are right next to each other in rankings we’ll see the fight someday though apparently. Next in the rankings is the 13th ranked Ryan Spann who will be duking it out with the 11th ranked Misha Cirkunov. Cirkunov is coming off a win against 12th ranked Jimmy Crute. Spann is coming off a loss against Johnny Walker. Cirkunov lost to Walker right before that fight with Crute. It’s weird to get a win then go back down in the rankings after winning after going back down but Span is a tough challenge. Cirkunov is 2-3 in the last five so it’s not like he’s deserving of top 10 opponents. Spann since joining the UFC is 5-1 Walker being his only loss. The matchup makes sense. It’ll tell if Spann is ready and if Cirkunov can get back to back wins inside the top 15 he’s definitely deserving of bigger fights in the top 10. Crute after losing to Cirkunov got right back to work as a fighter should after any loss. He won two straight fights by a finish by finishing oMichal Oleksiejczuk and Modestas Bukauskas. Crute had a fight scheduled to get into it with Johnny Walker but Walker got injured pulling himself from the UFC 260 card. Cruteis rewarded with a fight against 6th ranked and former title challenger Anthony Smith. Smith is stepping in on short notice. Smith got a win against Devin Clark in his last fight. After winning against a top 20 guy assume top 15 next. Smith needs to get his confidence up after a few tough losses. A win over Crute will show him and everyone else he still got the goods. For Crute however the win could put him in the top 10 it’ll be a huge win for his career. Especially after the loss to Cirkunov, a win over the 6th ranked Light Heavyweight and a three fight winning streak it’ll be heck of rebound. He’d officially be on fire at that point. At 25 years old this could be a career changing fight for Crute. The top 15 in the UFC has everyone scheduled. They are fighting each other except for Crute who is jumping up in the rankings for a fight. Light Heavyweights are fighting you have to give them that thus far. 

10-6 By UFC Rankings 

10 Johnny Walker 

9 Nikita Krylov 

8 Volkan Oezdemir 

7 Magomed Ankalaev 

6 Anthony Smith

The top 10 of the UFC Light Heavyweight here is where things start to get really interesting. These guys are so close to a title shot maybe two three fights away. In a division that was ruled but Jon Jones it must feel great that the Polish Power defended the division now you actually have a chance to get a shot if you get hot in the next two years. We already discussed where the sixth ranked Anthony Smith is at so we’ll start with the 10 ranked Johnny Walker who we discussed earlier as he had to pull himself from UFC 260 after tearing his pectoral muscle. Walker will miss a good amount of time. Don’t expect him to make a crazy run in 2021 he will be doing most of that recovering which is unfortunate. After two upset losses Walker finally got a win over Ryan Spann he was really looking to get back into title contention, really disappointing for Walker. The 9th ranked Nikita Krylov just lost to the 7th ranked Magomed Ankalaev on February 27th at a Fight Night. Krylov and former title challenger Volkan Oezdemir had a fight scheduled in 2017 but was cancelled; it may be time to bring that fight back. 7th ranked Magomed Ankalaev dominated that fight against Krylov he could go back to fight Oezdemir to get a name under his belt. Don’t know if that’s best for Oezdemir however he was upset by knockout back in July by Jiří Procházka. The fight seems best for Krylov and Oezdemir both coming off losses. Someone gets their confidence up and becomes a title challenger with a win. The 7th ranked Magomed Ankalaev you probably throw him in a top 5 fight after that recent performance. Maybe up against Thiago Santos who is coming off back to back losses. Ankalaev is on a six fight winning streak, a win against a top 5 opponent he could be one or two fights away from a title fight. Ankalaev is without a doubt the closest fighter inside the rankings of ten through six to a title fight. He just needs some more impressive wins. The UFC Light Heavyweight really is so wide open you don’t notice until you actually break it down. 

5-C by UFC Rankings  

5 Jiří Procházka

4 Thiago Santos 

3 Dominick Reyes 

2 Aleksandar Rakić

1 Glover Teixeira 

C Jan Błachowicz

Now here we are in the title picture inside the top 5 of the UFC Light Heavyweight rankings. A really awesome fight scheduled for May 1st is 5th ranked Jiří Procházka vs 3rd ranked Dominick Reyes. That fight could set up a fight with Rakic to decide who’s the number one contender. Rakic just got a huge win over Thiago Santos who is now on a two fight losing streak with no real fight for him inside the top 5 now. The fight with Magomed Ankalaev seems like the next best fight for Santos. Ankalaev is looking great. Santos since losing that title fight to Jon Jones and the knee surgeries he hasn’t looked like he has his feet under him fully. He’s a little slow with no real sight of that power we saw before. The number one contender is clearly Glover Teixeira. He’s on a five fight winning streak with wins over two title challengers Thiago Santos and Anthony Smith. He looked dominant in both now Teixeira gets another title shot. His last shot was back in April of 2014. It looked like he would never get another one. Teixeira fought through a lot of advisory to get this point at 41 years old this will be his last shot at the belt. The champion Jan Błachowicz told the media that’d definitely be his next opponent. The winner of Reyes vs Procházka should fight Rakic next then we will have a clear number one contender after Teixeira. Santos has to go outside the top 5 to go get a win to prove himself again. Light Heavyweight is actually fun again. 

Matt The Matchmaker 

My favorite part of the piece when I can play matchmaker with the fighters that aren’t scheduled. Yes we’ll let the UFC have the ones already scheduled to keep that part of this realistic but the rest? They’re mine probably better at it than them anyways. 

20 Roman Dolidze vs Trevin Giles (March 20th UFC Fight Night) 

19 Ed Herman vs 16 Shogun Rua (Matt Matched Made) 

18 Alonzo Menifield vs William Knight (March 27th UFC 260) 

17 Devin Clark vs Ion Cutelaba (May 1st UFC Fight Night) 

16 Mauricio Rua vs 19 Ed Herman 

15 Jamahal Hill vs 14 Paul Craig (TBA)

14 Paul Craig vs 15 Jamahal Hill (TBA)

13 Ryan Spann vs 11 Misha Cirkunov (March 13th Fight Night) 

12 Jim Crute vs 6 Anthony Smith (April 24th UFC 261) 

11 Misha Cirkunov vs 13th Ryan Spann (March 13th Fight Night) 

10 Johnny Walker (Out due torn pectoral) 

9 Nikita Krylov vs 8 Volkan Oezdemir (Matt matched made) 

8 Volkan Oezdemir vs 9 Nikita Krylov (Matt matched made) 

7 Magomed Ankalaev vs 4 Thiago Santos (Matt matched made) 

6 Anthony Smith vs 12 Jim Crute (March 13th Fight Night) 

5 Jiří Procházka vs 3 Dominick Reyes (May 1st Fight Night) 

4 Thiago Santos vs 7 Magomed Ankalaev (Matt matched made)

3 Dominick Reyes vs 5 Jiří Procházka (March 13th Fight Night) 

2 Aleksandar Rakić vs winner of Reyes/Procházka (Matt match made) 

1 Glover Teixeira vs C Jan Błachowicz (TBA) 

C Jan Błachowicz vs 1 Glover Teixeira (TBA) 

Conclusion 

The Light Heavyweight has lacked excitement for a very long time. At one point it was the marque division in the UFC. The Jon Jones era deprived the division of talent. Why go 205 to fight the best to ever do it? Middleweight and Heavyweight seemed better for the fighters. Maybe more competition getting to the championship but the title fight isn’t Jon Jones. That Jones stigma of the division is over now. It’s the Polish Power Jan Błachowicz era. After UFC 259 now the division can really pan out. Some exciting fights to make and are already made. One thing you have to give these Light Heavyweights is they will fight each other. Expect that to only pick up through 2021. 

By Matthew Doherty