The UFC Heavyweight Division Is Broken — And UFC Vegas 113 Proved It

UFC Vegas 113 proved to be your typical UFC Fight Night, with the biggest standouts being main event and co-main event winners Mario Bautista and Kyoji Horiguchi, and even a last-second submission on the prelims. 

But there was a different kind of big standout – a different kind of big, and a really bad standout.

UFC Vegas 113’s main card featured a heavyweight matchup between Jailton Almeida and Rizvan Kuniev. It was a chance for Almeida to rebound from his title eliminator loss to Alexander Volkov and prove he’s still relevant in the heavyweight title picture. For Kuniev, competing for just the second time in the Octagon, it was a chance to make a quick jump in the heavyweight rankings and show off his full potential.

Instead, we got a matchup where Kuniev held Almeida against the fence for most of the fight.The two fighters combined for just 30 significant strikes landed through two rounds. It was a matchup that did not truly benefit either fighter.

What the bout did was expose Almeida as having not developed any answer for when his grappling gets stopped. Everyone who was familiar with Kuniev and sung his praises and power were left with nothing to say after the performance he had, even in a win.

The fans in the arena booed, the MMA community eviscerated the two to the point they called for their UFC releases, and it just adds another blow to what is already a weak UFC heavyweight division.

The top of the heavyweight division is even stagnant right now. There is no clear timeline on when Tom Aspinall will be ready to return after the eye injury he suffered in his no contest with Ciryl Gane at UFC 321.

That has also left Gane’s status in question on which will happen first – a title rematch with Aspinall or fighting someone for an interim heavyweight title.

UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has teased a move up to heavyweight to try and become the first UFC fighter to win gold in three weight classes during their career. But UFC CEO and President Dana White is hesitant on the idea.

Jon Jones? Who knows whatever is going on with him, in or out of the Octagon. Jones has previously advocated to compete on the UFC White House card but White supposedly wants none of it.

And look at some of the rest of the top 15. Alexander Volkov beat Almeida in a title eliminator, but the mess at the top of the division has put his title shot in limbo. Sergei Pavlovich lost to Aspinall and Volkov, but he is the lone blemish in Waldo Cortes-Acosta’s current upward trajectory, and WCA is the talk of the heavyweight town right now.

Curtis Blaydes? Lost to Aspinall and should have lost to a debuting Rizvan Kuniev. No thank you. Tallison Teixeira seemed to have potential even with a loss to Derrick Lewis, but his win over Tai Tuivasa at UFC 325 last week was a stinker. Lewis himself is a legend, but his days of seriously pursuing a heavyweight title are behind him.

Speaking of Tuivasa, can someone explain to me how this guy can lose five fights in a row and still be ranked?!?

The only hope outside the top five is Valter Walker, who has picked more ankles for submission wins than a little kid picks their nose.

The UFC heavyweight scene is dull, boring, and has very little signs of strong activity. It needs life injected to it. And that’s not Josh Hokit and his cringe-based promo skills or the political schtick we’ve already seen from Colby Covington.

When an (at least for now) unrealistic matchup between Jones and Pereira is the most enticing potential matchup at heavyweight, and nothing comes close, the division has problems.

The screams of “Shut down heavyweight!” won’t be answered. It’s unfair to those who can’t drop to 205, and combat sports has long had heavyweight as a “glamor division.”

But these calls, and the lack of talent in the fights, show the division has lost the support of the MMA fanbase. And that’s just a sad fact.