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This weekend sees UFC 267 take place in Abu Dhabi. In the main event, UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz will defend his title against Glover Teixeira.
Blachowicz’s title defense against Teixeira practically represents a new beginning for the UFC light heavyweight division. So, is 205 pounds now one of the promotion’s most exciting weight classes?
After years of the light heavyweight division being somewhat of a wasteland running on fumes, the answer is yes.
205 pounds now feels fresher and more re-energised than it has for years. We may be about to enter the best era for the division since the heyday of Pride almost two decades ago.
Here are five reasons why the UFC light heavyweight division is now one of the promotion’s most exciting.
#5. The old men of the UFC light heavyweight division have finally faded away
If you rewind back to around 15 years ago, the light heavyweight division was seen as the glamor division not just in the UFC, but in MMA on the whole. Both the UFC and its biggest competitor Pride had plenty of top-level fighters at 205 pounds, with many of them also standing among the biggest stars in the sport too.
Unfortunately, many of those fighters ended up hanging around the UFC for far too long. It feels like only recently that they have really begun to fade away for good.
The likes of Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva and Randy Couture have been gone from the UFC for a long time now. However, Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua remains an active member of the UFC roster, while his old rival Antonio Rogerio Nogueira only retired last year.
Unfortunately, the reason those fighters ended up sticking around for so long is because unlike in divisions such as welterweight and lightweight, the new generation of fighters didn’t really live up to their potential to replace them.
Fighters such as Phil Davis, Jimi Manuwa and Marcos Rogerio de Lima, once considered the best 205-pound prospects in the world, simply didn’t do as well in the UFC as many observers expected them to. Now, though, not only are the generation of fighters who once competed in Pride largely gone, but so are the fighters who failed to replace them.
There are a number of high-level, exciting prospects in their place. While some of them aren’t exactly young, it’s safe to say that the UFC light heavyweight division is no longer a country for old men, which makes it far better overall.
#4. Jon Jones no longer rules over the UFC light heavyweight division with an iron fist
There’s no disputing the idea that Jon Jones is one of the greatest fighters to ever compete in the UFC. ‘Bones’ has never truly lost a fight in the octagon, held the UFC light heavyweight title on and off for the best part of a decade and holds the record for the most successful title defenses in the division’s history with eleven. However, it’s also probably fair to say that seeing the division absolutely dominated by Jones had become extremely dull in recent years.
Not only did ‘Bones’ look almost disinterested in his fights with contenders like Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos, but his personal issues outside of the octagon made him difficult to root for, too. A weight class being completely dominated by an unlikeable champion is basically no fun for the fans and so the UFC light heavyweight division felt like a hard watch at times.
In 2020, though, Jones decided to vacate his title in order to move up to heavyweight. So when Jan Blachowicz defeated Dominick Reyes to claim the vacant crown at UFC 253, it genuinely felt like a black cloud had been lifted from the division.
Without Jones, it now feels like far more fighters have a shot at actually winning the UFC light heavyweight title, making it much more like the promotion’s most popular weight classes such as lightweight.
With a sense of jeopardy existing for the first time since Jones’ initial title win in 2011, it’s hard to dispute that the UFC light heavyweight division is now one of the promotion’s most exciting.
#3. Current UFC light heavyweight champ Jan Blachowicz seemingly has no designs on “money fights”
The UFC’s most exciting weight classes tend to have one thing in common and that’s a champion who is willing to fight the best that the division has to offer.
Unfortunately, over the last few years the opposite has often tended to happen in the promotion. Ever since the rise of Conor McGregor around half a decade ago, fighters, particularly UFC champions, looking for so-called “money fights” rather than clashes with deserving contenders has been the trend.
We saw this with former UFC bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo, who seemed uninterested in clashes with top contenders like Petr Yan, preferring to call out heavier fighters or aging stars such as Jose Aldo and Dominick Cruz. Other champions, meanwhile, have chosen to sit out completely in order to attempt to get a bigger paycheck from the UFC.
Jan Blachowicz, on the other hand, clearly has no designs on such things. The native of Poland appears to be the very definition of a fighting champion. Sure, his first defense was a “superfight” of sorts against UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, but after turning back that challenge, he was quick to accept a fight with Glover Teixeira next.
And although that fight has yet to happen, Blachowicz has already expressed interest in fighting another of the division’s top contenders in Jiri Prochazka.
Essentially, having a champion like Blachowicz, who is willing to fight top contenders on a regular basis and can keep the division moving, can ensure that a weight class in the UFC stays at the forefront of things and never really becomes dull.
#2. The UFC light heavyweight division has a number of high-level prospects rising up
Part of the reason that the UFC light heavyweight division suffered for so long was that the hot prospects that hit the UFC simply flamed out without quite making it to the top.
The likes of Jimi Manuwa, Ryan Jimmo and Wagner Prado were all highly touted when they arrived in the UFC, but were never able to get past some of the older guard. In turn, that meant the division never really got freshened up. Now, though, things are very different indeed. The UFC light heavyweight division has been hugely energized by an injection of new talent. This time, this new talent seems capable of making it to the very top.
Jiri Prochazka, for instance, has already made a huge name for himself by knocking out a pair of former title challengers in Volkan Oezdemir and Dominick Reyes. ‘Denisa’ might now find himself in line for a title shot of his own in 2022.
Magomed Ankalaev, another fast-rising contender, faces off with Oezdemir this weekend at UFC 267. Reyes, meanwhile, is still young enough to make another run at the title. Then there’s Aleksandar Rakic, Johnny Walker, Da Un Jung and a number of others.
Basically, any one of those men, or more than one of them, could make a genuine run into title contention in the near future. That means that the UFC light heavyweight division is a massively exciting place right now.
#1. The UFC light heavyweight division is full of exciting finishers
It’s one thing to have a number of bright prospects in a division, but to really create an exciting division, those fighters have to be exciting to watch. Thankfully, the UFC light heavyweight division right now is absolutely filled with exciting fighters who almost always look to finish their opponents in violent fashion.
Champion Jan Blachowicz has become renowned for his brutal punching power and ability to knock his opponents out. Of his last five wins, three have come via KO. Underneath him, the likes of Glover Teixeira, Jiri Prochazka, Magomed Ankalaev and Anthony Smith all have fantastic finishing rates, with just a handful of decisions between them in their last few fights.
The same can also be said for Johnny Walker, Aleksandar Rakic and Thiago Santos. That means whenever the UFC books a high-level light heavyweight clash on one of its cards, there’s a high likelihood that the fight will produce a highlight-reel finish.
Naturally, that produces more interest from the fans and means that right now, the UFC has no more exciting weight class than 205 pounds.
