UFC Heavyweights, the most cursed division in all of MMA

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: 2_1up2_4down
Date: January 25, 2016 at 11:30 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

If we were to look at the history UFC HW championship we'd see a consistently depressing state that only happy hour at long John silvers could rival. And it started with Randy 'contract dispute' Couture.
-Beginning of '98 Couture gets stripped of the title from contract dispute.
-Mid '99 then champ Rutten retires title vacated
- March of '02 newly crowned champ who beat then champ Couture gets stripped of the title for PED's
-February 28 '03 the Tim Sylvia era began. These were dark times
-October '03 Sylvia stripped of title for PEDs. It's rumored he injected his burgers with the PEDs.
-September '04 then champ Frank Mir gets into an accident suffering career threatening injury. He'd later be stripped of the title
-July 8 '06, Sylvia-Arlovski 3 happens. The less said about this fight the easier it'll be to recover for those that saw the fight
-October '07 Randy Couture creates another contract dispute with the UFC forcing the promotion to decide if they'd strip him for the title. He didn't return to fight the interim champ Big Nog but instead against Lesner.
- October '09 Lesner's serious health issues begin to derail his career
-October '10 Cain era begins along with so much fights postponed cause of injuries with UberReem messing up his title fight for good measure
In the 17+ year history of the Heavyweight championship, the undisputed title has been defended twice in the same year 3 times.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: jchelland
Date: January 25, 2016 at 11:34 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

^^^When you say defended twice" in the same year, does that mean only 3 out 17 years the title was fought for more then once? Or just defended 3 times in 17 years? Does this question make sense? I guess what I am asking is; has the UFC heavyweight been fought for more then once in a year only 3 times in 17 years? That is terrible if that is the case.
Edit: I guess the question I really want to know is, not including interims(unification is fine, just not for the interim if that makes sense) how many times has the UFC HW title been fought for total in those 17 years?

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: Jak
Date: January 25, 2016 at 11:37 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

Not just that, but Overeem and Fedor signed to Strikeforce at the same time for the purpose of having the two best HWs at the time fight.
Fedor fought Bigfoot and Werdum, Overeem fought Werdum.
Fedor and Overeem never fought.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: redd1
Date: January 25, 2016 at 11:44 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

Heavy weights have always been irrelevant.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: Mike Porch MMA
Date: January 26, 2016 at 12:00 AM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

There is no such thing as a "UFC Heavyweight Champion"

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: 2_1up2_4down
Date: January 26, 2016 at 12:04 AM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

I meant the undisputed title was successfully defended twice in a year, 3 times in the divisions 17 year career. Didn't count interim title defenses.
5 times the title has been stripped or vacated
4 times an interim title was instituted.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: kobeVSraja
Date: January 26, 2016 at 01:29 AM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

Not cursed just big guys moving in ways/training in ways meant for smaller guys. Training needs to catch up for the big guys to prevent all these injuries.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: CoffeeAndBeer
Date: January 26, 2016 at 02:05 AM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

My little rundown on the topic....
UFC HW Belt =
Coleman > Severn
Mo Smith > Coleman
Randy > Smith
... then...
After Randy won the UFC belt... he then left the UFC and promptly lost to Inoue in Japan. The UFC had to prop-up two fighters to fight for a
new
HW "Belt"...
Bas Rutten was named the winner over Kevin Randleman... then Bas drops to LHW* and vacates the HW Title (suffers injuries and retires)
Randleman (who just lost to Bas) beats Pete Williams to win the
new
-new
UFC Belt
Randy comes back, after losing MULTIPLE TIMES outside of the UFC, and wins the
new-new
Belt from Randleman..... leaves the UFC as their Champ again (sort of), and LOSES AGAIN...
The UFC ignores the fact that Valentijn Overeem beat Randy... and now essentially, Randy fights Pedro Rizzo for the
new
-new-new
UFC Belt... Randy wins.
Josh Barnett beats Randy for the defacto new-new-new UFC Belt... but despite not getting any sanctions by any athletic commission, the UFC decides to "strip" Barnett of the Title after testing positive for a banned substance.
The
new
-new-new-new
UFC HW Belt is up for grabs and it's Randy again, but this time Ricco Rodriguez beats him. Then Ricco loses the belt to Sylvia.
Frank Miir beats Sylvia... but Frank Mir gets into a motorcycle accident... and Arolvski and Sylvia fight for the
FIVE-TIME REMOVED "
new
"
UFC HW Belt... when he returns, Frank Mir loses to Maricio Cruz
Randy beat Sylvia for this watered down belt... sort of leaves the UFC... Frank Mir and Minotauro fight for the 6-Time removed "paper" Title.... etc... Brock beats Randy... Velasquez beats Brock.... Cigano beats Velasquez... <-- STILL ONLY fighting for the 6-Time removed "UFC HW Belt"...
see: retread
Which is why I say let Stipe and Barnett fight for the "Interim" Belt, cuz who cares.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: THE FIRST
Date: January 26, 2016 at 04:47 AM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

Yea I was thinking about Cains injury and that HWs are f---ed again
And of course I was thinking about losing Carwin or Lesnar as well.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: Reckin007
Date: January 26, 2016 at 10:07 AM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

Amazing summary. I think Mir would have been champ for a long time.
Also...Brandon Vera hype goes kerplunk at UFC 77.
Josh Barnett fights elsewhere for 11 years after winning the title and getting popped in 2002.
Big Nog/Crocop just so happen to be old and shitty by the time they hit the UFC in 2007 (early-mid 30s).
Fedor never signs.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: osubuckeye4
Date: January 26, 2016 at 10:09 AM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

It is pretty unfortunate that in the history of the UFC HW championship, no one has been able to defend it more than 2 times in a single title reign. Especially when you look at the length of some of these reigns.
Cain held it for 896 days, 2 defenses...
Brock held it for 707 days, 2 defenses...
Randy, 623 days, 1 defense...
Randy, 490 days, 2 defenses (against the same guy)...
Mir, 419 days, 0 defenses...
JDS, 413 days, 1 defense...
Cain 385 days, 0 defenses...
Tim Syliva looked like a regular ironman... making 2 defenses in 322 days in his 2nd reign.
***I understand that a lot of these guys had things happen to them outside of the Octagon that were outside of their control. This isn't meant to be fighter bashing. It's just unfortunate.
Especially when you compare it to long reigns in other divisions.
Look at Jon Jones reign... 1,501 days... 8 defenses.
Chuck... 770 days, 4 defenses.
Anderson Silva... 2457 days, 10 defenses.
GSP... 2064 days, 9 defenses
Rousey... 1074 days, 6 defenses.
It's just really unfortunate that the HW division has been so plagued.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: callithowyouseeit
Date: January 26, 2016 at 11:56 AM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

This thread is awesome. Good insight and stats provided by multiple people.
We need more of this.... Less GoosePhone.... Although he's good for laughs.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: 2_1up2_4down
Date: January 26, 2016 at 12:32 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

In a way I feel the Frank Mir accident really set the division back. That was a crucial time in the UFC and the division needed to be built around someone. Mir was that guy. Instead Sylvia era kept going

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: princecharlestampon
Date: January 26, 2016 at 12:50 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

kobeVSraja said:
Not cursed just big guys moving in ways/training in ways meant for smaller guys. Training needs to catch up for the big guys to prevent all these injuries.
Click to expand...
I don't think that size has anything to do with the injuries MMA fighters endure during training and there's no way that you can prevent injuries from happening - especially in a combat sport.
The most common types of injuries during training in MMA are:
1. Knees
2. Fingers
3. Lower back
4. Shoulders
5. Neck

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: Troop
Date: January 26, 2016 at 01:18 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

One more reason why the UFC needs to stack up and even overload the HW division. They should immediately bring in the top 10 non-UFC or Bellator HWs, that have decent records and not too old. Then have one or two HW TUFs (I know they don't make for good TV but not many fringe fans watching much TUF these days anyways. Definitely have one HWs TUF based in Europe) and maybe, finally, have some sort of screening process for some of the older HWs that are still fighting that may be good gatekeepers/name recognition. Either a 'comebacks' TUF or covert, under the table agreement with a lesser org, that can match up too old guys and winner goes to the UFC, just not advertised that way or sign them to the UFC as undercard one-and-almost-done, i.e. winner stays in the UFC, loser fades away like they kinda did with Soa Palelei and Mark Hunt.
Hopefully after all that, they could find a handful of topflight contenders

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: callithowyouseeit
Date: January 26, 2016 at 02:06 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

I still wonder why they cut Shaun Jordan.... He was always exciting, and was a descent fighter in a division starving for talent.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: newERA
Date: January 26, 2016 at 04:22 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

callithowyouseeit said:
I still wonder why they cut Shaun Jordan.... He was always exciting, and was a descent fighter in a division starving for talent.
Click to expand...
They didn't cut him. His contract ended and he's trying to get a fight with Fedor. I don't know if the UFC has offered him a new contract, though.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: Jorge P
Date: January 26, 2016 at 04:39 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

It is almost like 6'1 to 6'7, 240-265 lbs men lean in muscle making a living training to and then beating the s--- out of each other in a cage are prone to injury and are kind of head cases.
Weird.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: kobeVSraja
Date: January 26, 2016 at 05:28 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

princecharlestampon said:
I don't think that size has anything to do with the injuries MMA fighters endure during training and there's no way that you can prevent injuries from happening - especially in a combat sport.
The most common types of injuries during training in MMA are:
1. Knees
2. Fingers
3. Lower back
4. Shoulders
5. Neck
Click to expand...
Every body injury you mentioned are all exacerbated imo by size. Knees have increased stress on them from weight etc. There is an optimal size for anatomical joints and I believe the extra size of the joint capsule can contribute to increased risk of injury, not to mention the additional weight. This actually would be a pretty interesting study.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: LighthouseKeeper
Date: January 26, 2016 at 05:43 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-heavyweights-the-most-cursed-division-in-all-of-mma.68326/

callithowyouseeit said:
This thread is awesome. Good insight and stats provided by multiple people.
We need more of this.... Less GoosePhone.... Although he's good for laughs.
Click to expand...
Enjoy your ban idiot.