When people see heavyweight fighters with less-than-chiseled physiques such as Mike Russow and Christian Morecraft, forgive them if they don’t think the heavyweight division is the epitome of athleticism in the UFC.
In fact, many divisions don’t seem to have the problem of fighters who look kind of, well, doughy.
Does this mean that heavyweight is therefore the least-talented division in MMA?
Hardly.
It means two things.
First, it means that heavyweight has the biggest skill disparity in talent between the guys at the top and the guys at the bottom.
UFC heavyweight champions Junior Dos Santos and Alistair Overeem are some of the most skilled fighters on the planet, but they’re in the same division as journeymen like Russow and Morecraft as well as the modern-day Tank Abbotts you’ll find at heavyweight in smaller promotions.
This fact is caused by a very important truth concerning heavyweight athletes: The most athletic big men in the world can make far more money playing football or some other sport than in mixed martial arts.
This causes the amount of pure athletes in the heavyweight talent pool to decrease relative to the other weight classes (what massively popular sport can an athletic, scrappy 135-pounder become rich and famous playing?).
So, in a literal sense, heavyweight is the least-talented division because it has less natural athletes, but this doesn’t definitively mean that the best heavyweights are somehow less talented than the best fighters from other weight classes.
After all, which lighter-weight fighters have more technical boxing than Dos Santos or better kickboxing and Muay Thai than Overeem?
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