The UFC invades Phoenix, Arizona, Saturday with UFC on Fox 13, a stacked card featuring two critical heavyweight bouts.
In the main event, former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos battles 12-1 Stipe Miocic in what appears to be a No. 1-contender’s matchup. The winner of that fight can appeal for a shot at the winner of Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum, and he’ll probably get it.
The other important heavyweight bout, though, takes place earlier on the card.
It’s Stefan Struve vs. Alistair Overeem. Struve needs to prove he can roar back from a heart condition that’s kept him out of action since March 2013, and Overeem needs to prove he can capitalize on his potential (Can you do that for us, Reem? Please?).
The third main card heavyweight tilt, Matt “Meathead” Mitrione vs. Gabriel Gonzaga, I’m sorry to report, really does not matter in the grand scheme of the division. These guys probably aren’t going anywhere now or in the future.
That’s not to say this fight is worth skipping. It could very well steal Fight of the Night honors. It’s going to please fans, it’s going to feature two skilled, sharp opponents, but when one examines the current state of the heavyweight division, it’s hard to see either of these two making noise moving forward.
Mitrione, at 8-3, probably possesses the better chance of the two at making a run, and his resume hardly screams “contender.”
He’s an impressive physical specimen at 6’3″, 260 pounds, with the bounce and pop of a middleweight, but he’s still young to the sport, having only fought professionally since 2009.
All 11 of his fights have come inside the UFC Octagon, which, again, is impressive, but his slip-ups in that time are not.
He lost a split decision to Cheick Kongo in an absolute snooze fest at UFC 137, and he fell to the mighty right hand of Roy Nelson at The Ultimate Fighter 16 finale almost exactly two years ago.
Meathead bounced back from that defeat with a 19-second knockout of Phil De Fries at UFC on Fuel TV 9, but Brendan Schaub was up next, and Mitrione was not ready.
Schaub submitted him with ease, putting him to sleep in the first round of their UFC 165 encounter.
Since then, Mitrione owns two first-round knockouts over Shawn Jordan and Derrick Lewis, two unranked heavyweights.
But it’s hard to ignore those losses.
Kongo. Nelson. Schaub.
None of them are title contenders themselves. Kongo is out of the UFC altogether, and Schaub recently had a heart-to-heart with Joe Rogan, where the UFC commentator told him to retire before he seriously risks his health.
Nelson, meanwhile, lost a No. 1-contender’s fight to Mark Hunt, effectively eliminating himself from title contention for the foreseeable future.
Those are the guys Mitrione lost to, mind you. If you cannot beat guys who themselves are not contenders, you’re far from a contender yourself.
Ditto for Gonzaga.
The 35-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist with devastating fists and kicks recently enjoyed some success in the heavyweight division, piecing together two knockout victories over Dave Herman and Jordan before getting boxed up and outclassed by Miocic in his most recent outing.
Herman and Jordan. The former is no longer with the UFC; the latter is unranked and positively mediocre.
Before this 2-1 streak, Gonzaga was brutally knocked out by Travis Browne at The Ultimate Fighter 17 finale.
As is the case with Mitrione, Gonzaga simply fails the test against the upper echelon of heavyweight fighters. He’s not a “bad” fighter by any means, and there’s something to be said for being consistently above average in the UFC, if only slightly.
Unfortunately, that’s the highest point either Mitrione or Gonzaga will ever reach—slightly above average.
They won’t be contenders. They won’t win the belt. They won’t be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.
But they’ll hang around and separate the chumps from the champs.
And it’ll be damn fun to watch them do it.
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