The PPV portion of the UFC 146 fight card is comprised entirely of heavyweights—obsessive much?
But the unhealthy obsession with big men didn’t start with UFC 146, heavyweight has long been the premier weight class in boxing. For obvious reasons, heavyweights are preferred over lighter weight classes because they’re bigger.
The heavyweight champion is the true champion because he can, theoretically, beat up the champions of all the other weight classes because he’s bigger. So, on a basic level, the obsession comes from there.
But, in the UFC, the obsession with heavyweights hasn’t always been there; its history is a bit different.
Heavyweight was paid attention to once weight classes were placed, but light heavyweight would become the organization’s most touted and talked about weight class. This was in large part due to the fact that the most outspoken fighters and entertaining storylines were at 205.
Heavyweight was a thin division in the UFC during this time—the heyday of Chuck Liddell and the height of the Ortiz-Shamrock feud—the division was the UFC’s red-headed stepchild. It was the least talented and the least exciting.
While Pride had the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Antionio Rodrigo Nogueira, the UFC had Wesley “Cabbage” Correira, Tank Abbott and Tim Sylvia.
Randy Couture would eventually come out of retirement and take Tim Sylvia’s heavyweight championship in a thrilling upset and then go on to defeat Gabriel Gonzaga in another upset.
It seemed like heavyweight had finally arrived, but then the dark side of “Captain America” (the money-above-all-else side) reared its ugly head.
Couture got into a dispute with the UFC that put him on the shelf for over a year.
But, ironically, the heavyweight division would be saved by two things: Zuffa’s acquisition of Pride and the UFC’s signing of Brock Lesnar.
The division was bolstered by the Pride fighters and was finally the subject of record levels of hype thanks to Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar’s arrival gave the heavyweight division a shot in the arm. He was a massive draw and made heavyweight mean something. All of the cards Lesnar headlined outsold every other post-TUF card headlined by other heavyweights combined.
Even though Lesnar wouldn’t be the dominant force some expected him to be due to bouts with diverticulitis, he set off the spark at heavyweight. People cared about the division again.
There was the re-invigorated Frank Mir, a Noguiera seeking revenge and past glory, young guns by the names of Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos who would go on to capture heavyweight title belts of their own.
A thin division was fleshed out, a mocked division was now exciting and people talked about it—especially when Dutch kickboxer Alistair Overeem was added (despite his recent testing debacle, he’s still a figure who generates press, be it good or bad).
This brings us to UFC 146. The UFC can now afford to be obsessed with heavyweights because it finally has some of the world’s best.
Instead of maligning the love handles of Tim Sylvia or the glass jaw of Andrei Arlovski, the fans can obsess over and enjoy the grace of Junior Dos Santos’ boxing, the Rocky-esque story of Mark Hunt or the bone-breaking facilities of Frank Mir.
Thus, the recent obsession with heavyweights in the UFC is born of starvation; the UFC and its fans have been craving a true, deep heavyweight division for so long, and now they finally have one.
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