UFC 321 went down about two weeks ago and it wasn’t a great night for the heavyweight division. Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane fought to a No Contest and earlier in the evening, we saw a truly horrendous fight between Jailton Almeida and Alexander Volkov which was supposed to be a title eliminator.
Jon Jones is wanting to come back for one more fight and I would venture to guess that the fight will be against current light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira at the White House next year. I’m not sure either man will fight at heavyweight again after that special one-off fight.
I say all this to say that the UFC’s heavyweight division is in rough shape. However, it’s not a problem that’s unique to them, it’s an MMA problem in general. Over in the PFL, Vadim Nemkov and Renan Ferreira are fighting next month for the heavyweight title. The hope and prayer for the PFL is that the winner would fight former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.
Of course, it would be much more compelling should Nemkov win considering the fact that a year ago, Ferreira got a shot against Ngannou and was finished in the first round. Ngannou seems to be focused on his next boxing venture with the PFL hopeful that he returns to MMA sometime next year. That said, he’ll also be turning 40-years-old.
A must-sign for the UFC and PFL
The heavyweight division is in really rough shape right now. When you look at the UFC and PFL’s heavyweight roster, it’s nothing to get excited about. Tom Aspinall had a lot of promise, but his momentum was drastically cooled off after a rough start against Ciryl Gane and then the fight ending due to an eye poke.
Heavyweight needs something new and exciting and that something new is Gable Steveson (1-0). Steveson is one of the most decorated wrestlers in history holding an Olympic Gold Medal, Two NCAA Division 1 championships, and he was given the Dan Hodge Trophy twice which is an honor that’s given out to the most dominant wrestler.
Steveson has made the transition to MMA and made his professional debut in LFA in September. He won by first round TKO and then he just competed in Dirty Boxing Championship last week which is Jon Jones’ promotion. Steveson is very close with Jones who is working with Steveson as he begins his MMA journey.
Again, Steveson ran through his opponent scoring a first round finish. Steveson told Ariel Helwani that he’s hoping to fight one more time this year. In terms of his future, Steveson said that he would be open to signing with the UFC or PFL and at the end of the day, he wants to be a superstar.
Steveson also made it clear that he knows where he wants to go and he wants to go where the lights are the brightest. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Steveson wants to sign with the UFC and he’s an absolute must-sign. The heavyweight division desperately needs something exciting and Steveson can be that.
He wants to continue developing and he knows that he has so much he still needs to learn and improve on. He said he would like to fight before the end of the year and then get another fight in early 2026. He told Helwani that it would be a dream to debut at The White House in June and I think that would be the UFC’s plan.
Does that mean this whole thing is a done deal? Of course not, the PFL could absolutely sign Steveson and I think they should do everything they can to do so. However, if I’ve learned anything about John Martin, I know that he’s very calculated and he wants to make the promotion work and he wants to make it profitable.
Steveson is a guy they can absolutely build around so I think he’s worth the investment, but it’s only worth the investment if they can create compelling fights for him. If Martin doesn’t think they could do that, I don’t think they’ll go all out to sign him.
I don’t expect Steveson to have a deal before the end of the year because I expect him to take his time in terms of development. That said, when the time is right, I expect him to put pen to paper with the UFC.
More about: MMA
