(Written in March 2023. Will be updated periodically at the bottom. Recently updated in August 2024).
For this weight class, I’ll keep it as basic as I can. Let’s start in May 2016, the UFC Heavyweight division, was Stipe Miocic. He had beaten Mark Hunt and Andrei Arlovski before getting his title shot against then champ Fabricio Werdum. Stipe would KO Werdum halfway through the 1st round and become the new UFC Heavyweight Champion of the world.
He would win and defend his belt against Alistair Overeem and Junior Dos Santos again by KO in the 1st round. He had KO’d his last four opponents in the 1st round and had five straight fights end by KO. In January 2018 he would face Francis Ngannou for the first time. Francis was easily the scariest heavyweight in the division with six straight KO’s, four in the first round and two in the second round. Despite the hype and the unbelievable power from Ngannou, Miocic was able to avoid Ngannou through round one and would wear Francis down to the point of exhaustion, beating Ngannou easily to defend his belt again.
Then in July of 2018, then-current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier moved up to heavyweight and became the ‘double-champ’ with a surprising knockout over Stipe in the first round. He would vacate the UFC Light Heavyweight belt and stay in the Heavyweight division. Less than four months later, he would defend his belt against Derrick Lewis by submission. Then in the rematch vs Stipe, he would lose to Stipe (in August 2019), this time Cormier getting KO’d. Stipe would become champion again knowing his next fight would be the trilogy.
In the trilogy fight between Cormier and Miocic, Stipe prevailed and defended his belt to solidify himself as the UFC Heavyweight Champion. This fight was not given the justice it deserved. During the time of COVID, the UFC was one of the only sports still running through the pandemic. Unfortunately for the trilogy, there were no fans and a smaller octagon. After the fight, Cormier retired to an almost empty room and Stipe was considered the heavyweight G.O.A.T. Cormier now does commentary full-time with Jon Anik and Joe Rogan for most UFC events.
Stipe had remained champion from August 2019 until March 2021 where he would run into a rematch with Francis Ngannou. This time Ngannou was back with a vengeance. After his loss to Stipe Miocic and then Derrick Lewis, he turned everything around and quickly became even more dangerous then he was the first time he fought for the belt. He had a four fight win streak all by KO’s in the first round. Just to further explain how dangerous Francis was between Stipe 1 and Stipe 2. His four KO’s were at 45 seconds, 26 seconds, 1 minute 11 seconds, and 20 seconds. He was once again the scariest man on the planet.
In the rematch against Stipe, it was again with no fans at the UFC Apex Center and with smaller octagon. Francis played incredible defense stuffing takedowns and being patient. Eventually he would win by KO early in the 2nd round, becoming the new UFC Heavyweight Champion of the world. Francis would fight again in January 2022, against former sparring partner, undefeated Ciryl Gane, who quickly climbed the ranks and became the #1 contender. Stipe hasn’t fought since and Francis took over the belt that day and defended his belt against former sparring partner Ciryl Gane in January 2022. Ciryl was dominating the first two rounds before Francis decided to wrestle with Gane and won the final three rounds and winning by unanimous decision to defend his belt. It was the first time in Francis’s entire career that he won a fight by decision.
That wound up to be Francis’s last fight in the UFC. With one fight left on his contract, he had knee surgery that would sideline him for the rest of 2022. Francis and the UFC tried to negotiate a new deal with each other to keep Francis with the UFC. After years of failed negotiations, in January 2023, UFC President Dana White announced that they are terminating Ngannou’s contract with the UFC and would become a free agent.
The UFC immediately vacated the belt. and announced the new vacant belt would be fought between #1 contender Ciryl Gane against the return of the G.O.A.T. Jon Jones, making his heavyweight debut at UFC 285 in March 2023. Jones hadn’t fought in over three years to move up in weight and get better acclimated to becoming a heavyweight fighter. In my next article, I will explain why Jon Jones is the G.O.A.T. of the UFC. In the title fight, Jones smothered Gane early with his wrestling and would get Ciryl to tap to a Guillotine Choke two minutes into round one. Jones became the new champion and further solidified himself as the G.O.A.T. and the return as the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
After the fight, Jones called out Stipe Miocic who hasn’t fought since his KO loss to Francis in March 2021. Many are calling this fight G.O.A.T. vs G.O.A.T. It sure will go down as one of the biggest fights in UFC history, most likely to go down around July 2023.
Update August 2024: Jon Jones was supposed to fight Stipe Miocic in November 2023 but Jones tore his pectoral muscle off the bone and they had to postpone the title fight that now seems to be slated for November 2024 at again Madison Square Garden. In all this time since Jones beat Gane for the vacant title fight. A new contender has come in and has been aggressively knocking at Jon Jones door. His name is Tom Aspinall. At the time of the fight between Jones v Gane. Aspinall was recovering from a torn ACL he got during his fight against Curtis Blaydes resulting in his first loss in the UFC. After returning 364 days later he’s been on a tear. Defeating Tybura in his comeback fight, then defeating Sergei Pavlovich in 69 seconds via KO in the Interim Heavyweight Title Fight. They made this fight short notice after Stipe and Jones was cancelled and the UFC quickly pivoted to an interim title fight between these two monsters. Then, Aspinall got his rematch against Curtis Blaydes in the fight where he tore his ACL. He defeated Blaydes in exactly a minute via KO again and defended his Interim belt.
Since the Pavlovich fight, UFC fans have been begging for Jones v Aspinall and to forget about Stipe. As understandable as it is, I actually agree that Jones v Stipe should still happen. Tom is just in bad timing and has to wait for the champion. Stipe is considered the greatest UFC heavyweight champion of all time. Even though he hasn’t won in over four years and he is now 42 years old. I do believe he deserves one final fight at the top for everything he’s given us. Fans are always quick to eliminate the old and in with the new. Fans don’t like decorated champions and want to see a legend fall. Those same fans say Jon Jones (the greatest fighter of all time), is ducking Aspinall even though this fight was set and made almost two years in the making and Jones has never actually lost a fight. The Inclination out there is that both Jones and Stipe will retire at the end of the fight regardless of the outcome. Making fans upset thinking the fight is pointless. I do believe Jones will fight Aspinall after Stipe and will retire after that fight. I do believe the pressure will be to great and the UFC will do everything they can to make that fight happen. My prediction is that by early 2025. I will be updating this post about the mega fight between Interim Champion Tom Aspinall v GOAT & Champion Jon Jones
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