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COLUMN: The Rise of the UFC Heavyweight Division
Jan 22, 2010 - 8:57:04 PM COLUMN: The Rise of the UFC Heavyweight Division

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By Steve Sutcliffe, MMATorch columnist

The UFC heavyweight division was looking pretty stacked in late summer 2009. A number one contendership match between upcoming fighters Cain Velasquez and Shane Carwin was canceled in favor of giving Carwin an outright title shot at Lesnar at UFC 106. Velasquez instead would be facing Ben Rothwell, a veteran brought into the fold when Affliction closed its doors on its fight promotion business.

No doubt the decision was made to take advantage of the UFC's good fortune with the infusion of two superb young talents amongst the 265 pounders - what was the point of your two top prospects fighting one another to determine a number one contender when they both quite conceivably could get title shots separately? And that didn't even take Junior dos Santos into account, who was often overlooked in favor of Carwin and Velasquez despite knocking out Fabricio Werdum in the first round at UFC 90.

Oh, and did I mention the possibility of UFC landing some guy named Fedor? And Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera was back from the dead after his performance at UFC 102. Yes, the UFC heavyweight division was primed to truly break out as perhaps the most competitive and exciting weight class in the entire company. As Dana White said a week before the premiere of Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights, "In UFC history, I don't think our heavyweight division has ever been as exciting as it is now."

But then as we all know, disaster struck. Brock Lesnar went down with what was believed to be some sort of super flu, which then morphed into mononucleosis, which incidentally was caused by a weakened immune system since his body was simultaneously fighting off something called diverticulitis. The CIA was brought in to keep Brock's diagnoses (plural) under wraps and Dana White took pointers from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld regarding speaking to the press.

Shane Carwin had knee surgery, then he didn't have knee surgery, but then his wife was expected to go into labor sometime around February 20, 2010, which made it rather impossible to hop on a plane and fight in Sydney, Australia. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera went down with a staph infection, delaying his contest with Velasquez until UFC 110. Gabriel Gonzaga also got a staph infection and was replaced with Pride "legend" Gilbert Yvel in a match-up against dos Santos. On the financial front, the UFC failed to come to terms with Fedor after the Last Emperor would not back down from his demands that the billion dollar company co-promote with M-1 Global.

Fortunately, if the end of 2009 appeared to be the apocalypse for the heavyweight division, and the UFC in general, the dust is finally beginning to settle and pieces are starting to fall into place. In case you haven't heard by now, Brock Lesnar has miraculously recovered from his ailments and the hype has already started for his return over the summer.

There are not one, not two, but three upcoming match-ups that will determine the pecking order in the elite class of the division: the aforementioned Noguiera-Velasquez bout at UFC 110, Carwin-Mir at UFC 111, and Gonzaga-dos Santos at UFC on Versus 1 (which for reasons that allude me, is taking a second billing to Vera-Jones). There's also a decent amount of talent in the middle to lower tiers of the division. Stefan Struve is rumored to be taking on Ultimate Fighter 10 winner Roy Nelson in an intriguing match-up at UFC Fight Night 21.

Undefeated Chad Corvin joins Todd Duffee as two top prospects on the rise, with Rolles Gracie Jr. looking to make a splash by living up to the expectations associating with carrying the family name. And what will probably turn out to be two matches in which all four of their UFC careers are on the line, Paul Buentello takes on Cheick Kongo at UFC on Versus 1 and Cro Cop looks to get back on the winning track against Rothwell.

Things weren't always this way. Not so long ago, Dana White was doing jumping jacks over Randy Couture's return so he could knock off Tim Sylvia, whose title reign wasn't exactly setting the box office on fire with multiple five round decision victories that were often criticized for their lack of excitement. And perhaps with the infusion of top competition, the UFC Heavyweight Championship belt will actually change hands due to a loss by the champion, and not because of steroids, motorcycle accidents, or contract disputes.

In a sport whose hallmark is unpredictability and the only certainty is that there is no certainty, no matter who emerges as the top dog, there's a ton of intriguing match-ups on the horizon. Perhaps Dana White's assertion will actually come true. Oh, and there's always the possibility of landing that Fedor guy, too. Or maybe not.

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By the end of 2011, Steve Sutcliffe thinks that someone who is not mentioned in this column will be holding the UFC Heavyweight Championship. Tell him he's crazy at steve.w.sutcliffe@gmail.com.

[Shane Carwin art credit Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]