Light heavyweight has been one of the bigger money making divisions for the UFC for a long time. This is due in large part to the prolonged success of Jon Jones, but not entirely. Rampage Jackson, Chuck Liddell, Shogun Rua, and Daniel Cormier were all great fighters either before or during Jon's run. After Jon vacated his title and decided to bulk up for an eventual move to heavyweight, 205 lbs has undergone a bit of a transitional period. Longtime UFC veteran Jan Blachowicz was able to parlay a late career resurgence into a title shot against Dominick Reyes, who so many thought had defeated Jones in his last defense. Blachowicz was able to use his power to to neutralize Reyes and walk away with the title. His first title defense came against Israel Adesanya, who was attempting to reach double champ status. Blachowicz then lost the title to a 42 year old Glover Teixeira, who was making one last run at the championship, which brings us to present day. Let's do it.
Champion - Glover Teixeira
Glover Teixeira winning the UFC championship for the first time at 42 years old was one of my favorite moments of 2021. He was an MMA lifer who lost to Jon Jones, but worked his way back to the top and was able to get the win when he needed it. He's not the same fighter he was in his youth, but the experience he has was able to make him more effective with the skills he does have. His latest run has seen him using his wrestling to best his opponents. Glover has been taking guys down and then either pounding them out or finding the choke and getting the submission. Glover still has some power in his hands, which he showed in his win over Blachowicz. The main weakness for Glover comes in the form of his chin. We've seen Glover hurt a few times in his last handful of fights and in the larger weight classes, everyone has that level of power. Glover has the skills on the feet to be dangerous at times, but as he's aged, he doesn't take shots quite as well and that has to be a contributing factor as to why he has leaned on his grappling so heavily in this latest title run. He's not the flashiest or most explosive guy anymore, but he gets the most out of the skills he has. He has an experience advantage that is hard to quantify as well and he's not going to be a pushover for any future contenders.
Next Challenger - Jiri Prochazka
Jiri Prochazka is one of the most interesting fighters in the world right now. He has such a unique persona and pairs it with one of the most devastating styles in the UFC. Prochazka brings the fight to his opponents and will not be in a boring fight. He brings the pressure with his hands down and is willing take some damage in order to land his own. His power is incredible and he combines it with very creative techniques that have led him to 2 knockouts in his only 2 UFC fights. The spinning elbow he used to finish Dominick Reyes was one of the knockouts of the year. Whenever he does fight Glover, I don't see how that fight goes the distance. We don't know too much about Jiri's grappling at the UFC level and if Glover can get him down, he'll definitely be fishing for the submission. If Jiri keeps it standing, I don't think anyone in the division can absorb his shots for 25 minutes and not go down. I'm excited for this fight and just excited to see Jiri fight again as he hasn't been super active since joining the UFC roster.
Contenders - Jan Blachowicz, Aleksandar Rakic, Magomed Ankalaev, and Thiago Santos
This is a similar situation to middleweight where you have a pretty clear number one contender fight and then a secondary title eliminator fight. Jan Blachowicz is fighting Aleksandar Rakic in March and that kind of stands as the number one contender bout. Blachowicz is the former champion and with a win I would expect him to get a shot to regain his title, especially if Jiri has the belt at the time. Blachowicz has a pretty straight forward style. He has solid wrestling, which we saw him use to defeat Adesanya. Jan uses a striking style that relies on his massive power that has gotten him several knockouts over the last handful of years. Unlike a lot of power punchers, Jan doesn't just go crazy and try to land a shot quickly, but he uses a calm and patient style to find his shot to land. He also uses his kicks pretty effectively, which played a huge part in him getting the title win over Reyes. Blachowicz got the belt for a reason and with a win over a tough opponent in Rakic, I see no problems with him challenging for the belt again. His opponent Aleksandar Rakic is no walk in the park though. Rakic is a long and lean striker who utilizes his reach very well. He hasn't found finishes as frequently since joining the UFC, but he's been a very tough out in that time. His only UFC loss came in a split decision, so he's proven himself to be an extremely high level fighter. I thought he may have already ended up in a title fight by now, but his win over Thiago Santos was so underwhelming that he lost a lot of momentum. I think it's clear that a win of any kind over Blachowicz will get him the title shot, but public perception of him was a little down after that Santos fight really fell flat. The fight between Magomed Ankalaev and Thiago Santos serves as a title eliminator fight where the winner will probably end up 1 fight away from the title shot. It's possible we see the winner here fight Anthony Smith, the loser of the title fight, or the loser of Jan vs Rakic, depending on exactly how everything shakes out. Ankalaev may be one of the most underrated fighters on the entire roster. I feel like he gets no shine or recognition publicly, but his skills are no joke. He has real power on the feet that we've seen him use to finish opponents on numerous occasions including a somewhat recent devastating knockout of Ion Cutelaba. While Ankalaev's striking has been on display for a lot of his recent wins, he has more than solid wrestling too. Outside of the champion Glover and to a lesser extent Anthony Smith and Jan Blachowicz, good wrestling is something that isn't too prevalent in the top 10 at 205 right now, which could really be a difference maker for him. Even Jan and Smith's wrestling isn't particularly outstanding, it's kind of just slightly above average, but for whatever reason, the top of the division just doesn't have any of those dominant grapplers right now besides Glover. I think of Ankalaev leans on his well roundedness going forward, he could pose a lot of problems and potentially find himself in a title fight late in 2022 or early 2023, depending on exactly how the schedule shakes out. The final contender is his opponent, Thiago Santos. If everything I just said about Ankalaev is true, then if Santos beats him, then he would also likely find himself on the short list for potential title fights. Santos is more of a household name after he challenged Jon Jones for the title in a gutsy performance that saw him need multiple surgeries after. That resulted in Santos being out for awhile and it was a bumpy start for him when he returned. He made his return after about a year and a half away against Glover and looked good in the early going. He dropped him early, but ultimately fell victim to Glover's grappling in a loss that has aged a little better than some thought at the time. He came out on the losing end of that extremely bizarre fight with Rakic where they didn't do much of anything for a full 15 minutes, but he was able to get back on track with a win over Johnny Walker his last time out. He's right back in a big spot here and he'll likely be relying on his big power to get the job done. Santos is known as a power striker, but I think he has a better gas tank than the typical power puncher. It's amazing that Santos ever made 185 because he looks huge even at light heavyweight and his chin is much better up a weight class. He hasn't been knocked out since the move and so Ankalaev will be forced to be at the top of his game for the full fight in all likelihood. Thiago Santos may have lost some of the shine on his name since we've seen him in big fights for several years now, but that doesn't make him any easier of an opponent.
Up and Comers - Jamahal Hill, Jimmy Crute, and Ryan Spann
Jamahal Hill is a fighter that's been on my radar for a little bit now. I'm still kicking myself for not picking him to win against Jimmy Crute in their fight a month or so ago. Hill isn't the most complicated fighter and definitely needs to work on rounding out his game before he can truly enter the top tier of the division, but his current skills already have gotten him this far. Hill relies on his massive power to get him wins and that's been a pretty good strategy for him to this point. Hill's striking is probably better than it gets credit for in general, but don't get it twisted, his power is what sets him apart. The grappling will need to catch up at some point, but for right now, he's doing just fine. He should find himself in some interesting matchups and maybe with a few wins he'll find himself ready to really make a push towards the title starting in 2023. Jimmy Crute, despite just losing to Hill, is a pretty good prospect in his own right. Coming into 2021, Crute was one of those guys who was always mentioned as one of the best young fighters in the entire UFC and for good reason. Crute has shown all of the necessary skills to reach the top of the division, he's just hit a bit of a rough patch recently. He lost to Anthony Smith after leg kicks damaged his nerve and left him unable to balance properly on his leg, forcing the doctor's stoppage and his chin was unable to hold up against the power of Jamahal Hill, which is a pretty common occurrence if he connects flush with the chin. Despite this slide, Crute is a very well rounded fighter, especially for being only 25 years old. He's got solid striking skills to go along with good power in those strikes. His grappling is also pretty good as was even able to land a takedown against Anthony Smith with that damaged leg before the fight was stopped. He's shown solid submission skills once he takes the fight down to go with it. I'm not too worried about Crute's development given his age, but he does need to get back in the win column before he can resume his ascent to the top of the division. Some people may not like the idea of Ryan Spann being in this spot as he is 30 years old, but he's in the midst of his first real push into the rankings so, I'm going to count him. Spann is kind of in a weird spot because I couldn't exactly tell you what he needs to do better, but I know he does need to improve. He does have a slight problem when it comes to being finished, but ever since he moved up weight classes, he's reduced those issues a good bit. He has good power in his strikes, but it's not other worldly or even at the level of Jamahal Hill's for example. His striking technique is solid, but not really something I would call an advantage. He has a really nice number of submission wins, but his takedowns could use a boost, so that's one small area to work on. If he can get more takedowns or get them more easily, he will have a better chance of getting to those submissions and have more energy when he finally does get the fight down. Now that I'm looking at the stats, Spann also absorbs a little too much damage. His striking defense could be one area to work on that would allow him to get over that hump and into the next tier of the light heavyweight division.
Wild Cards - Anthony Smith, Dominick Reyes, Paul Craig, and Johnny Walker
Realistically, Anthony Smith could have been in the contender category and maybe should have been. I put him here instead because he doesn't have a fight and at least for right now, I don't know if he has a logical partner unless he wants to fight way down the rankings. Additionally, a health issue sprang up for him, which prevented him from fighting Rakic in the first place. Once Lion heart can get back in the cage then we can start figuring out who it will be against. Anthony Smith went through a rough patch where it looked like he may not be the same guy he once was, especially after a loss to Glover Teixeira that was kind of hard to watch and that's coming from someone who watches cage fighting for enjoyment so. He followed that up with a loss to Aleksandar Rakic, which while not quite as brutal, was still ugly. He's bounced back nicely with 3 wins in a row and he should be in line for a title eliminator whenever he's healthy and there's an opponent that fits his needs. What a career arc it has been for Dominick Reyes. He goes 5 rounds with Jon Jones and many people that he should have won that fight. I personally go back and forth on it all the time, but he definitely could have gotten the decision and it would have been hard to disagree with. Since then, he fought for the title that Jones vacated and lost via knockout to Jan Blachowicz and then was brutally knocked out via a spinning elbow by Jiri Prochazka. That's 3 losses in a row, 1 of which was a 5 round war and the following two were pretty brutal looking knockouts. I'm not really sure which direction he should go next as he's taken so much damage his last few times out and hasn't found a win. He could probably get the Anthony Smith fight if he wanted it, but I think he may need a step back just to reset. Maybe a fight against Johnny Walker, Ryan Spann, or Ion Cutelaba is more the type of fight we need to see for Reyes his next time out. We know he has all of the skills, it's just a matter of getting back to the version of him that we saw against Jones. He has powerful strikes and loves to use his left kick. He can grapple defensively even though he doesn't look for many offensive takedowns. There's the potential to add that to his game and maybe that would serve him well and allow him to take less damage. Paul Craig is one fighter I love to see on the schedule. He's such an interesting fighter to watch in my opinion. He had an up and down time to start his UFC career, but has since put together a nice win streak to find himself in the rankings. What makes Craig a true wild card is his style. He's much more of a submission artist in a division where there isn't a ton of grappling heavy fighters. Even the fighters who can grapple like Anthony Smith and Jan Blachowicz prefer to stay standing when they can. Craig has the ability to force so many of these ranked fighters into positions that they don't want to be in and I think that makes him more dangerous than he gets credit for. His striking isn't the best, but for his size, he at least has power that you have to respect. I can't wait for his next contest and I expect him to give his opponent a hard time win or lose. I am contractually obligated to include Johnny Walker in a category called "Wild Cards" because he is the human embodiment of the term. Johnny Walker is as naturally gifted as anyone who has ever put on MMA gloves. He has any and all natural skills that you could realistically want in a fighter. His length and explosiveness makes him an incredible physical specimen. He's hit a bit of a rough patch after he got a step up in competition, but all of the skills are there if he can put it together. He really needs to find the right balance of being calm, but also being able to explode into the wild combinations that he was known for when he was younger. Sometimes he became too reckless and got himself in trouble like he did against Corey Anderson. He counters that with coming out too calm and not really doing much and losing to Thiago Santos. The most effective version of Walker is somewhere between the calm plodding that we saw against Santos that was almost a version of Jan Blachowicz's style and the completely reckless and crazy style we saw from the younger version of Walker. If he can find that balance, he can be a problem for anyone in this division.
Prospects - Da Un Jung and Michal Oleksiejczuk
Light heavyweight isn't the deepest division in the world and that's reflected with a pretty thin prospects category. Up first is Da Un Jung, who is a powerful fighter who can mix it up nicely. I don't think he's amazing at anything, but he's good enough everywhere to give his opponents problems. He's 4-0-1 in the UFC and he's been effective both on the feet and in the grappling. He lands more strikes than he absorbs and does so with power and is able to land over 2.5 takedowns per 15 minutes at a 61% rate. If he keeps winning, I expect you'll see him start to make a push towards the rankings sometimes this year. Michal Oleksiejczuk is a former professional kick boxer who is making the transition to MMA. As you may imagine, his grappling needs work and we've seen him be submitted a couple of times now. If he can continue to improve and be able to get up or defend the takedown more effectively, he clearly has the skills on the feet to give people some problems. As his background would suggest, he is an incredibly high level striker and displays good power to go with it. Oleksiejczuk needs to improve his game, but if he can, I think he can find himself being a problem for the future of this division.
That's it from me on 205. This one may be a tad shorter than the others, but when you get to the smallest and biggest divisions, they're a little thinner and just don't have the volume of fighters that the weights in between have. This will be an interesting division to watch going forward because no one has really separated themselves as being the guy since Jones left. Jiri may prove to be that, but we've seen him take damage since joining the UFC, he's just been able to walk through it, but that's only in 2 fights. We'll see where this all goes, but I'm excited to see the title defended in this division. What do you guys think? How awesome was it to see Glover capture UFC gold at 42? Can Jiri Prochazka capture that title himself? Can Jan Blachowicz get his belt back? Will Magomed Ankalaev take the next step? Will we see Anthony Smith return to true title contention? Can Da Un Jung and Michal Oleksiejczuk rise into the rankings by the end of the year? Leave any and all thoughts below and thanks for reading. Have a good one.
Oh, also, this series will finish up next week. Tomorrow will be the preview for Giga Chikadze vs Calvin Kattar and then Saturday will be the picks for the entire card. Depending how things go, I could have a post on Sunday for the fallout/reaction to that fight. Monday would be the final look ahead for the heavyweights and then I would do my top 15 pound for pound for both men and women Tuesday and Wednesday before getting into previews for Moreno vs Figueiredo III and Ngannou vs Gane on Thursday and Friday.
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