Spotlight back on the heavyweight division at UFC 226 ... Perry confident going into his fight against Felder ... Las Vegas gives White keys to the city
LAS VEGAS — Traditionally, the heavyweight division has been the biggest draw in combat sports.
Boxing legends like Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman all made their money fighting at heavyweight, after all, but it’s been a few years since the division has really felt like the biggest draw in MMA.
Realistically, you’d have to go back to the late-2000s peak of Brock Lesnar to find a time when heavyweight harboured the biggest star in the UFC.
On Saturday, the division is going to be under arguably the brightest spotlight it has had since 2010 when Lesnar lost the belt to Cain
Velasquez at UFC 121.
Not only will champion
Stipe Miocic square off with light-heavyweight king Daniel Cormier in the main event, but No. 1 contender Francis Ngannou will be taking on Derrick Lewis in the co-main.
They might not be the topfour heavyweights in the world according to the official UFC rankings — Cormier’s not technically listed as a heavyweight and Lewis is
No. 5 — but the official UFC rankings aren’t a particularly valuable measuring tool for this sort of thing. If these aren’t the top-four, you can’t make a strong argument that they should be.
They’re awfully close, and there might not be anyone more qualified to comment on the strength of the division than Cormier, who was undefeated at heavyweight before moving down to compete at 205 pounds a little over five years ago.
His assessment wasn’t scathing, exactly, but as the four heavyweights sat on stage together at a Thursday afternoon press conference, Cormier made it clear he believed there are limitations to what the UFC’s biggest athletes can do.
“I just know when I went down, there were things at 205 that I never felt at heavyweight,” Cormier said.
“Anthony Johnson hits just as hard as any heavyweight I’ve ever fought, (Jon) Jones did things I don’t think a heavyweight can do, so I’ve experienced so much at a much faster pace … that’s where I feel good about going back.
“I know he’s fast and I know he’s quick, but he’s still a heavyweight.”
It’s worth noting that Cormier was singing a very different song earlier in the year before UFC 220, when he defended his light-heavyweight belt against Volkan
Oezdemir on the same card as Miocic and Ngannou fought.
Back then, Cormier said he wanted no part of either of the heavyweights, and on Thursday, he didn’t have to wait long to be told what was waiting for him if he wins the belt on Saturday.
“I’ve already got a challenge in the back, Derrick
Lewis told me he was going to knock me out right before we walked out here,” Cormier said, as both men laughed on stage. “Derrick Lewis might knock out Francis and then knock me out after, I don’t know. I know they’ve got guys lined up to fight me.
“(Lewis) has been sizing me up since I got here and called me small.”
To be clear, Lewis explained that his supposed beef with Cormier stems from a supposed disrespect for Popeye’s Chicken, so it doesn’t sound like it’s the most heated rivalry in MMA.
But as the four men sat on stage, it was hard not to shake the feeling that there might be a little bit of depth at heavyweight.
Ngannou lost to Miocic in January, but the Cameroonian is far from a finished product and should improve in the coming years.
Lewis, meanwhile, is a fan favourite who will surely get a title shot if he beats Ngannou.
Miocic, of course, happens to have won more heavyweight title fights than any other fighter in history. He might not be a global superstar, but he could get there.
NOT BACKING DOWN
For the first year and a half of his UFC career, Mike Perry walked with the confidence
of a man who believed he couldn’t be beat.
He was brash, he was bold and seemed like a genuinely weird guy, which catapulted him to a level of inside-theMMA-bubble notoriety that few up-and-coming fighters get to so quickly.
Now, though, Perry is coming off back-to-back losses to Santiago Ponzinibbio.
That hasn’t changed him much, though.
“I don’t see myself losing three times in a row,” said Perry, who takes on Paul
Felder at UFC 226. “I’ve been beating myself about it, and I’m the only person who has ever beat myself. I’ve been battling myself back and forth.
“I believe there’s a lot of money in risk. Risk equals reward, so let’s go get paid.”
Perry and Felder’s faceoff was arguably the highlight of UFC 226 media day, as Perry yelled in the veteran’s face and asked him how it was going to feel to become a play-by-play announcer fulltime — Felder performs occasional on-air duties during UFC broadcasts.
Win or lose on Saturday, Perry is too colourful a character for the UFC to cut.
AROUND THE OCTAGON
There might not be anyone in the UFC who is more relaxed during fight week than Gokhan Saki. The former kickboxing champion takes on Khalil Roundtree on Saturday and acknowledged that his demeanour wasn’t likely to change as he got closer to fight night … UFC president Dana White was presented with the key to Las Vegas on Thursday … Some fans booed Brian
Ortega for turning down a replacement fight against Jeremy Stephens after Max Holloway was forced to withdraw. Don’t do that.