State of the light-heavyweights: Another vacant title bout extends chaos atop division

UFC 295 takes place Saturday in New York and the main event will see the organization’s fifth light-heavyweight champion crowned in the past three years…and that’s only if someone gets their hand raised. Based on the division’s recent bad luck and overall streak of chaos, nothing is guaranteed.

Headliners Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira will do their best to leave no doubts when they step into the cage at Madison Square Garden to compete for the vacant light-heavyweight championship.

All this uncertainty atop the division is relatively new territory for the UFC.

The 205-pound division emerged as the UFC’s first marquee weight class thanks to a handful of successful rivalries in the early 2000s. The title changed hands frequently during the first decade of the 21st century, bouncing around from Tito Ortiz to Randy Couture to Vitor Belfort and back to Couture again before the Chuck Liddell era began. That was followed by the Pride FC and TUF era as the sport’s mainstream popularity grew.

Quintin “Rampage” Jackson, Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua each had their turn as champ before Jon Jones entered the picture and systematically cleared out the division. Jones’s personal antics outside of competition, plus multiple drug infractions, led to Daniel Cormier being a worthy champion for a few years but D.C. couldn’t defeat Jones in his two attempts.

The title has not found a permanent home ever since both Cormier and Jones decided to move up to heavyweight and each win the belt in that division.

With the UFC set to introduce another new champion at UFC 295, it’s a fitting time to look at the current state of the light-heavyweight division and its key players.

CHAMPIONS WHO VACATED TITLES DUE TO INJURY

Jamahal Hill: The 32-year-old became champion at UFC 283 in January when he defeated Glover Teixeira to win a title that had been previously vacated by Prochazka late in 2022 after Prochazka suffered a serious shoulder injury. Hill announced in July he would be relinquishing the belt after sustaining a ruptured Achilles tendon that required surgery. He is expected to return at some point in 2024 and has been told he will compete for the title in his first fight back.

A crisp striker who had refined his game since appearing on Dana White’s Contender Series, Hill took full advantage of his opportunity against Teixeira, but that vacant title bout was only put together after a different vacant title matchup the month prior, featuring two other contenders, ended in a split draw and no champion was crowned. You see? It really is a tangled web.

Jiri Prochazka: The second most recent former champion makes his return to competition for the first time since winning the title from Teixeira with a dramatic fifth-round submission 17 months ago. The cerebral Czech has freak athleticism and raw talent anywhere the fight takes place. He leaves himself open and rarely is conservative, yet is willing to take several shots to land his own. He has been rocked in nearly all his UFC appearances and has finished 11 consecutive opponents and won 13 in a row overall.

TOP CONTENDERS

Magomed Ankalaev: In a different universe, the Russian became champion in December and much of the current confusion at 205 pounds could’ve been avoided. Alas, Ankalaev is in the midst of a bad-luck stretch. He fought former champ Jan Blachowicz to a controversial split draw with the vacant title on the line at UFC 282. Only three judges score a contest, but for what it’s worth 23 of 25 MMA media members over at MMADecisions scored that bout in favour of Ankalaev. At UFC 294 in October, his fight with Johnny Walker was called off after three minutes and ruled a no-contest when an accidental illegal knee rendered Walker unable to continue, partly due to some confusion with the cageside physician.

Alex Pereira: The former 185-pound champion bounced back from being knocked out by Israel Adesanya and losing his middleweight title in April rather quickly by moving up to 205 and beating a former champion in July. Pereira won a three-round split decision over Blachowicz, and now he has a chance to join the impressive list of two-weight champions. “Poatan” is arguably the best striker on the entire UFC roster and more durable in his new weight class now that he doesn’t cut as much weight.

Jan Blachowicz: There is still some Polish power left in this 40-year-old. Is there enough for another run at the title at this point, though? Blachowicz was on top of the world after defending his title in March 2021 against Adesanya, who at the time was the undefeated middleweight champ. Since then he has just one victory in his past four outings and that lone win occurred when his opponent’s knee blew out. There are still positives to draw from Blachowicz’s back-to-back split decisions, so a win in his next outing could position him back in a title fight in 2024.

Aleksandar Rakic: He hasn’t fought since sustaining a significant injury late in May 2022. Rakic tore his ACL against Blachowicz. His only other career loss is a split decision and prior to his injury he had had beaten a pair of former title challengers. He’s big, strong, skilled and matches up well with the other top 205ers. A rematch with Blachowicz would make a lot of sense.

FAN FAVOURITES & TOUGH OUTS STILL IN THE MIX

There’s a gap between those mentioned above and those within this tier. Fighters like Alonzo Menifield, Khalil Rountree Jr., Johnny Walker, Nikita Krylov, and Dustin Jacoby have some positive momentum currently, while Dominick Reyes, Anthony Smith and Volkan Oezdemir have each competed for this division’s title in the past and are capable of going on streaks if they reinvent themselves slightly.

Others to come up through DWCS such as Ryan Spann, Kennedy Nzechukwu, Jimmy Crute, and Carlos Ulberg go for the finish and are always candidates to earn a performance of the night bonus.

Up-and-down fighters like Ion Cutelab, Philipe Lins, Devin Clark, Maxim Grishin, Tanner Boser, Nicolae Negumereanu, Jung Da Un, Tyson Pedro and others outside the rankings are always willing combatants and able to crack the top-15.

FUTURE CONTENDERS

Azamat Murzakanov: Undefeated and now 3-0 at the UFC level. No one has found the answer to beating this Russian working his way up the rankings.

Vitor Petrino: Left hooks don’t land much cleaner than the one Petrino placed on the chin of Modestas Bukauskas earlier this month to remain undefeated as a pro and improve to 3-0 in the UFC. He’s hoping to follow in Hill’s footsteps and go from debuting on DWCS to working his way up to the UFC title.

OUSIDE THE UFC

Bellator has a decent roster of 205ers with former UFC contenders Phil Davis, Yoel Romero and Corey Anderson capable of giving anyone in the UFC’s top 10 a run for their money on any given night.

None are better than Bellator champion Vadim Nemkov who has a legitimate claim to being the No. 1 light-heavyweight in all of MMA. He hasn’t lost since a 2016 split decision loss in Rizin to Karl Albrektsson. His only other loss in MMA was to Prochazka on New Year’s Eve 2015 two nights after Nemkov won a fight in his heavyweight debut.

ONE Championship’s two-weight titleholder Anatoly Malykhin handed a former two-weight champion, Reinier de Ridder, his first loss back in 2022. ONE’s light-heavyweight division limit is 225 pounds, though, and their middleweights fight at 205, so Ridder remains that organization’s top true light-heavyweight. Malykhin is 13-0 with 13 finishes. Meanwhile, the majority of PFL’s 205-pound roster is comprised of former UFC athletes.

Perhaps the best prospect at 205 is Muslim Magomedov who is 12-0 at age 28 and lighting up Russia’s ACA organization. Small for the division but his wrestling can give opponents fits.

Official UFC Light-Heavyweight Fighter Rankings pre-UFC 295:
*Jamahal Hill
1. Jiri Prochazka
2. Magomed Ankalaev
3. Alex Pereira
4. Jan Blachowicz
5. Aleksandar Rakić
6. Nikita Krylov
7. Johnny Walker
8. Anthony Smith
9. Volkan Oezdemir
10. Ryan Spann
11. Khalil Rountree Jr.
12. Azamat Murzakanov
13. Dominick Reyes
14. Alonzo Menifield
15. Dustin Jacoby