Curtis Blaydes and the Best UFC Heavyweights Not Named Francis Ngannou

Curtis BlaydesJim Young/Associated Press

Stipe Miocic, Daniel Cormier, Francis Ngannou—for several years, they’ve been the three-man weave at the top of the heavyweight division.

Going back to 2016, in Miocic’s first title defense, these three fighters have comprised 14 of the 18 combatants involved in undisputed UFC heavyweight title bouts. 

It’s time for fresh blood, a new talent infusion. And it’s coming.

Cormier is retired. Miocic is 39 and mired in inactivity. A move up to heavyweight for Jon Jones would be a welcome and intriguing addition, but he’s too mercurial to rely on. 

As for Ngannou, well, the champ can stay, one supposes.

But who beyond Ngannou is ready for the bright lights and the toughest tests? There are fighters prepared to fill the breach and become the new guard in what is historically the UFC’s most glamorous weight class.

In fact, the three competitors we’re listing here may be the best heavyweights period, non-Ngannou division.

This Saturday, the picture will continue to evolve as two top-10 heavyweights, Chris Daukaus and Curtis Blaydes, clash in the main event of UFC Fight Night 205 in Columbus, Ohio. A win could establish the winner as a favorite for an interim title bout, an entirely possible scenario with Ngannou out until at least the end of the year as he recovers from knee surgery.

Who’s ready to break through the logjam and establish themselves as the division’s top talents? Let’s get it on.

Ciryl GaneIcon Sportswire/Getty Images

Ciryl Gane

Record: 10-1
Age: 31
Current UFC rank: 1

He may have just lost to Ngannou, but Ciryl Gane is still a tough nut to crack at heavyweight. His game is more skilled and more nuanced than that of the classic heavyweight slugger.

Gane not only relies heavily on movement but can keep it up through five rounds. He’s adept at switching stances and knows how to rack up the striking volume, even if he doesn’t throw every strike with fight-ending intentions. Despite losing to Ngannou by unanimous decision, Gane still out-landed the champ in significant strikes (63-43) with a higher accuracy rate (69 percent to 41 percent). That discrepancy had a lot to do with Gane’s quickness and agility, as he made Ngannou miss time and again.

It was even more egregious in his third-round knockout of Derrick Lewis, where Gane had a 98-16 significant strike advantage. Yes, I would say that’s significant.

There’s a lot of point fighting, but he’s not above throwing some spinning ish, be it a spinning kick to the body or a spinning elbow off the clinch break, if he sees the right opening.

Supremely confident but conservative, Gane normally goes for the kill when he’s confident he can get it. In the Lewis fight, he swarmed forward after he had fully roasted Lewis’ lead leg on a spit using an incessant barrage of kicks. Only then did Gane rush in. 

There are questions. Ngannou was able to keep him on his back for extended periods once the action hit the ground. On the other hand, Ngannou weighs roughly the same as a small panel truck. So maybe that one’s a push.

Gane doesn’t have an opponent yet. The winner of Saturday’s main event could make sense, as could Tai Tuivasa or Tom Aspinall.

Curtis Blaydes (top)Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

Curtis Blaydes

Record: 15-3 (1)
Age: 31
Current UFC rank: 4

If he wins in emphatic fashion Saturday, who knows? Blaydes may well end up as one-half of a future interim bout.

Blaydes is first and foremost a wrestler. He holds the records for most takedowns among heavyweights (62) in UFC history and has logged 75-plus minutes of total control time in 14 UFC contests.

He is not a K-1-level kickboxer, but Blaydes can put your lights out (10 career knockouts) on the feet or with merciless ground-and-pound. His hands are sharper than he sometimes gets credit for. I think that’s why they call him “Razor” instead of “Roller” or “Lawnmower” or “Fan.” 

He’s getting really good at using his boxing to set up takedowns, and he’s adept at catching kicks to force the action to the mat. So it’s a slippery area, the standup game with Blaydes. Sometimes, he’ll rush in or telegraph his takedown shots, as he did against Lewis, an instant before Lewis put him to sleep with a shovel punch as Blaydes darted in from long distance. 

But he seemed to have cleaned that up against Jairzinho Rozenstruik, staying more measured and mixing up his attacks. 

At 31 years old, Blaydes is still improving. Saturday, he faces an interesting opponent in Daukaus, a headhunter’s headhunter who has only gone to decision once in 16 pro fights and has four UFC wins, all by knockout. We’ll see if Blaydes can avoid a reckless firefight and work smarter to win his sixth fight in seven contests.

Aspinall locks the armbar on Alexander Volkov.Chris Unger/Getty Images

Tom Aspinall

Record: 12-2
Age: 28
Current UFC rank: 6 

The Englishman deserves to be in this conversation after dispatching a very good opponent in Alexander Volkov last week at UFC London. 

Aspinall made a 12-fight UFC veteran in Volkov look like a very physically fit popcorn peddler they pulled from the stands. Aspinall cut through Volkov like cream cheese left on the counter too long, eventually submitting him with a straight armbar in under four minutes.

You wouldn’t know it was the biggest fight of Aspinall’s life based on his cucumber-y coolness in there. He made measured decisions, but that’s not a euphemism for “inactive.” Quite the contrary; Aspinall let his hands go, and they may be the fastest hands in the division. He hit with precision and efficiency, too, landing 29 of 43 significant strikes for a 67 percent success rate—more than twice the output of Drago, himself known as a high-volume striker but who managed a relatively meager 13-of-23 for a 57 percent success rate.  

One caveat: Aspinall has yet to go to a decision in his entire career. He’s only reached the second round three times and once in his five-fight UFC tenure, and that was a dominant submission of Andrei Arlovski. Eventually, Aspinall will be pushed into the later rounds, and that will pose a fascinating test for his cardio. 

As it stands, though he just jumped up five spots to No. 6 in the official UFC rankings, he’s in more rarefied air than that. He’s probably the best British MMA fighter out there today in any division. If Blaydes wins Saturday, no one would be mad at a Blaydes-Aspinall interim title bout. Except Gane. But hey, welcome to a new three-man weave among the heavyweights.