{"id":324987,"date":"2026-04-26T21:40:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=324987"},"modified":"2026-04-26T21:40:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:10:37","slug":"francis-ngannou-blames-ufc-for-the-decline-of-the-heavyweight-division-lot-of-mismanagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/francis-ngannou-blames-ufc-for-the-decline-of-the-heavyweight-division-lot-of-mismanagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Ngannou blames UFC for the decline of the heavyweight division: &#8216;Lot of mismanagement&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"post-306074\">\n<div class=\"article-follow\">\n<div class=\"article-sharing google-follow\"> <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/profile.google.com\/cp\/Cg0vZy8xMWs2azRtMzFf%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">  <span>Follow us on Google Discover<\/span> <\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Francis Ngannou thinks MMA\u2019s leading promotion is accountable for the present state of the heavyweight division.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Legends like Stipe Miocic, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, Brock Lesnar, Randy Couture, and Fabricio Werdum once competed and reigned as champions within the division.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-grvmedia-grv-video GRVMultiVideo\"><\/figure>\n<p>But those days are long gone. In 2026, the UFC heavyweight roster is essentially made up of low-skilled fighters who often have three-round slogs that no person is more likely to enjoy watching.<\/p>\n<p>Former champion Ngannou has watched the division\u2019s demise from outside the promotion, and he thinks his former employer is accountable.<\/p>\n<section class=\"grv-talking-point\" data-trigger=\"vue-sidebar\" data-story-id=\"7bb40507-3bfa-4bce-9751-5f00e73afe6e\" data-story-name=\"Heavyweights\" data-comment-id=\"781fa294-f852-4c77-95fa-31d06c47d125\" data-story-slug=\"heavyweights\">\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__inner\">\n<header class=\"grv-talking-point__header\">  <\/header>\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__content\">\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__cta\">\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__title-wrap\">\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__title-content\">\n<h3 class=\"grv-talking-point__title\">With a badly injured champion and a lackluster roster, is the heavyweight division the worst within the UFC right away?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">If not, tell us which weight class you&#8217;re thinking that is in an excellent worse state.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__embed\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 991px) 100vw, 800px\" src=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/BE-28-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Left: Tom Aspinall holds a towel against his eye after being poked at UFC 321. Right: Tai Tuivasa reacts after his fight at UFC 325\" class=\"wp-image-292471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/BE-28-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/BE-28-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/BE-28-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/BE-28-912x1140.jpg 912w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/BE-28-600x750.jpg 600w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/BE-28.jpg 1080w\"><\/div><figcaption title=\"Credit: Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC &#038; GIUSEPPE CACACE\/AFP via Getty Images\">Credit: Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC &#038; GIUSEPPE CACACE\/AFP via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Francis Ngannou diagnoses the bad shape of the UFC heavyweight division in 2026<\/h2>\n<p>Various statistics show the heavyweight downfall lately. MMA stat man\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/OvinVithanage\/status\/2021932838606811406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Ovin Vithanage<\/a>\u00a0posted some in February, revealing that there are\u00a0zero former undisputed champions, just six fighters on winning streaks, and 15 with losing records on the roster.<\/p>\n<p>Stats like those have translated into lackluster showings contained in the octagon, with terrible fights like Tallison Teixeira\u2019s win over Tai Tuivasa even followed by calls to abolish the load class from fans.<\/p>\n<p>Ngannou is one heavyweight who has rarely had boring fights in MMA, and the previous champ recently diagnosed the division\u2019s issues during an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=juaOnSsymts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">The Schmo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, I believe there may be loads of, I might say, mismanagement,\u201d Ngannou said. \u201cThere may be loads of mismanagement that sometimes gets stuff screwed up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s where we&#8217;re today. You see even now, there are loads of heavyweights on the market like Tom Aspinall, he&#8217;s having trouble with this.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe there may be mismanagement,\u201d he continued. \u201cAfter I say mismanagement\u2026 I (am) talking concerning the promotion. I believe there&#8217;s something like that on the market, which isn&#8217;t right.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 991px) 100vw, 800px\" src=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2259325094-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Tallison Teixeira and Tai Tuivasa lay on the floor at the end of their UFC 325 fight\" class=\"wp-image-290075\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2259325094-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2259325094-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2259325094-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2259325094-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2259325094-1140x760.jpg 1140w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2259325094-750x500.jpg 750w\"><\/div><figcaption title=\"SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 01: (L-R) Tallison Teixeira of Brazil and Tai Tuivasa of Australia sit exhausted after a heavyweight fight during the UFC 325: Volkanovski v Lopes 2 at Qudos Bank Arena on February 01, 2026 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe Photography\/Getty Images)\">Photo by Mark Kolbe Photography\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018The Predator\u2019 will soon be making his first appearance within the cage since October 2024. Ngannou is ready to fight Philipe Lins in his comeback on the very first Netflix event on May 16.<\/p>\n<p>The Cameroonian powerhouse is unbeaten in MMA since a loss to Derrick Lewis eight years ago. He has brutally knocked out the likes of Stipe Miocic, Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, and Junior dos Santos to cement himself as an all-time great.<\/p>\n<div class=\"see-more-wrapper lazy see-more-open see-more-blank extra-content\" data-src=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2026\/04\/26\/francis-ngannou-blames-ufc-for-the-decline-of-the-heavyweight-division-lot-of-mismanagement\/none\" data-type=\"subscribe\">\n<div class=\"see-more subscribe\">\n<figure class=\"newsletter\">\n<div><svg class=\"loading\" width=\"118\" height=\"36\" viewbox=\"0 0 118 36\"><use href=\"#dots-svg\"><\/use><\/svg><\/p>\n<div class=\"signup\"><span class=\"hf\">Join Our Newsletter<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Receive a digest of our greatest Bloody Elbow content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Follow us on Google Discover Francis Ngannou thinks MMA\u2019s leading promotion is accountable for the present state of the heavyweight division. Legends like Stipe Miocic, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, Brock Lesnar, Randy Couture, and Fabricio Werdum once competed and reigned as champions within the division. But those days are long gone. In 2026, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[10207,8290,1536,1942,1097,645,19904,7318,3928],"class_list":["post-324987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-blames","tag-decline","tag-division","tag-francis","tag-heavyweight","tag-lot","tag-mismanagement","tag-ngannou","tag-ufc"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324987"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324990,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324987\/revisions\/324990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}