UFC Heavyweight Championship: 5 Fighters who could end 2019 as Heavyweight Champion
The UFC Heavyweight Championship has been in existence ever since February 7, 1997 when Mark Coleman was crowned the inaugural champion when he defeated the reigning "Superfight" Champion, Dan Severn to unify the belts.
Coleman, a massively muscular wrestler was deemed almost unbeatable following his win over the "Beast" but his reign shockingly ended just a few months later when he was bested by Decision by fellow wrestler, Maurice Smith in a colossal upset.
Smith successfully defended the belt against perennial contender, Tank Abbott at UFC 15 before he lost the title in an unbelievably dull mat based encounter against future Hall of Famer, Randy Couture in December of 1997 at the UFC Japan event.
Couture left the company while still recognised as Heavyweight Champion which led to a tournament for the vacant title which was won by Bas Rutten who soon retired due to injury.
Kevin Randleman won the vacant strap but soon dropped it to the returning Couture who embarked on the longest title run ever at that point at 490 days before he dropped the title to the massive Josh Barnett.
Ever since then, legends of the sport such as Frank Mir, Tim Sylvia, Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos have held the title to varying success.
In 2018, the UFC has a dearth of credible Heavyweight title contenders with most of the company's biggest stars competing in other weight divisions such as Jon Jones at Light-Heavyweight, Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov at Lightweight and Georges St-Pierre at Welterweight.
With a lack of marquee names available, UFC were forced to turn to reigning Light-Heavyweight Champion, Daniel Cormier to challenge Heavyweight Champion, Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 but while Cormier has proved a good draw for the Heavyweight division, he is likely to retire the next time he loses a fight and is unlikely to end 2019 as champion. But who will?
In the following slideshow, SK looks at five men who could well end 2019 as UFC Heavyweight Champion.
#5 Cain Velasquez
This may seem a long shot in November 2018 but it is not an entirely unlikely proposition in 2019. Former two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion, Cain Velasquez has not fought for the promotion in over two years since his victory over Travis Browne at UFC 200 on July 16, 2016.
However, he is still under contract and at 36 years of age, is still young enough to become a player in the UFC Heavyweight division once again. Velasquez has been dealing with a troublesome back injury caused by bone spurs which has seen him being denied a medical licence to fight.
However, one would think if his medical issues have not yet been resolved they soon will be. Once he is fit and ready, Velasquez will return to the Octagon and given the Heavyweight division is desperately short of marquee names, his comeback match would likely be a title fight.
An aggressive fighter who constantly walks into his opponents, giving them little room to launch a strike before exploding with his own dynamic combinations, Velasquez is a match for virtually anybody and given the shot, is more than capable of becoming only the second man to with the UFC Heavyweight Championship three times.