The UFC should sign Shamil Erdogan before age catches up to him
The UFC needs to revitalize its heavyweight division, and there is one man, Shamil Erdogan, who fights in a different promotion, that they should pursue to breathe new life into it.
Shamil Erdogan is on a great run that should, by every metric, land him in the UFC. Both light heavyweight and heavyweight are open to him, but if the UFC wants to truly shake things up in its 265-pound division, it will sign Erdogan on as a heavyweight, and there's good reason to believe he'd be a top contender.
Shamil Erdogan should be UFC-bound
The UFC heavyweight division is not in a strong position. Ciryl Gane was recently promoted to undisputed heavyweight champion after Tom Aspinall's ongoing eye complications forced him to vacate the belt. The Frenchman will now defend the title against rising undefeated star Josh Hokit at UFC 334, but he is expected to have a relatively easy title defense against him. Outside of Hokit and an out-of-action Aspinall, there aren't many other promising heavyweights. Alex Pereira recently moved up to the division, but he was dominated and TKO'd by Gane at UFC Freedom 250 in their interim heavyweight title fight. Now, 'Poatan' will have to work his way back into title contention by beating Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 335.
There just isn't anything else that's exciting at heavyweight. Alexander Volkov is set to take on Rizvan Kuniev at UFC 333 later this month, and he did do well against Gane at UFC 310, but ended up losing via controversial split-decision. After him, there's not much else in the division outside of aging veterans and subpar fighters who'll likely never see championship gold. Shamil Erdogan would change that. He is coming off a dominant second-round submission of the uber-powerful Paul Elliott at ONE Fight Night 48 and is now gunning for a heavyweight title in ONE Championship. However, if the UFC knows what's good for them, they'll poach him as soon as possible.
Erdogan is athletic, powerful, and well-rounded. On the feet, he is a dynamic striker, comfortable boxing and kickboxing, and has a thunderous round kick to the body to follow his combination punching. However, as a wrestler and grappler, he's something else entirely. He has exceptional timing with his double-leg takedown, and once he grabs a hold of his opponent, his grip is unbreakable and his chain-wrestling becomes the stuff of nightmares. He drags fighters back down with mat return after mat return, while triangling the legs and mounting the back. If they try to scramble, he beats them to the position on the transition.
While his submission threat is always present, his ground-and-pound is the difference-maker. It's become a lost art in modern MMA, but it works well with his suffocating wrestling and positional grappling. He'll throws elbows and hammer-fists from the top, busting up his opponent, while blasting their midsection with knees.
This combination of skill and athleticism is the reason Erdogan hasn't gone to decision in nearly 10 years. His last 9 fights have all been finishes, so he'd inject much needed excitement into the UFC heavyweight division. The only issue is that the UFC must act quickly. He's alreay 36 years old and isn't getting any younger. It's now or never.
