Fight Coverage
The Heavyweight Title Picture Comes Into Focus This Summer
Four Fights Over The Next Five Weeks Will Shuffle The Heavyweight Rankings And Crown An Interim Champion
While not often considered the deepest division on the roster, few sights are quite as thrilling as a pair of elite heavyweights entering the Octagon with 4-ounce gloves and preparing to do battle.
Over the next five weeks, starting with UFC 328: Chimaev vs Strickland, mixed martial arts fans are treated to exactly that. The heavyweight title picture gains some clarity while undisputed champion Tom Aspinall remains sidelined due to his eye injury suffered in October.
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On May 9, the presumptive man on-deck meets a surging contender in the form of his life as Alexander Volkov faces Waldo Cortes-Acosta in Newark.
The 37-year-old Volkov has worked his way into the thick of the title picture off the back of five wins in his last six. His lone loss came in a debatable split decision to Ciryl Gane in December 2024. Along the way, he has defeated Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Sergei Pavlovich and Jailton Almeida to cement himself among the division’s elite.
One could argue he deserved to be in the mix for the interim title bout at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14. He’ll get a chance to make his statement against Cortes-Acosta, who comes into the matchup having won three consecutive fights via knockout in the span of 12 weeks, including two wins in 21 days back in November.
His most recent victory, a dominant TKO stoppage of Derrick Lewis, made it clear: Salsa Boy is ready for the big stage. A win in Brick City could result in Waldo Cortes-Acosta contending for a piece of gold next time out.
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Three weeks later, a pair of heavyweights hoping to break into the inner circle at the top of the division throw down in Macau as Sergei Pavlovich faces Tallison Teixeira.
After losing an interim title bout to Aspinall and falling short to Volkov, Pavlovich got back on track in 2025 as he picked up decision wins over Rozenstruik and Cortes-Acosta. He’s seeking his first stoppage win since April 2023 when he faces Teixeira, a towering Brazilian who scored his own bounce-back win at UFC 325 when he outworked Tai Tuivasa over 15 minutes. The decision victory was Teixeira’s first of his professional career, but it remains unlikely the judges will be necessary in late May.
That all leads into a pair of massive heavyweight bouts at UFC Freedom 250 on The White House South Lawn. In the co-main event, former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira makes a historic bid for a title in a third division, but he’ll have his hands full with former interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane.
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Pereira spent 2025 with his horns locked with Magomed Ankalaev, who unseated Pereira in March before “Poatan” got his revenge in emphatic fashion seven months later. The victory was his sixth overall title-fight win, and a seventh would make his already decorated resume wholly unique.
However, Gane is and has been the cream of the heavyweight crop for, essentially, the entire 2020s outside of two title fight losses to Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones. “Bon Gamin” also looked sharp for the better part of his one round with Aspinall before the fight ended prematurely.
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If anyone has the goods to stand with Pereira and find success, Gane is on the shortest of lists in the heavyweight division. Before those two compete for gold, UFC’s knockout king Derrick Lewis faces the new, brash face that is Josh Hokit in a late addition to the historic UFC Freedom 250 card.
Lewis, a fan-favorite, is hoping to wash the taste of his defeat to Cortes-Acosta from his mouth and extend his UFC knockout record. He’ll have a lot to deal with in Hokit, who has polarized fans with his comments and a variety of adopted personas, but has also impressed when in the Octagon.
Hokit earned his UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series in August 2025 and tallied consecutive first-round stoppage wins over Max Gimenis and Denzel Freeman. That set him up for a date with Curtis Blaydes at UFC 327.
Josh Hokit Octagon Interview | UFC 327
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Josh Hokit Octagon Interview | UFC 327
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While Hokit didn’t get the knockout win, he and Blaydes put on a freakishly high-paced war for 15 minutes, and he solidified himself as a legit threat in the division after earning a unanimous decision victory. Should he get past “The Black Beast,” the sky is truly the limit for him.
So, by mid-June, the heavyweight deck will be properly shuffled, and ideally, there will be some clarity at the top. That’s about as much guarantee as anyone could give when it comes to deciding “The Baddest Man On The Planet.”
And as always with heavyweight fights: don’t blink or else you’ll miss something memorable.
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