UFC faces growing issue ruining the biggest fights

UFC's lightweight logjam

Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev walked away unscathed after defeating Renato Moicano at UFC 311 in January. Three months later, fans are yet to hear anything about his next fight. What they do know, however, is that Makhachev doesn't want to fight Ilia Topuria.

'La Leyenda' has predicated his lightweight move on the UFC's promise of a title shot, which puts other top contenders in a tricky position.

No. 1 lightweight Arman Tsarukyan says fighters won't challenge him without a title involved. Tsarukyan has locked himself out of a title shot with his UFC 311 debacle.

No. 2 lightweight Charles Oliveira won't fight for anything but the title. Oliveira is on a one-fight winning streak and has already lost to the champion.

UFC's middleweight bottleneck

Dricus Du Plessis exemplifies the fighting spirit. First-come, first-served, Du Plessis fights anyone and everyone. Unfortunately, 'DDP' might be injured, which leaves his rumored fight at UFC 317 up in the air.

In his place, fighters are calling for an interim title fight, the top names being Khamzat Chimaev, Caio Borralho, and Nassourdine Imavov.

Only, Imavov outright refuses to fight Borralho.

UFC heavyweight is at a stand-still

Tom Aspinall has been UFC interim heavyweight champion for over 500 days, but appears to be no closer to fighting Jon Jones for the undisputed belt.

Behind-the-scenes negotiations seem to be more complex than just agreeing to fight, since Jones reportedly wanted six more months to prepare if they came to an agreement.

This is despite Jones avoiding Aspinall for a year to fight Stipe Miocic for his first title defense. Six months is also the amount of time Jones needs to achieve a new UFC record.

Now approaching an 800+ day title reign for Jones, any heavyweight fights in the top 15 are essentially redundant since the champion is sitting on the belt.

Worse, the guarantee of a title shot has kept one of the most promising UFC heavyweights we've seen in years on the shelf and wasting his prime years.

Stalling and politics between the UFC's elite fighters isn't just keeping the good fights away from fans, it's dragging the product down. For every Tom Aspinall fighting once a year is a sub-par headliner to stand in his place at several events.