Ermes Gasparini says Devon Larratt remains key to superheavyweight title race

Ermes Gasparini made the case on August 2 that Devon Larratt still belongs at the center of the superheavyweight title race, even after East vs West 25 in Batumi, Georgia, began sketching a route toward a vacant championship. The card featured Kamil Jablonski against Georgii Tsvetkov in the superheavyweight right-arm match, and the post-event messaging immediately pushed the division toward a December title fight.

That path was already complicated by Levan Saginashvili. In a video summary posted after the event, Levan offered Devon the right-hand gauntlet, but Devon declined, saying his aim is to beat Levan and then become champion. Robert then laid out the next step: the winner of Kamil vs. Georgi would fight for the vacated title in December 2026. Those details make the title picture look active, but not settled.

Ermes’s point is that a bracket alone does not create legitimacy. The sport has already seen the division’s defining names collide at East vs West 18, where Levan defended his superheavyweight right-arm world title against Ermes Gasparini. On the same card, Devon Larratt beat Alex Kurdecha 3-1 for the superheavyweight left-arm crown. That matters because Devon is not just a marquee name floating outside the structure. He is a recent titleholder in the same superheavyweight ecosystem that Levan and Ermes have helped define.

East vs West 25 sharpened the stakes without solving them. Kamil Jablonski earned his place in the immediate line, and Georgii Tsvetkov stood across from him with a chance to reach the next stage. But Ermes’s view keeps pointing back to Devon’s ranking position and draw power as the measure of whether the championship route actually means something. A vacant belt can create motion. It does not automatically create a clean hierarchy.

That is why Devon remains the reference point. If the division wants a championship path that feels real rather than provisional, the route has to account for the man Levan just tried to pull into the conversation and the man Devon still wants to beat before calling himself champion. Until that happens, the superheavyweight picture is a race with names, not yet a fully settled throne.