Sho's OFFICIAL MMA Ranking Thread

[SHOGUN]

As of May 9th, 2010

Heavyweight

1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Brock Lesnar
3. Junior Dos Santos
4. Cain Velasquez
5. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
6. Brett Rogers
7. Shane Carwin
8. Fabricio Werdum
9. Frank Mir
10. Josh Barnett

Light Heavyweight

1. Mauricio Rua
2. Lyoto Machida
3. Rashad Evans
4. Quinton Jackson
5. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
6. Muhammed Lawal
7. Forrest Griffin
8. Gegard Mousasi
9. Thiago Silva
10. Jon Jones

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva
2. Jake Shields
3. Chael Sonnen
4. Vitor Belfort
5. Nate Marquardt
6. Demian Maia
7. Dan Henderson
8. Yushin Okami
9. Yoshihiro Akiyama
10. Robbie Lawler

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Jon Fitch
3. Josh Koscheck
4. Thiago Alves
5. Paulo Thiago
6. Nick Diaz
7. Dan Hardy
8. Mike Swick
9. Martin Kampmann
10. Paul Daley

Lightweight

1. Gilbert Melendez
2. BJ Penn
3. Frankie Edgar
4. Eddie Alvarez
5. Shinya Aoki
6. Tatsuya Kawajiri
7. Kenny Florian
8. Gray Maynard
9. Ben Henderson
10. Mizuto Hirota

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo
2. Bibiano Fernandes
3. Urijah Faber
4. Manny Gamburyan
5. Michihiro Omigawa
6. Mike Brown
7. Rafael Assuncao
8. Hatsu Hioki
9. Takeshi Inoue
10. Masanori Kanehara

[SHOGUN]

New rankings to emerge after WEC 51.

[Liquidrob]

Sorry Shogun, you have been out ranked

Liquidrob and Empire have stolen your thunder, you need a hook, maybe all Asain rankings

[Warner2BruceTD]

Finally, UNITY.

[SHOGUN]

As of September 30th, 2010

Heavyweight

1. Brock Lesnar
2. Fedor Emelianenko
3.Fabricio Werdum
4. Junior Dos Santos
5. Cain Velasquez
6. Alistair Overeem
7. Shane Carwin
8. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
9. Josh Barnett
10. Antonio Silva

I was a bit reluctant to have Brock Lesnar number one at first, but I am fine with it. He’s going to have a big test against Cain Velasquez on the 23rd. Frank Mir looked horrid against CroCop. He was a fringe Top 10 guy in my last edition and such a performance gives me enough cause to drop him completely.

Light Heavyweight

1. Mauricio Rua
2. Lyoto Machida
3. Rashad Evans
4. Quinton Jackson
5. Forrest Griffin
6. Gegard Mousasi
7. Rafael Cavalcante
8. Jon Jones
9. Ryan Bader
10. Muhammed Lawal

Forrest Griffin jumps back in the Top 5 essentially by default. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira’s poor performances against Jason Brilz and Ryan Bader keep him out of the standings. Feijao Cavalcante makes a big leap into the stands after laying the beatdown on King Mo. Ryan Bader did just enough to neutralize Lil’ Nog, but Jon Jones stays ahead of him in the rankings by strength of performance.

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva
2. Jake Shields
3. Chael Sonnen
4. Vitor Belfort
5. Nate Marquardt
6. Demian Maia
7. Dan Henderson
8. Yushin Okami
9. Jorge Santiago
10. Ronaldo Souza

Jorge Santiago regains his spot in the Top 10 with a stellar performance in the fight of the year against Kazuo Misaki at SRC 14 and Jacare Souza joins the Top 10 after boxing up Tim Kennedy for the Strikeforce title. Chael Sonnen is a tricky fish with his current predicament, but I’ll leave him in for now. Jake Shields and Dan Henderson are still in the middleweight rankings since they have yet to fight in their new weight classes.

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Jon Fitch
3. Josh Koscheck
4. Nick Diaz
5. Martin Kampmann
6. Thiago Alves
7. Dan Hardy
8. Paulo Thiago
9. Matt Hughes
10. Paul Daley

Martin Kampmann’s upset of Paulo Thiago combined with Thiago Alves getting grappledfucked (again) and missing weight (again) leaps him into the Top 5. Matt Hughes is on a hot streak with his new striking ability, riding a 3-fight win streak into the Top 10.

Lightweight

1. Frankie Edgar
2. Gilbert Melendez
3. Shinya Aoki
4. Eddie Alvarez
5. Gray Maynard
6. BJ Penn
7. Tatsuya Kawajiri
8. Kenny Florian
9. Evan Dunham
10. George Sotiropoulos

You can flip a coin regarding Frankie Edgar and Gilbert Melendez as the top LW, but Edgar’s dominant performance gave him the edge. Shinya Aoki easily dispatched Tatsuya Kawajiri and Marcus Aurelio, putting him back in the Top 3. And the BJ Penn for LW GOAT discussion dies not with a bang, but with a whimper. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he arguably looked worse in the rematch. Amazing how so many people still have Penn the #2 LW in the world when he might not even be the third best LW in his own organization.

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo
2. Bibiano Fernandes
3. Urijah Faber
4. Michihiro Omigawa
5. Marlon Sandro
6. Manny Gamburyan
7. Mike Brown
8. Hatsu Hioki
9. Joe Warren
10. Josh Grispi

I did not give Marlon Sandro enough credit last time. I wanted him in the Top 10 last time, but couldn’t fit him in. He has been absolutely bodybagging people since his loss to Michihiro Omigawa. Last three bouts have been incredibly dominant. Joe Warrenmania has been trucking along. Jose Aldo continues to put on an absolute clinic in the WEC. Urijah Faber is still in the featherweight rankings since he has yet to fight in his new weight class.

[Kuzzy Powers]

I dont really see how BJ gets moved so far down. The only guy hes really lost to at his weight class is your #1 ranked fighter, while a guy like Aoki has a few losses on his resume (Hansen, Sakurai), and one specifically bad one to Gilbert Melendez (your #2 ranked fighter). I just think BJ is being downgraded too much.. id argue the talent level Gray has fought doesnt put him above BJ either, but because hes undefeated and has a win over the #1 ranked fighter I think thats fair.

[SHOGUN]

I dont really see how BJ gets moved so far down. The only guy hes really lost to at his weight class is your #1 ranked fighter, while a guy like Aoki has a few losses on his resume (Hansen, Sakurai), and one specifically bad one to Gilbert Melendez (your #2 ranked fighter). I just think BJ is being downgraded too much.. id argue the talent level Gray has fought doesnt put him above BJ either, but because hes undefeated and has a win over the #1 ranked fighter I think thats fair.

Aoki's loss to Sakurai was at WW, so that doesn't have any standing at his LW. Penn has only fought 3 Top 10 guys since 2008 while Aoki has fought three since December of last year. Aoki is 11-2 at LW since 2008, and most were quality/Top 10 opponents. He's probably had the toughest strength of schedule of any other fighter regardless of class in the sport and he dropped from #2 to #5 after losing to Gilbert despite that.

I know people will disagree with me, but Penn has maintained his #1 ranking based on his strength of performances, not particularly his strength of schedule. With BJ Penn not having his dominant performances to lean on anymore (and actually coming in flat two times in a row) in conjunction with other fighters turning in strong performances against top competition, I don't exactly see the reason to keep him up there. If he showed a little hutzpah in his last two fights, I'd be inclined to agree that I was harsh, but he showed me NOTHING.

[SHOGUN]

id argue the talent level Gray has fought doesnt put him above BJ either, but because hes undefeated and has a win over the #1 ranked fighter I think thats fair.

I don't really subscribe to this idea. It's too MMAthy for my tastes because of the hindsight. Technically he has beat the current #1 fighter, but he wasn't the #1 fighter at the time. Both of them were prospects. Fighters shouldn't get bonus points because they lost to someone that eventually becomes really good down the line.

For example, Sean Sherk beat Kenny Florian for the UFC LW Championship. It sounds good now, but back then Florian was coming off TUF and only had one fight at LW in a dead division, not #2 LW in the UFC Florian.

[SHOGUN]

As of November 3rd, 2010

Heavyweight

1. Cain Velasquez
2. Fedor Emelianenko
3. Fabricio Werdum
4. Junior Dos Santos
5. Alistair Overeem
6. Brock Lesnar
7. Shane Carwin
8. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
9. Josh Barnett
10. Antonio Silva

What a dominating performance by Cain Velasquez. Brock got the brakes beat off him. The Strikeforce heavyweights are putting themselves in a conundrum with their refusal to fight each other for various reasons. Antonio Silva is the only one with a fight lined up for the rest of the year.

Light Heavyweight

1. Mauricio Rua
2. Lyoto Machida
3. Rashad Evans
4. Quinton Jackson
5. Forrest Griffin
6. Gegard Mousasi
7. Rafael Cavalcante
8. Jon Jones
9. Ryan Bader
10. Muhammed Lawal

Slow period for light heavyweights as well.

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva
2. Chael Sonnen
3. Vitor Belfort
4. Nate Marquardt
5. Demian Maia
6. Dan Henderson
7. Yushin Okami
8. Jorge Santiago
9. Ronaldo Souza
10. Michael Bisping

With Shields officially fighting at WW, he's out of the rankings. Michael Bisping debuts after boxing up Yoshihiro Akiyama.

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Jake Shields
3. Jon Fitch
4. Josh Koscheck
5. Nick Diaz
6. Thiago Alves
7. Martin Kampmann
8. Carlos Condit
9. Matt Hughes
10. Paul Daley

Jake Shields put on an atypical performance as he gassed in his return to 170 against a game Martin Kampmann, I expect that to be put behind him in the future. Jon Fitch continues to get welshed on title shot promises from Dana and gets thrown into a trap fight with Jake Ellenberger instead. Paulo Thiago drops off after losing to Diego Sanchez and Condit jumps back in after KOing Dan Hardy in devastating fashion.

Lightweight

1. Frankie Edgar
2. Gilbert Melendez
3. Shinya Aoki
4. Eddie Alvarez
5. Gray Maynard
6. BJ Penn
7. Tatsuya Kawajiri
8. Kenny Florian
9. Evan Dunham
10. George Sotiropoulos

The only big LW matchup on the immediate horizon is the possible Aoki/Melendez II on the NYE Dynamite!! card where talks have been gaining steam. Eddie Alvarez just dominated the former UFC standout Roger Huerta and despite his immense ability he will ultimately remain out of #1 LW discussions unless Bellator can find him some better competition.

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo
2. Bibiano Fernandes
3. Urijah Faber
4. Michihiro Omigawa
5. Marlon Sandro
6. Manny Gamburyan
7. Mike Brown
8. Hatsu Hioki
9. Joe Warren
10. Josh Grispi

Crickets. Urijah Faber is still in the featherweight rankings since he has yet to fight in his new weight class.

[EmpireWF]

Why Bibiano over Sandro?

[SHOGUN]

Why Bibiano over Sandro?

Primarily bad timing. Sandro lost to Michihiro Omigawa around the same time that Bibiano went through Joe Warren and Hiroyuki Takaya in the same night and GP/tournament winners always get brownie points. It wasn't until that loss that Sandro declared it was bodybag season. Sandro has had a couple of big fights lined up with Joe Warren and Hatsu Hioki, but they fell through. That combined with Omigawa continuing his strong FW run, it's difficult to jump Sandro over either fighter unless he get's another big win.

[Liquidrob]

2011 will be the year of the Strikeforce HW's!

[EmpireWF]

2011 will be the year of the Strikeforce HW's!

Not as long as Velasquez keeps kicking ass.

IMO there are 3 situations where a SF heavyweight can outright jump to #1:

1) Overeem beats the fuck out of Werdum AND Fedor (I would probably rank him #1)

2) Fedor smashes Werdum AND Overeem (I'd definitely move him back to #1)

3) Werdum beats Fedor again and then beats Overeem

If any combo of those three fights don't happen, then I blame SF and whichever fighter is making Coker's life difficult. And if those guys end up winning one fight and losing the other, then it's just a glorified UFC scene with the top guys playing potato.

Of course a lot has to happen to get those fights in place. I'm not sure how Barnett could potentially play into this. IMO, if Fedor beats Werdum and Barnett, I may be inclined to move him to #1.

And if JDS beats Cain, well, could he be considered #1?

If Velasquez demolishes JDS and then another big challenger (I can't imagine who gets the next shot, won't be Brock/Mir/Nelson/Carwin....so who?), he has a rightful claim to the top spot.

[SHOGUN]

If Velasquez demolishes JDS and then another big challenger (I can't imagine who gets the next shot, won't be Brock/Mir/Nelson/Carwin....so who?), he has a rightful claim to the top spot.

Brendan Schaub has probably snuck into that murky area of 10-15 where one more fight could get him into the title picture.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Fedor got a little sloppy and let Werdum off the hook. To me, all he has to do is wiin his next fight against someone decent and he'd easily be back at #1 in my book.

I'd have Alvarez, Maynard, and Penn over Aoki. Other than that, not a lot to gripe about. Good lists.