Sho's OFFICIAL MMA Ranking Thread

[calgaryballer]

I think it's some flawed logic. Benson is an exciting fighter who is well spoken and you'd think would be an easy sell. Jamie Varner was in the UFC and lost to Hermes Franca and beat a chump. Cerrone is 3-3 in his last 6 fights. I'd favour Sotiropolous, Stevenson and Pelegrino over both of those guys

Benson is a product of his competition. I just don't see a reason why, if Dana and co thought that Benson could actually compete in the UFC, they left him wallowing in the WEC for so long.

I love Ben, for who he is. I don't know if he will be able to come in and have the same success against UFC guys

[EmpireWF]

Benson is a product of his competition. I just don't see a reason why, if Dana and co thought that Benson could actually compete in the UFC, they left him wallowing in the WEC for so long.

The UFC has never plucked a WEC fighter.

The only reason Sonnen ended up in the UFC was they folded the 185 division in WEC.

[calgaryballer]

The UFC has never plucked a WEC fighter.

The only reason Sonnen ended up in the UFC was they folded the 185 division in WEC.

You've never found that strange? Has there ever been a WEC fighter that you thought had a real shot?

[EmpireWF]

You've never found that strange? Has there ever been a WEC fighter that you thought had a real shot?

Well, we know Sonnen could do well.

Hendo and Cerrone I think will do fine in the UFC 155 division. Obviously, there is a stigma attached to the WEC brand.

[Liquidrob]

In that case rob, wouldn't the Strikeforce and Japan lightweights be considered second rate as well?

did you miss my point completely?

yes, yes you did

[SHOGUN]

As of January, 3rd 2011

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

Not a lot of in-ring action outside of Alistair Overeem and Antonio Silva. Overeem dominates the K-1 World Grand Prix and crushes Todd Duffee in a minute and change at Dynamite!! while Mike Kyle nearly upsets "Big Foot" Silva. With the UFC guys either in limbo, injury or hiding in shame and Strikeforce actually making something happen with their division beginning in January, this list could fluctuate in the future.

Light Heavyweight

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

Thiago Silva reclaims his spot back in the Top 10 after returning from injury and dominating Brandon Vera at UFC 125 and "Rampage" Jackson continued to pick away at Lyoto Machida's former aura of invincibility. Dan Henderson KO'd Babalu in devastating fashion back in December, but is not quite there yet to crack the list. Forrest Griffin should be dropped for inactivity, but he has a fight lined up for February.

Middleweight

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

Yushin Okami finally gets a his well deserved title shot after edging out a lackluster Nate Marquardt. I was close to sneaking Robbie Lawler back into the Top 10, but relented as it's really easy to finish Lindland that this point, then I realized Henderson had made the move to 205, so he made it in the end. Unlike with Griffin, I finally relented and dropped a bit Vitor for such prolonged inactivity (in addition to his peers being active), but he's fighting #1 Anderson Silva in February at UFC 126, so we'll see if he climbs back up.

Welterweight

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

B.J. Penn completely owned Matt Hughes out of the rankings, possibly for good, at UFC 123, Georges St. Pierre put on a jab clinic on Josh Koshcheck while Thiago Alves shows John Howard how hard it is to crack that upper echleon of welterweights at UFC 124. Let us not forget how Paul Daley faceplanted Scott Smith in his Strikeforce debut. The welterweight division has become murky after those nine, but Ben Askren has repeatedly shined so he gets the spot.

Lightweight

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

For years, Tatsuya Kawajiri has been the proverbial bridesmaid to Shinya Aoki, but now he has set himself up for a chance at redemption for himself and the Japanese MMA scene with a potential title shot and rematch against Gilbert Melendez after a dominant performance of Josh Thomson at Dynamite!! Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar put on an early front runner for 2011's Fight of the Year with their dramatic fight on Janurary 1 and I was nearly moved enough to push Maynard over Alvarez, but held back. With BJ Penn moving to 170, Jim Miller finally gets his deserved mention with his quick dispatching of Charles Oliviera.

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo
2. Michihiro Omigawa
3. Hatsu Hioki
4. Hiroyuki Takaya
5. Marlon Sandro
6. Manny Gamburyan
7. Bibiano Fernandes
8. Joe Warren
9. Diego Nunes
10. Mark Hominick

The featherweight division now is simply a deep clusterfuck. Hatsu Hioki effectively controlled Marlon Sandro in their title match at Sengoku: Soul of Fight, Hiroyuki Takaya defeating Bibiano Fernandes outright in the rematch for the DREAM FW title and Kazuyuki Miyata continues to knock at the door with his career resurgence at FW by suplexing Caol Uno round the ring at Dynamite!! With Urijah Faber down to Bantamweight, Mike Brown dropping to Diego Nunes, and Josh Grispi getting lit up by a relative unknown Dustin Poirier, there is a growing murmur that maybe the WEC guys weren't as good as everyone thought. While I think that is a bit of an overreaction, I feel that people got too enamored with seeing top guys domestically and undersold the overseas action, which is prone to happen with the United States becoming the epicenter of major and relevant MMA. And with the potential of more UFC 155 guys dropping down, ZUFFA talent pillages, continued crossover fights in Japan and their new focus on the division the the state of the weight class in general will be in flux for at least a year or two and I find it very, very exciting.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Great job as always. I have two minor gripes, otherwise, looks spot on.

-Aoki is a few spots too high.

-Warren is a few spots too low.

[calgaryballer]

I think Aoki is much too high. A KO to a guy who never fought MMA before? I know it's a gimmick match, but that was in the MMA rules portion of their bout. I'm probably letting that color my vision a bit too much, but I don't think a Top 3 LW loses that way, regardless of the setting

[Kuzzy Powers]

So BJ doesnt get ranked in either division?

Matt Hughes is still > Askren friend.. theres no question about that.

Also, even as a Bellator basher, id find a way to squeeze Hector Lombard onto the MW list.. probably right @ 10 over Lawler.

PS: Too much love for Aoki.

[CrimsonGhost56]

aoki is still a top 5 IMO.

lombard is definitely top 10. no doubt

[SHOGUN]

Great job as always. I have two minor gripes, otherwise, looks spot on.

-Aoki is a few spots too high.

-Warren is a few spots too low.

I was absolutely racking my brain trying to sort out the featherweights before I settled on what I have now and I'm still not completely satisfied. Initially, I had Warren behind Sandro and Gamburyan down to 8th, but I didn't want to completely dump on Manny and Warren's loss to Bibiano was still fresh in my mind. At one point, I also considered Miyata, Mendes, Soto and Friere as well.

I think Aoki is much too high. A KO to a guy who never fought MMA before? I know it's a gimmick match, but that was in the MMA rules portion of their bout. I'm probably letting that color my vision a bit too much, but I don't think a Top 3 LW loses that way, regardless of the setting

As embarrassing as it was, it was still a gimmick match. I can't put much weight in that. But it was very shameful.

So BJ doesnt get ranked in either division?

Matt Hughes is still > Askren friend.. theres no question about that.

Also, even as a Bellator basher, id find a way to squeeze Hector Lombard onto the MW list.. probably right @ 10 over Lawler.

PS: Too much love for Aoki.

BJ is fighting at 170 now, so he's ineligible for 155 and BJ doesn't get ranked for that one win, especially when he's only .500 at WW. Same with Hendo. He's back at 205 and he's not ranked, either.

Hughes might be more highly regarded, but he got demolished in 21 seconds. There's no way I could legitimately keep him ranked after that.

aoki is still a top 5 IMO.

lombard is definitely top 10. no doubt

Lombard is still on on the fringe, but he had that stinker against Shlemenko, while Bisping and Lawler had better performances.

[JeremyHight]

I like the lists, but I'd have a hard time saying Griffin is a top 5 LHW. Losing 2 of the last 3 fights by KO and his only victory being a split decision over Tito isn't exactly impressive, but I've always been a "What have you done for me lately" guy when it comes to rankings.

I would say whoever wins between Jones and Bader will easily kick him out of the top 5. Both guys have a legitimate future in the division.

[guchi45]

Do you also like WWE and Boxing?

[SHOGUN]

Do you also like WWE and Boxing?

WWE is cool, but W2BTD got me hooked on the strong style stuff like Ring of Honor and New Japan over the summer.

I'm a casual boxing fan at best. I don't dislike it, but I prefer kickboxing and Muay Thai because I like kicks and elbows.

[SHOGUN]

As of February, 17th 2011

Heavyweight

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

There was no opportunity to claim that Fedor Emelianenko simply got caught or was a victim of a bad stoppage this time, the greatest heavyweight that this sport has ever known was outright beaten by Antonio Silva in the main event of Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva. Silva’s size combined with his technique overwhelmed the normally undersized Emelianenko; the BJJ black belt put Fedor on his back almost immediately in the second round and pounded away on him for four minutes. I expect more fluctuation soon with the next stage of Strikeforce’s Grand Prix taking place in April and none of the top UFC heavyweights being in action until late May at the earliest.

Light Heavyweight

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

With Rashad Evans pulling out of his title fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, it was his extremely talented teammate Jon Jones that took his place after he ran through one of the UFC’s more hyped prospects in Ryan Bader with relative ease at UFC 126. While the Jones/Rua title fight in March has everyone drooling, Strikeforce will also show Rafael Cavalcante having his first title defense against Dan Henderson. A win by either fighter would be a big boost for their standing. I’m still waiting for this weight class to shape up. Several fighters that can be considered for the final spot, but I’m not particularly sold that any of them deserve it.

Middleweight

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

Well, Silva vs. Belfort was a bit anti-climactic. What was expected to be an explosive back and forth main event for UFC 126 turned into Anderson Silva quickly putting out Belfort’s lights with a Steven Segal front kick that was right out of a movie. “Jacare” Souza might be the second best middleweight in the world. In an exciting display of grappling from both fighters, Souza recovered for an early scare and submitted a very game Robbie Lawler at Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg. With the Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre superfight being priority number one by the UFC, Okami will most likely be shelved – again.

Welterweight

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

Aside from a very entertaining fought between Nick Diaz and Evangelista Cyborg, nothing much has happened. The fun starts at the end of the month when John Fitch squares off against BJ Penn and Carlos Condit meets Chris Lytle at UFC 127, Paul Daley puts his Strikeforce title shot on the line against DEEP Champion Yuya Shirai in his home country of England at BAMMA 5, and then Martin Kampmann takes on Diego Sanchez at UFC on Versus 3 at the start of March.

Lightweight

1. Frankie Edgar
2. Gilbert Melendez
3. Eddie Alvarez
4. Shinya Aoki
5. Gray Maynard
6. Tatsuya Kawajiri
7. Kenny Florian
8. George Sotiropoulos
9. Jim Miller
10. Anthony Pettis

Evan Dunham got KTFO by Melvin Guillard at UFC Fight for the Troops 2. Not much else happened. Yes, I switched Eddie Alvarez with Shinya Aoki. I honestly don’t have a reason behind it, but it just feels “right”. Kenny Florian is attempting to try and take advantage of a featherweight division in flux with a test fight at 145 and depending on who you ask Shinya Aoki might retire after being trolled by people on Twitter or he might being making the jump stateside full-time. I’m looking forward to see how both of those situations turn out.

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo
2. Hatsu Hioki
3. Hiroyuki Takaya
4. Chad Mendes
5. Marlon Sandro
6. Michihiro Omigawa
7. Manny Gamburyan
8. Bibiano Fernandes
9. Joe Warren
10. Diego Nunes

Chad Mendes welcomed Michihiro Omigawa to the American way of MMA by giving him a heaping dose of Division-I Wrestling at UFC 126, but Mendes showed that his skill set is still growing and even outstruck Omigawa, who has some of the best boxing in the division. If he can work on his gas tank, he should be a tough match for anybody at 145. Manny Gamburyan will be making his return in March at UFC 128 against Raphael Assuncao.