Sho's OFFICIAL MMA Ranking Thread

[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.

 

[Bmore]

Why no Ben Henderson?

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

Why no Ben Henderson?

Yeah, I just noticed this. I am disappoint @ no Ben Hen.

 

[SHOGUN]

Why no Ben Henderson?

Strength of schedule. Going back to May 9th when Henderson was last ranked, Evan Dunham has beaten Tyson Griffin and should have gotten the decision over Sherk. George Sotiropoulos, who already had a strong win over Joe Stevenson, beat Kurt Pellegrino. I felt that both of those wins were a bit stronger than Henderson's wins over Cerrone and Varner.

BTW, I feel that 1-8 are the only 'concrete' guys at lightwight. 9-16 is where things gets fluid and all it takes a solid win or two at the right time.

 

[EmpireWF]

Dunham did lose though.

 

[Bmore]

Strength of schedule. Going back to May 9th when Henderson was last ranked, Evan Dunham has beaten Tyson Griffin and should have gotten the decision over Sherk. George Sotiropoulos, who already had a strong win over Joe Stevenson, beat Kurt Pellegrino. I felt that both of those wins were a bit stronger than Henderson's wins over Cerrone and Varner.

BTW, I feel that 1-8 are the only 'concrete' guys at lightwight. 9-16 is where things gets fluid and all it takes a solid win or two at the right time.

So what you are saying is when Henderson comes in and smashes Maynard/Edgar for the title... He will be #1?

 

[SHOGUN]

So what you are saying is when Henderson comes in and smashes Maynard/Edgar for the title... He will be #1?

:nope:

He has to get by Pettis first. :shifty:

 

[Liquidrob]

Benson fights for a division in a show that is considered 2nd rate by Zuffa, why would he be ranked in the top 10 a head of the worst LW in the UFC?

 

[EmpireWF]

Benson fights for a division in a show that is considered 2nd rate by Zuffa, why would he be ranked in the top 10 a head of the worst LW in the UFC?

You're the only one considering it second rate.

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

You're the only one considering it second rate.

bama:

 

[Liquidrob]

empire, you have fallen off lately