UFC, Strikeforce & More: The MMA Ranking
By Ben Bieker
Strikeforce
The month of December brought one Strikeforce event that had relevance to the rankings. At the event Dan Henderson destroyed Renato Sobral which was enough to enter him into number 9 at Light Heavyweight. It may seem like one win over a top-20 opponent should not bounce Dan into the top ten, but he stopped Sobral in the first round and has had other fights that factor into his ranking at 205. Robbie Lawler’s win over Matt Lindland, while Matt is pretty much past his prime, moved Robbie up one spot to 8 jumping over Jorge Santiago. The reason for the jump over Jorge was because his only two wins this year were avenging a loss, to someone who stopped him, and a win over an opponent he had already beaten previously.
Sengoku
The title fight between Marlon Sandro and Hatsu Hioki only losses in recent memory were to current UFC resignee Michihiro Omigawa who is a top 5 featherweight himself. Hatsu utterly dominated the fight, in which Marlon later stated he had gotten hurt before the fight, but still took it. Hatsu only goes up one spot and Marlon fell off the rankings completely. This usually wouldn’t happen when two highly regarded fighters fight each other, but you will see why later when the match-ups in the UFC that affected this division are explained.
Dream
Tatsuya Kawajiri reenters the top 10 with a win over Josh Thompson and the recent loss of Benson Henderson. Kawajiri recently fell out of the top ten with his loss to Shinya Aoki, but he beat the tough Thompson whose only loss is to Melendez in recent years. Aoki also dropped two spots, and while his loss came under a special rules match it did come in the “MMA” round. Usually catchweight and special rules fights don’t affect my rankings, but the loss along with his abysmal fights in 2010 rendered him to drop a few spots. The other fight that affected the rankings was the Bibiano Fernandes and Hiroyuki Takaya fight. Here Takaya won over formerly 8th ranked Bibiano which had me putting Takaya in at number ten, but after the recent UFC card it was hard to keep him there because unranked fighters beat better opponents, which didn’t leave room for him and also dropped Bibiano out of the rankings.
UFC
The Ultimate Fighter Finale did not affect any of the ranking because the only ranked fighter that had a fight was Demian Maia and a win over Kendall Grove cannot move you up any higher than his 4th spot ranking. One fighter who could enter the rankings soon though is Rick Story, who beat undefeated Johny Hendricks. If he can beat Thiago Alves in his next fight he will jump up into the top ten at 170.
At UFC 124 we saw Jim Miller move to number 4 in the division after the knockout of Aoki. Thiago Alves solidified himself as number three in the division since he has only lost to Jon Fitch and GSP, who are number one and two in the division. He also has a win over Josh Koscheck, who failed in his bid to upset GSp so he is stuck at number four while GSP retains his number one spot.
UFC 125 had some movement, but not in any of the televised fights. We saw Clay Guida and Thiago Silva inch closer to the top ten, but they need at least one more win over a legitimate opponent to break through. Frankie Edgar and Grey Maynard fought to a draw which made the Lightweight rankings stand still. They both retained their one and three rankings respectively with Gilbert Melendez sandwiched between them. The under card saw some shifts in the Featherweight division. Top five featherweights Josh Grispi and Mike Brown losses opened up spots for Dustin Poirier and Diego Nunes to jump way up into the top 5. Diego jumped all the way up to number two since he beat a former champion and the loss of Grispi opened it up. Dustin while beating the former number two fighter did not take his spot since this was his first fight at 145, and Diego had more quality wins in the division under his belt. He had to settle at number 4 right underneath Michihiro Omigawa, but with their entries and their opponents’ losses many other fighter rankings shifted.
WEC
The last WEC card did do some shifting in the divisions. Anthony Pettis’ defeat of Ben Henderson pushed him up to 7 in the lightweight division. Even though he was previously undefeated his performance along with the implications of the fight rocketed up the rankings a little. Eddie Wineland moved up a spot to 8th with his brutal knockout of Ken Stone, and he will have the chance to move up further come March with his fight against Uriah Faber. Brad Pickett climbed a spot to 6th after going 3-1 in the WEC with his only loss to former title contender Scott Jorgensen. Kamal Shalorus did not get into the top ten with his win over Bart, but he will have the chance when he takes on Jim Miller later in the year. Dominick Cruz solidified his spot as the number one bantamweight in the world and Scott Jorgensen moved up to number three with his gutsy loss since he was able to do better against Dominick than Brian Bowles, who has been out since the loss. This fight card marked the end of an era as it was the last WEC fight card ever, but it will live on as its fighters join the UFC.
HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION (over 205 pounds)
1. Cain Velasquez
2. Junior Dos Santos
3. Fabricio Werdum
4. Fedor Emelianenko
5. Brock Lesnar
6. Shane Carwin
7. Frank Mir
8. Josh Barnett
9. Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira
10. Antonia Silva
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION (205-pound limit)
1. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
2. Rashad Evans
3. Quinton Jackson
4. Lyoto Machida
5. Forrest Griffin
6. Ryan Bader
7. Jon Jones
8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
9. Dan Henderson
10. Rich Franklin
MIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION (185-pound limit)
1. Anderson Silva
2. Chael Sonnen
3. Yushin Okami
4. Nathan Marquardt
5. Demian Maia
6. Hector Lombard
7. Ronaldo “Jacare” de Souza
8. Robbie Lawler
9. Jorge Santiago
10. Mamed Khalidov
WELTERWEIGHT DIVISION (170-pound limit)
1. Georges St-Pierre
2. Jon Fitch
3. Thiago Alves
4. Josh Koscheck
5. Jake Shields
6. Carlos Condit
7. B.J. Penn
8. Paul Daley
9. Nick Diaz
10. Matt Hughes
LIGHTWEIGHT DIVISION (160-pound limit)
1. Frankie Edgar
2. Gilbert Melendez
3. Gray Maynard
4. Jim Miller
5. Eddie Alvarez
6. Shinya Aoki
7. Anthony Pettis
8. George Sotiropoulos
9. Kenny Florian
10. Taytsua Kawajiri
FEATHERWEIGHT DIVISION (145 pound-limit)
1. Jose Aldo
2. Diego Nunes
3. Michihiro Omigawa
4. Dustin Poirier
5. Manny Gamburyan
6. Hatsu Hioki
7. Josh Grispi
8. Mike Brown
9. Joe Warren
10. Chad Mendes
BANTAMWEIGHT DIVISION (135 pounds or less)
1. Dominick Cruz
2. Joseph Benavidez
3. Scott Jorgensen
4. Brian Bowles
5. Miguel Torres
6. Brad Pickett
7. Antonio Banuelos
8. Eddie Wineland
9. Uriah Faber
10. Demetrious Johnson
The next ranking will come out after the Vitor Belfort and Anderon Silva fight on the 6th of February. So before then we have a few events that could effect the rankings.
On January 22nd we have the UFC: Fight for the Troops. On there the Melvin Guillard and Evan Dunahm fight and could propel either fighter into the top ten at Lightweight with an impressive win, and Mark Hominick takes on George Ropp and with a win Mark could crack the top ten at Featherweight.
At Ufc 126 the fight with the most ramifications is the Belfort Silva fight. With a loss Silva would obviously drop in the rankings, and with a win Belfort would probably climb to number one. Also on the card you have the Forrest Griffin Rich Franklin along with Jon Jones Ryan Bader fight, and both of those fights would have imediate ramifications on the 205 rankings. The last main card bout with implications is the Miguel Torres and Antonio Banuelos fight in which both are ranked at 135. A loss for Miguel might drop him out of the rankings since he would be 1-3 in his last four fights, and a win for Banuelos would shoot him into the top five. On the undercard, Chad Medes takes on Michihiro Omigawa and “Kid” Yamamoto fights Demetrious Johnson, and both fights have relevance to their perspective divsions.
Only one Strikeforce card, which is on the 29th of January, holds relevance. While not all the fights have been announced at this time there are two fights that could change some things. The Nick Diaz Evangelista Santos fight, and with a win Nick most likely would not move up, bnut with a loss he would drop out. For Santos he won’t move into the top ten if he wins since his record is relatively spotty and he only has one other fight at 170, but if he beats niock someone else will probably take his spot in the top 10. Then the Robbie Lawler and Jacare fight will have implications at 185 since both are ranked fighters, whoever wins that fight will most likely be the best fighter at 185, along with Hector Lombard of Bellator, who is not in the UFC.