HANSEN: Transparency in MMA Rankings - My Top 50 Pound-For-Pound Best Fighters

By Rich Hansen, MMA Torch Columnist

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So, cycle one of my rankings is complete, but with a week to go until another major event, what better time to dabble with the futility of pound for pound rankings? Pound for pound is clearly the most useless concept in this sport, but what the hell, it fills a word count, right? (Boy, do I know how to sell or what? I couldn't sell water in the desert. Or is it dessert?)

Anyhow, this is my purely subjective top 50. There's no scientific methodology to this whatsoever. Not every pick is explained, because all of these fighters have been covered already in their own weight class. After each fighter's name I've indicated where each fighter fits within their own division. Some interesting findings:

9 welterweights
8 heavyweights
8 lightweights
7 light heavyweights
7 middleweights
6 bantamweights
5 featherweights

6 of my top 16 are welterweights.
8 of my top 34 are lightweights.
The last division to place 2 fighters on this list is bantamweight (#23).

OK, they're interesting to me, at least.

Check out the divisions I've covered so far:

Week 1: Lightweights
Week 2: Featherweights
Week 3: Heavyweights
Week 4: Welterweights
Week 5: Light Heavyweights
Week 6: Middleweights
Week 7: Bantamweights

Next week I'll start anew.

Pound for Pound Rankings as of July 26, 2011

1. Anderson Silva - #1 MW

2. Georges St-Pierre - #1 WW

3. Jon Jones - #1 LHW

4. Frankie Edgar - #1 LW - Dude, he beat BJ Penn TWICE. At lightweight. That's not impressive, it's historic.

5. Cain Velazquez - #1 HW

6. Dominick Cruz - #1 BW

7. Jake Shields - #2 WW - Nobody likes him (I do), but he's won his last 15 fights that aren't against GSP, and he won a round off of GSP, and had a different doctor looked at GSP's eye, he'd be UFC champion right now. UFC champion facing an immediate rematch, but still.

8. Jose Aldo - #1 FW - The last UFC divisional champion on the list.

9. Gray Maynard - #2 LW - A win over Edgar gives him some ownership of Edgar's Penn victories.

10. Gilbert Melendez - #3 LW - He might very well be the best LW, but until he fights Edgar or Maynard, he's behind them.

11. Junior dos Santos - #2 HW

12. Mauricio Rua - #2 LHW

13. Jon Fitch - #3 WW - How insane is the welterweight division?

14. BJ Penn - #4 WW - I said, how insane is the welterweight division?

15. Nick Diaz - #5 WW - Maybe you didn't hear me. I said, how insane is the welterweight division?

16. Carlos Condit - #6 WW - ANSWER ME!!!

17. Lyoto Machida - #3 LHW

18. Chael Sonnen - #2 MW - He's unlikeable, and his skills are as diverse as his fanbase (oh no I didn't), but he has the most dominant
wrestling game in MMA.

19. Yushin Okami - #3 MW

20. Rashad Evans - #4 LHW - If he loses to Tito, he plummets. That's due to the layoff more than losing to Tito, mind you.

21. Alistair Overeem - #3 HW

22. Chad Mendes - #2 FW

23. Urijah Faber - #2 BW - I might be overvaluing Faber, who is 4-4 in his last 8 fights. But those losses are to Mike Brown when Brown was on top of his game, Aldo, and Cruz. Certainly no bad losses there.

24. Joseph Benavidez - #3 BW - Team Alpha Male is certainly hot right now.

25. Rampage Jackson - #5 LHW - Jackson and Henderson fought a classic Unification Title fight in 2007. If Jackson beats Jones...

26. Dan Henderson - #6 LHW - ...and if Henderson beats Fedor and signs with the UFC as Strikeforce champion, maybe history repeats itself?

27. Shinya Aoki - #4 LW - No big wins lately, he could fade fast if he doesn't come to the States and win big fights.

28. Jim Miller - #5 LW - If he beats Ben Henderson, he's moving up.

29. Forrest Griffin - #7 LHW

30. Nate Marquardt - #4 MW - Irony defined: "I'm very excited to be working with BAMMA," Marquardt said. "They hold sports regulation in high regard and mandate it for their athletes. They are also known for signing top-level fighters and I want to fight the best." Irony, or chutzpah?

31. Jake Ellenberger - #7 WW

32. Clay Guida - #6 LW

33. Melvin Guillard - #7 LW - All the talent in the world.

34. Eddie Alvarez - #8 LW - Become a Bellator champion, slide into irrelevancy.

35. Kenny Florian - #3 FW

36. Mark Hominick -#4 FW

37. Jacare Souza - #5 MW

38. Brian Bowles - #4 BW - I lost confidence in him seeing how he reacted to his broken achy hand at UFC 132.

39. Josh Koscheck - #8 WW - If his face ever heals, he might fight again someday. But GSP is a lay and prayer with no power.

40. Hatsu Hioki - #5 FW

41. Demetrious Johnson - #5 BW

42. Brock Lesnar - #4 HW

43. Diego Sanchez - #9 WW

44. Scott Jorgensen - #6 BW

45. Fabricio Werdum - #5 HW

46. Anotonio Silva - #6 HW

47. Josh Barnett - #7 HW

48. Brian Stann - #6 MW

49. Michael Bisping - #7 MW

50. Fedor Emelianenko - #8 HW

If you don't want to bother me here, you can bother me on twitter. @MMATorchRich

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/richhansen/article_10004.shtml

Josh Burkman  Mikey Burnett  Murilo Bustamante  Grant Campbell 

5 Reasons Why Rashad Evans Could Beat Tito Ortiz

From its inception to its current standing, UFC 133 has been a card filled with many large changes. Now the main event is currently set to feature Rashad Evans taking on a resurgent Tito Ortiz in what will be the second fight between the two former UFC Light Heavyweight Champions. Rashad Evans has quickly emerged [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/07/17/5-reasons-why-rashad-evans-could-beat-tito-ortiz

Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger 

"Legacy Fighting Championship 8: Spratt vs. Patino" airs on HDNet Sept. 16

On the heels of an impressive knockout victory, big-show veteran Pete Spratt is returning to the Legacy Fights promotion as a headliner.

The promotion this week announced its next HDNet-televised show, which features "The Secret Weapon" against Jorge "Macaco" Patino.

Legacy Fighting Championships 8 takes place Sept. 16 at Arena Theater in Houston, Texas.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mmajunkie/~3/Qjz1rpG-qCE/legacy-fighting-championship-8-spratt-vs-patino-airs-on-hdnet-sept-17.mma

Ken Shamrock Sean Sherk Katsuyori Shibata Jake Shields

Fedor Emelianenko Says His Training Doesn't Need to Change

Filed under:

Fedor EmelianenkoCHICAGO -- In the run up to his fight with Fedor Emelianenko on Saturday night, Dan Henderson has questioned whether Fedor's current two-fight losing streak is the result of a lack of motivation and hard work, going so far as to say that he hopes Fedor will change up his training before this fight so that he'll be able to provide Henderson with as tough a challenge as possible.

Emelianenko disagrees.

Meeting with the media two days out from their meeting in the cage, Emelianenko said Henderson is wrong and that his two losses have nothing to do with his training.

"No, I don't believe in any way that the last two losses were because of any problems in training," Emelianenko said. "There were no problems in training. The motivations were always there. We were always going hard."

That raises an awkward question: If it's true that Emelianenko's training was just fine prior to his losses to Fabricio Werdum and Antonio Silva, does that mean that the real problem is simply that Emelianenko isn't as good as he was during the glory years, when he reigned as the king of the heavyweights in mixed martial arts?

Emelianenko says that's not it, either.

"i just think if it was God's will that I go through some adversity with these losses, it's meant to be," Emelianenko said. "But in no way did it mean I wasn't pushing myself in training because I always have been."

For his part, Henderson, sitting just a few feet away from his upcoming opponent, stood by his previous claims that Emelianenko appeared to be in something less than top shape for his losses to Werdum and Silva. But Henderson also said that in seeing Emelianenko this week, he believes that Emelianenko looks more physically fit.

"As a spectator, and a fan of his it seems that motivation wasn't maybe there as well as it could have been," Henderson said. "It looks like he's in pretty good shape for this fight."

Some of Emelianenko's fans have suggested that they'd like to see him lose weight and perhaps find new and tougher sparring partners or even a completely different team of coaches and advisers. Those fans may be disappointed to learn that Emelianenko says there's no reason for him to radically change the way he goes about his business.

"I've always approached this as a sport, and I always knew any of my fights I could win or lose," Emelianenko said. "Luckily, with God's help, I was very successful. The last two fights it didn't work out the way I wanted it to work out, but that's OK, life goes on. I've been training with the same team, training hard, and look forward to being on the side of victory."

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/07/28/fedor-emelianenko-says-his-training-doesnt-need-to-change/

Jon Fitch Kenny Florian Jesse Forbes Xavier Foupa Pokam

Shinya Aoki vs. Rob McCullough, Satoru Kitaoka vs. Willamy Freire set for DREAM 17

DREAM has added two bouts to their upcoming late September event in Japan. The most popular fighter in the organization and one of the best submission grapplers in the world, Shinya Aoki battles striking stand out Rob McCullough in a lightweight showdown. Also added is another lightweight bout between Satoru Kitaoka and Willamy Freire. News [...]

Source: http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2011/07/29/shinya-aoki-vs-rob-mccullough-and-satoru-kitaoka-vs-willamy-freire-set-for-dream-17/

Jeremy Jackson Quinton Rampage Jackson Jaime Jara Keith Jardine

"Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson" preview: Fantasy matchmaking, guilty pleasure

Not all fights need to have title implications, and not all headliners need to intersect at points high in a division.

There are fights in which legacies clash, one star goes up against another, and the lingering what-ifs of fantasy matchmaking get their day in court. There are guilty pleasures.

Fedor Emelianenko is a heavyweight and a legend of PRIDE's heyday. Dan Henderson is a middleweight who, late in his career, has insisted on fighting at light heavyweight and become the big fish of the smaller Strikeforce pond in that division.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mmajunkie/~3/P5Ajx5wvaRI/strikeforce-fedor-vs-henderson-preview-fantasy-matchmaking-guilty-pleasure.mma

Antoni Hardonk Dan Hardy Lee Hasdell Musse Hasselvall