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By Rich Hansen, MMA Torch Columnist
The UFC released their first set of official media rankings today, and as a whole they didn't entirely embarrass themselves. Sure, some of the individual voters made absolute fools of the sport, the UFC, and themselves, but the more voters you have the more normalization you get, covering up most cases individual incompetence.
The UFC put a few ridiculous constraints in place. First, fighters are only eligible at the weight class their NEXT contracted fight is scheduled to be. Meaning, Chael Sonnen is a light heavyweight, despite not having fought there since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Inactivity is NOT to be taken into consideration, so even though Shane Carwin hasn't won a fight since I was age nine, he has to be considered.
It really is slick what the UFC is doing here. They're using independent media (no Anik, Helwani, Goldberg, Junkie, etc), to vote on ONLY UFC fighters. Meaning, ostensibly independent media members are being used as promotional tools for the UFC. And then the UFC can use these rankings as a way of shoehorning fighters from other promotions out of the consciousness? Michael Chandler? Never heard of him.
And in forcing the voters to disregard fighters coming off of long layoffs (again, Shane Carwin hasn't won a fight in THREE YEARS), when said fighter returns (for anonymity sake, let's just call him Fighter X, or better yet Shane Carwin) from said hypothetical layoff, they can bill him as a returning top-10 fighter.
So, reservations aside, and since my opinion is worth exactly squat, here's how I would have voted.
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champ Cain Velasquez
1 Daniel Cormier
2 Junior dos Santos
3 Fabrico Werdum
4 Antonio Silva
5 Frank Mir
6 Alistair Overeem
7 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
8 Roy Nelson
9 Stefan Struve
10 Gabriel Gonzaga
My rationale: I think Heavyweight is pretty straight forward from Champ through six. Nog, Nelson, and Struve are interchangeable, but even though Nelson's KO happened almost 3 years ago, and the statue of limitations of that win has long since passed, it makes for a good tie-breaker amongst two evenly ranked fighters. As for Cormier ahead of dos Santos, I think Cormier and Velasquez are clones, and since one of the closed just decimated JDS, there ya go.
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champ Jon Jones
1 Dan Henderson
2 Lyoto Machida
3 Alexander Gustafsson
4 Chael Sonnen
5 Rashad Evans
6 Phil Davis
7 Glover Teixeira
8 Mauricio Rua
9 Ryan Bader
10 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
My rationale: Look, I was awake on Saturday night, I saw Evans look bored, unmotivated, and disinterested. I know he lost to Nogueira. But you tell me right now; if Nog and Evans were to fight five times in a row over the next year or so, who wins the majority, and who is favored more often than not? Rashad Evans, that's who. Evans is a former champ with some huge UFC pelts on his wall. Nogueira got a gift win over Jason Brilz, and lost to Bader and Davis. One ugly win does not a UFC resume make. As for the rest of the division, Hendo and Machida are as 1A and 1B as it gets. We'll break that tie in three weeks. Unless Henderson tore an ACL, lacerated a kidney, lost an arm, has third degree burns on his face and chest, and just hasn't bothered to tell Dana yet.
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champ Anderson Silva
1 Vitor Belfort
2 Chris Weidman
3 Yushin Okami
4 Luke Rockhold
5 Ronaldo Souza
6 Michael Bisping
7 Costa Phillipou
8 Tim Boetsch
9 Hector Lombard
10 Mark Munoz
My rationale: I think Weidman is just as good as Belfort, but Belfort has more big wins. Weidman has Munoz and Maia, that's it. Weidman is getting his shot at Anderson Silva, or so it seems. And if he wins, he's #1 with a bullet. I know Okami beat Boetsch, and the statute of limitations on that fight is still in play. But you can't ONLY use past W/L to rank fighters. It's impossible. I think Okami beats Boetsch 8 out of 10 times, and by definition there has to be SOME subjectivity in this exercise.
WELTERWEIGHT
Champ Georges St-Pierre
1 Johny Hendricks
2 Carolos Condit
3 Demian Maia
4 Rory MacDonald
5 Martin Kampmann
6 Jake Ellenberger
7 Jon Fitch
8 Nick Diaz
9 Josh Koscheck
10 Mike Pyle
My rationale: Diaz at 8? Yup. Who's he beaten? Thank you, I win. Now, if he beats GSP, he's the best in the world, and he finally has a signature win. Doesn't make me wrong putting him at 8, though. Other than that, this list was pretty easy for me to compile, Demian Maia being the wildcard now.
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champ Ben Henderson
1 Anthony Pettis
2 Gray Maynard
3 Gilbert Melendez
4 Nathan Diaz
5 TJ Grant
6 Rafael dos Anjos
7 Donald Cerrone
8 Jim Miller
9 Khabib Nurmagomedov
10 Pat Healy
My rationale: Honestly, I think TJ Grant beats Nate Diaz in a fight. But slaughtering Miller and Cerrone outweighs impressive victories over Wiman and Dunham. If they make Grant vs. Diaz as they should, we'll know soon enough. I think Gray Maynard is criminally underrated, and I thought about putting him ahead of Pettis. Couldn't go that far, but since I think he's a better fighter than Gilbert Melendez, I ranked him as such.
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champ Jose Aldo
1 Ricardo Lamas
2 Chad Mendes
3 Frankie Edgar
4 Chan Sung Jung
5 Dennis Siver
6 Cub Swanson
7 Clay Guida
8 Dustin Poirier
9 Nik Lentz
10 Hatsu Hioki
My rationale: Frankie Edgar is obviously ranked this highly not because he's 0-1 at featherweight but because 1.) he was damned impressive against the best featherweight in the world and B.) his impressive resume at lightweight carries over. Other than that, I had no problems putting this one together until the bottom three. Pat Curran wipes the mat with the bottom half of this top-10.
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champ Dominick Cruz
1 Renan Barao
2 Michael McDonald
3 Urijah Faber
4 Eddie Wineland
5 Rafael Assuncao
6 Scott Jorgensen
7 Brad Pickett
8 Brian Bowles
9 Francisco Rivera
10 Takeya Mizugaki
My rationale: Just in case you think bantamweight is deep, it's not.
FLYWEIGHT
Champ Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 John Dodson
3 Ian McCall
4 John Moraga
5 Darren Uyenoyama
6 Jussier Da Silva
7 John Lineker
8 Chris Cariaso
9 Louis Gaudinot
10 Tim Elliott
My rationale: I'm not 100% certain, but I think I ranked every flyweight that is under contract with the UFC. You're going to see a lot of rematches in this division until they rank Pancrase...
POUND FOR POUND
1 Anderson Silva
2 Jon Jones
3 Georges St-Pierre
4 Jose Aldo
5 Ben Henderson
6 Dominick Cruz
7 Demetrious Johnson
8 Renan Barao
9 Cain Velasquez
10 Anthony Pettis
My rationale: No need to explain rationale for P4P, as this list is completely subjective. There are eight champions and one interim champion in the UFC, and I ranked all nine of them. Add Anthony Pettis, and there's your 10.
Follow me on Twitter @MMATorchRich, unless you're a Packer fan. My hatred of you is year round, not just a seasonal thing.
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/richhansen/article_15843.shtml
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