Strikeforce: Destruction Results

Quick Results:

Scott Smith def. Terry Martin by KO in Round 1

Renato “Babalu” Sobral def. Bobby Southworth at the end of Round 1 Due to Cut

Duane “Bang” Ludwig def. Yves Edwards by Unanimous Decision

Joe ‘Diesel’ Riggs defeats Luke Stewart via TKO (Strikes) in Round Two

Kim Couture defeats Lina Kvokov via TKO (Strikes) in Round One

Notes:

• Check out my pre-fight picks.  I went 5 for 5 here.  Honestly, non-UFC events have fewer upsets and are easier to pick.   I don’t mean to brag, but I have done fairly well with my picks.  Maybe I should pick up gambling…nah.
• Scott Smith looked really solid and Terry Martin has a glass jaw
• I don’t know if the Southworth fight should have been stopped, but Babalu probably had it in the bag anyways
• It looks like Kim Couture fought a tomato can who was scared to engage and turned away as she was being beaten up
• Yves Edwards might want to consider retirement
• The production of this event was second rate at best

Strikeforce: Destruction Predictions

This still turns out to be a fairly solid card, b ut it really took a hit with the injury to Josh Thomson.  However, Strikeforce showed a lot of flexibility by bringing in Duane Ludwig as a replacement and by tapping Scott Smith and Terry Martin to fight, which really helped a card that would have been dead otherwise.  It doesn’t have UFC draw on it, but it has 4 good fights, plus the debut of Kim Couture.  There are a lot of prospects on the undercard and I only know of a few of them so I will refrain from picking out of ignorance. 

Bobby Southworth vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral

Bobby Southworth may be able to hit hard with that right hand, but I base this pick off of pure skill set.  Babalu may be a punk, but he is a top 20 light heavyweight in the world punk.  He has to hope for a win as he has a tough match up looming in January with Matt Lindland at Affliction’s second card.  Babalu is a great grappler, wrestler and jiu jitsu practitoner.  Southworth may want to watch Chuck Liddell’s fight against Babalu as Babalu may be suseptible to strikes.  However, in the end Babalu is too well rounded.  I saw he gets the take down and chokes out Southworth in round 2 to become the Strikeforce light heavyweight champion.

Yves Edwards vs. Duane “Bang” Ludwig

Edwards has the experience in his corner, however I think Ludwig’s muay thai will prove to be too much.  Edwards has a weak chin which will be tested in this fight.  Ludwig is not on elite level, but this should be a good fight.  Also, do not forget Ludwig will have some size advantage in this fight as well.  I pick Ludwig by TKO in round 1.

Terry Martin vs. Scott Smith

This is a great fight.  I do not know what this means for Smith’s career and the contract status with ProElite, but this is a big fight for Smith.  Scott Smith hung with Lawler in their first fight and then suffered a loss to him.   This fight will show that Scott Smith is not a one hit wonder in MMA.  A loss here would hurt Smith’s career with the fold of ProElite.  A win here and he could find a lot of offers including an offer from Strikeforce, Affliction, DREAM, or even a shot back in the UFC.  A loss would hurt that.  At one time i was on the Terry Martin hype wagon.  He looked good for a while in the UFC, but the loss to Leben hurt him.  Terry martin is a great boxer, but while he can KO people he can also be KO’d himself.  I have to believe that Smith has overall better MMA skills and hope he would utilize kicks and strikes to get the win.  I would expect this fight to stay standing.  If Smith uses his kicks well I expect he can keep his distance and pick up the win.  I pick Scott Smith to win this by decision.

Joe Riggs vs. Luke Stewart

Which Joe Riggs will show up?  Riggs has looked decent lately.  He got a bad deal with the stoppage at the last event against Kazuo Misaki, but he still was going to lose that fight.  Stewart is a relative unknown with good jiu jitsu skills.  Riggs is a solid competitior.  I expect him to win by decision.

This Week (November 16-23) In MMA

• Strikeforce: Destruction – November 21st –  This card was scheduled to feature a title defense by lightweight Champ Josh Thomson, however he was forced to withdraw to to a foot injury.  Duane “Bang” Ludwig was tapped to replace him against Yves Edwards.  Also on the card is a light heavyweight title bout between Champ Bobby Southworth and Renato “Babalu” Sobral.  That is a tough match for Southworth.  Strikeforce also added a good middleweight bout between UFC vets Scott Smith and Terry Martin.  Also, look for the debut of Kim Couture on this card.  It is worth a watch.
• Ring of Combat XXII – November 21 – This card features a couple of titles.  Including Chris Liguori in a lightweight bout with Cory Mahon.  Also, a middleweight title fight between TUF 7 alums Dante Rivera and Paul Bradley. 
• M-1 Challenge 9 – November 21 – Aleksander Emelianenko will fight Korean prospect Sang Soo Lee
• The Ultimate Fighter Episode 11 – November 19 –  This is going to be the last of the prelim fights and will feature a fight between lightweights George Roop and John Polakowski.  Also, we expect the semi-finals match ups to be announced.
• C-3 Fights: Domination – November 22 –  TUF 7 Alum John Kolosci, TUF 8 Alum Jason Guida, Up and Comer Pat Curran and Eddie Wineland will all be in action at this event.

Evaluating Affliction

One of the questions that I keep thinking about is whether or not Affliction in here to stay and whether or not they will compete with the UFC.  No one disagrees that UFC is the standard of MMA right now, but Affliction is making up ground quickly.  It has been a tell tale sign of a slight change that Affliction has signed so many guys lately including many of the stars from the now defunt IFL, which was bought by the parent company of the UFC, Zuffa.  Affliction has signed Champs Roy Nelson and Vladimir Matyushenko.  They have signed lightweight star Chris Horodecki and are rumored to have welterweight champ Jay Hieron.  Affliction is cleaning up the free agents and doing better in that regard than even the UFC as of late.  So, what is there to judge a promotion…

1. Fighter Talent – Fight promotions are fight promotions.  There are other factors that come into play, but primarily if a promotion does not have top level talent they will not stay relevant.

2. Show Quality –  While good fighters is essential, the promotion must put on a good show.  They must entertain fans.  This includes exciting fights, good commentators and a solid show production.  Promotions have to build shows people will come to or buy.

3.  Solid Managment –  Managment is important to a fight promotion, not just anyone can do it.  A promotion may suceed or fail based ont he business savvy of the fight promoter or president.  The PR, fighter pay, contracts, TV deals, etc. all come into play here.

With that said, let’s see how Affliction is doing…

1. Fighter Talent…

There is a lot of hype around Affliction’s fighter talent.  Here is who I can think of off hand that they have and will use on their cards

• Fedor Emelianenko
• Andrei Arlovski
• Josh Barnett
• Tim Sylvia
• Ben Rothwell
• Roy Nelson
• Pedro Rizzo
• Paul Buentello
• Aleksander Emelianenko
• Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
• Tito Ortiz
• Vladimir Matyushenko
• Renato “Babalu” Sobral
• Mike Whitehead
• Edwin DeWees
• Vernon White
• Vitor Belfort
• Matt Lindland
• Jay Hieron
• Mike Pyle
• J.J. Ambrose
• Chris Horodecki

I went to HDNet’s Rankings to see how many Affliction Fighters were ranked in the top 100 pound for pound or top in their divisons  here is the results.

(Pound for Pound Rank, Divison Rank)

Fedor Emelianenko (2, 1)

Andrei Arlovski (25, 4)

Josh Barnett (27, 5)

Tim Sylvia (55, 7)

Ben Rothwell (81, 12)

Roy Nelson (84, 13)

Pedro Rizzo (NR, 19)

Paul Buentello (NR, NR)

Aleksander Emelianenko (76, 10)

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (85, 13)

Tito Ortiz (87, 15)

Vladimir Matyushenko (66, 12)

Renato “Babalu” Sobral (92, 16)

Mike Whitehead (NR, NR)

Edwin DeWees (NR, NR)

Vernon White (NR, NR)

Vitor Belfort (NR, NR) – Unfairly I’d admit

Matt Lindland (22, 5)

Jay Hieron (59, 11)

Mike Pyle (NR, NR)

J.J. Ambrose (NR, NR)

Chris Horodecki (NR, NR)

Put this into perspective, out of the top 100 the promotions faires like this in pound for pound top 100 fighters…

• UFC -39
• Affliction – 13
• DREAM -12
• WEC – 10
• EliteXC – 10
• Strikeforce – 5
• World Victory Road – 3

The point is that Affliction’s talent is overrated. 

• They are right about the level of DREAM talent wise
• They are no where near the talent level of the UFC
• 10 of the Affliction guys that appeared on the rankings list have fought in the UFC before.  Some have been sucessful.  There are several former UFC champs (Sylvia, Barnett, Rizzo, Ortiz and Arlovski), however most of them did no better than fair in the UFC (see Matyushenko, Hieron, et. al)
• Most of the top Affliction guys are in the second half of their careers and are past their prime.  They still have fight left in them, don’t get me wrong, but not for the long haul
• What happens if two or three of those gusy get injured?  Affliction is hanging their hat on Fedor, Barnett, Arlovski and Ortiz.  They cannot keep putting everyone on every card, they will run out of match-ups.
• To their credit, they can put on good fights.  The talent isn’t bad.  Their guys can fight exciting fighter, but they have exciting fights at tough man competitions. They need to sign younger talent and more talent.

Show Quality…

• I cannot judge them solely on their sole show.  Affliction needs to improve their show quality as far as commentating, interviews and production is concerned
• Also, I thought with the exception of the last 3 fights the card wasn’t what it was billed to be
• They are nowhere near the UFC level as far as enjoyability to watch

Solid Managment:

• The UFC with Dana White and the Fertitas is still the managment standard.  I have problems with the UFC and Dana White’s managing style.  I don’t like his constant expletives, I don’t like the way he trashes other promotions, I don’t like the stubborness he exhibits with signing guys like Lindland and Barnett, and even Fedor.  However, Dana is crafty.  Atencio is no Dana White.  Watch his video below where he can’t remember Josh Barnett’s name and he is the main event for the second show. 
• Affliction does have the deep pocketed Donald Trump behind them which helps.  Trump is a business guiness, but he doesn’t neccessarily know MMA.  The money helps thought he same way it helped having Lorezon and Frank in the UFC early days when they lost tons of money.

Here is the point folks…Affliction is a solid upstart company.  They may be around for a while, but before we jump ont he bandwagon and label them peers to the UFC and competitors to the UFC let them get through a few shows first.  Let’s see how much money they lose after 3 events.  Let’s see how many fights they can do after 3 card.  They could compete, but as for now it is the UFC and then everyone else.  Zuffa is sitting pretty in the MMA world.  They are the big leagues, everything else is just the minors.  Affliction, EliteXC and DREAM are in the same boat and in a year from now at least one of them will be non-existent.

Affliction: Banned Fighter Salaries

The pay of the fighters is the disclosed amount to the CSAC.  The fighters likely were paid more than that when you include other bonuses and sponsor’s pay. 

A few thoughts on the pay of the Affliction fighters…

·         The pay was very, very high in contrast to even UFC fighters.  For example, Matt Lindlad took home $100,000 more than Anderson Silva did for his fight on the same night. 

·         Fedor was grossly underpaid in comparison to other fighters.  I thought he was making more than $1 million for this fight.  Perhaps he is. 

·         Tim Sylvia is very overpaid

·         Some fighters by this scale were still overpaid

·         Some fighters by this scale were still underpaid.  I am shocked Nogueira only made $50,000, the same amount as Mike Whitehead. 

·         I don’t know what UFC fighters come away with, but the biggest competition Affliction will give the UFC is fighter pay

·         It will be hard for them to cover this financially.  God thing they have Trump. 

 

Tim Sylvia: $800,000

Andrei Arlovski: $750,000 (includes $250,000 win bonus)

Fedor Emelianenko: $300,000 (no win bonus)
Josh Barnett: $300,000 (no win bonus)

Matt Lindland: $300,000 (includes $75,000 win bonus)

Ben Rothell: $250,000

Vitor Belfort: $140,000 (includes $70,000 win bonus)

Renato “Babalu” Sobral: $90,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)

Paul Buentello: $80,000 (includes $20,000 win bonus)
Pedro Rizzo: $70,000

Mike Whitehead: $50,000

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira: $50,000 (no win bonus)

Terry Martin: $30,000

Gary Goodridge: $25,000

Fabio Nascimento: $20,00O
Mike Pyle: $20,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)

Edwin Dewees: $15,000

Mark Hominick: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
Savant Young: $7,000

Justin Levens: $6000
JJ Ambrose: $5,000

Ray Lizama: $3,000

Total Payout

A disclosed total of $3,332,100 was paid out to the fighters.

Live Gate:

Paid attendance: 11,242
Complimentary attendance: 3,590
Total attendance: 14,832

Gross receipt from ticket sales (live gate): $2,085,510

My Thoughts on Affliction: Banned

Let me share the negatives first:

• The fights went as expected.  Out of the 9 fights that I predicted I got 9 right.  There were not any upsets
• The announcers were sub par to say the least
• I did not like that fights were cancelled last second like the Aleksander Emelianenko fight, it seemed to show some disorder
• I thought the fights were slow paced, but the last 3 fights were good as was the Nogueira fight and the Belfort fight.

The Good:

• Fedor.  Let the debate begin as to who the number one pound for pound fighter is.  Only two names are in the discussion (Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko).  In my opinion, both guys helped plead their cases for that title last night.  Fedor crushed Silva.  I didn’t expect that bad of a beating.  I picked Fedor, but I thought it would last more than one minute.  Fedor beat Sylvia easier than he beat Hong Man Choi.  He punched him and dropped him.  He did what Randy could not do and that is finish the fight with Sylvia.  Fedor was the highlight of the show
• Josh Barnett looked great.  I know many people want to see Fedor vs. Couture next, and Randy was even brought into the ring to hype that fight, but Josh Barnett may be deserving of that fight.  The next card may feature Barnett vs. Arlovski and Couture vs. Fedor with the winners squaring off on the third card. 
• Arlovski looked imrpessive as well.  He looked better than he had previously in the last few fights in the UFC.  His boxing looked crisp and good.
• Vitor Belfort is back.  He looked great at 185.  I’d love to see Lindland vs. Belfort at 185.  Affliction has said they will likely use the winners of these fights on their next card, that fight is very possible.
• Congrats to Paul Buentello, Babalu, Matt Lindland, and Mike Pyle who also won as expected. 
• Apparently they sold out with over 13,000 people in attendance.  The crowd was loud at times.

If Affliction is going to use winners of this card to set up match ups for the next card the card could look like this:

• Fedor Emelianenko vs. Randy Couture
• Josh Barnett vs. Andrei Arlovski
• Matt Lindland vs. Vitor Belfort
• Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral
• Tim Sylvia vs. Ben Rothwell
• Paul Buentello vs. Aleksander Emelianenko

My Affliction: Banned Predictions

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia

I believe this to be an interesting fight.  I also think that Fedor’s last fight with Hong Man Choi was a great prep course for Tim Sylvia.  The biggest problem Fedor will have with Tim Sylvia is his size.  Sylvia is 6’9″  He is huge.  Fedor will want to take this fight down to the ground, and I imagine that he will do it.  Tim has no ground game at all.  I don’t know how long it will take Fedor to get the fight down, but once he gets it down the fight won’t last long.  I pick Fedor Emelianenko to win this fight in round 2. 

Andrei Arlovski vs. Ben Rothwell

I know many people like Ben Rothwell, and that many rank him highly among the heavyweights, but I honestly do not know how good he is.  I do know how good Arlovski can be.  He hasn’t looked great lately, but he is by far the most talented guy Rothwell has fought.  I think Arlovski will win by TKO in round 3.

Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo

Barnett is looking for redemption.  In my opinion, Rizzo is not in his prime any more.  Barnett is very talented and very experienced.  I do not see Rizzo beating Barnett again.  I think that Josh Barnett wins this fight by unanimous decision.

Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Negao

This is a mis-match.  Lindland is one of the best 185ers in the world.  Fabio is unknown.  Lindland may have been too busy lately with politics to train the right way for this fight, but I don’t think it will matter here.  Lindland will win this fight by submission in round 1.

Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead

Mike Whitehead was a UFC flop.  Babalu is very good.  Babalu will submit Whitehead in round 2.

Paul Buentello vs. Aleksander Emelianenko

Don’t overlook this Emelianenko.  He is a good fighter in his own right.  Aleks wins by decision.

Vitor Belfort vs. Terry Martin

Vitor at 185?  Believe it.  He has been an up and down guy and so has Terry Martin.  Terry Martin is not bad, but Belfort is very good.  I think belfort will KO Martin in round 1. 

Edwin Dewees vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

Don’t overlook this Nogueira.  He is not a bad fighter in his own right.  This is a huge mismatch.  Nog is btter than DeWees.  Edwin hasn’t had proper time to prepare.  Nogueira will win this fight easily. 

Ray Lazama vs. Justin Levens

J.J. Ambrose vs. Mike Pyle

Mark Hominick vs. Savant Young

Affliction News: Fedor vs. Sylvia for Heavyweight Title

It seems that the Fedor vs. Sylvia fight will be for a Heavyweight title.  Most belts outside the UFC mean very little, but this would be prominent because Affliction is stacked at Heavyweight.  Perhaps this would also be for the top heavyweight spot.  I don’t know if a win makes Sylvia the best heavyweight, in fact I think it makes Randy Couture the best heavyweight, but Sylvia is up there win or lose.  Also the Affliction: Banned card is shaping up nicely.  Recently a middleweight bout has been added between Vitor Belfot and Terry Martin. 

Here Are my Affliction Rankings by divison:

Heavyweight:

1. Fedor Emelianenko

2. Tim Sylvia

3. Josh Barnett

4. Andrei Arlovski

5. Ben Rothwell

6. Aleksander Emelianenko

7. Pedro Rizzo

8. Paul Buentello

Light Heavyweight

1. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

2. Renato “Babalu” Sobral

3. Mike Whitehead

4. Vernon White

Middleweight

1. Matt Lindland

2. Vitor Belfort

3. Terry Martin

4. Fabio Negao

Welterweight

1. Mike Pyle

2. J.J. Ambrose

My UFC 81 Predictions

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Tim Sylvia

UFC 81 presents some of the toughest predictions which I worry about being wrong about a lot of fights.  This is a tough fight.  Overall Nogueira is the better fighter, but Tim Sylvia is a former UFC champ. I am reluctant to pick Big Nog becuase he didn’t look impressive at all against Heath Herring and because Randy Couture picked Tim Sylvia and he has an uncanny ability to pick fights.  However, I have to pick the guy who I feel is better.  My question for Syliva is are his better days behind him?  He lost bad to Randy Couture.  He didn’t look great against Vera, but he did look better than Vera.  Tim will still have about a 5 inch reach advantage, but he won’t have the reach advantage he did against Vera and Couture, and he won’t have the strength advantage either.  If the fight stays in the clinch or on the ground I look for Nogueira to win.  I hope he learned from Randy. 

Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir

This is another hard fight to pick because of relative unknowns.  I do know this…Brock Lesnar is a great athelete and world class wrestler. Frank Mir doesn’t seem to have the same passion he once did, but he is great with submissions.  I am so torn with this fight.  Experience goes to Frank Mir.  Strength goes to Brock Lesnar.  I am going to go out on a limb and pick Brock by knockout.  I think if he gets on the ground he can ground and pound Mir and hold his own with submission defense.  If Mir gets Brock in an arm bar Brock can just curl it.  Lesnar is the strongest and bukiest fighter the UFC has seen.  I still do not know if he can cut it in the big time.  The UFC is gambling with him, and seems to want to market him.   I hear he is for real.   My bigger question though would be will Brock Lesnar pass a steroids test?

Nate Marquardt vs. Jeremy Horn

This may be one of the best fights.  Jeremy Horn is maybe the most experienced MMA fighter in the world.  What a good replacement for Leites.  We seem to have forgotten that before Nate’s loss to Anderson Silva many thought he was the best and had a good chance at beating Anderson.  He is still and world class grappler.  I think Jeremy Horn is a tough match up though, especially with striking and experience.  However, I look for Nate to rebound and win by submission.

Tyson Griffin vs. Gleison Tibau

My pick for fight of the night.  Many of us know about Tyson Griffin, but Tibau is a great fighter.  This fight is huge.  The winner moves into the top 10 talk of the lightweight divison, the other takes a step back.  Tibau has only one big win and that was over Terry Etim.  Griffin has wins over Clay Guida and Thiago Tavares, while they were good fights, he didn’t dominate or win by much.  Griffin is tough as nails and he has never been submitted or knocked out.  I will pick Tyson Griffin, just because Tibau is unproven and because Tyson trains with Randy (enough said). 

Alan Belcher vs. Ricardo Almeida

Almeida is for real.  He hasn’t fought since 2004 so that is the real question for him, however he holds wins over Nate Marquardt and Ryo Chonan.  Alan Belcher is a good fights.  He last beat Kalib Starnes by ref stoppage due to a huge cut that went to Starnes’ skull.  The outcome depends on the pace of the fight.  A slow fight favors Almeida, but a stand up battle favors Belcher.  I want Almeida to win and comeback because he is good for the middleweight divison, however it has been four years.  What the heck, I pick Almeida by either submission or unanimous decision.

Terry Martin vs. Marvin Eastman

The question this fight will answer is before Chris Leben was Terry Martin uverrated.  I will grant that he got caught against Leben and almost won that fight.  Eastman is big and can hit hard.  Size won’t be much of a difference.  Terry Martin is younger if that matters.  Marvin Eastman has the experience and has fought a lot of good fighters throughout his career.  I would like to see a rejuvenated Marvin Eastman.  However, I think Terry Martin will pull out a win here.

David Heath vs. Tim Boetsch

On paper this is the fight that I could least care about.  David Heath is okay, but hasn’t done great in the UFC.  I wonder how the late notice with affect Boetsch?  I think this is a gimmer for David Heath who has little chance of making any noise in the light heayweight divison. 

Chris Lytle vs. Kyle Bradley

Chris Lytle has fought well against some good guys.  He lost a split decision to Matt Serra.  He went the distance with Matt Hughes.  I have to pick Chris Lytle over the unknown Kyle Bradley.

Rob Emerson vs. Keita Nakamura

Japanese fighters just haven’t done well in the UFC.  I do not like Rob Emerson.  I believe he got lucky that Gray Maynard knocked himself out because Emerson was done!  Emerson lost more TUF fights than you can shake a stick at.  He is a punk.  He should be locked up in jail for his gang and him beating up on some random guy.  Anyways, I am picking Keita out of pure spite for Emerson.  I hope this seals his exit from the UFC for good.

What to expect in MMA in ’08

• I expect to see new title holders in every division but one and that is the middleweight.  All though Anderson could be challenged by Dan Henderson.  My picks for the title holders: Nogueira, Not sure about lightheavyweight, Anderson Silva, St. Pierre, and B.J. Penn.
• I expect to see a few more fighters signed to UFC contracts.  Highlighting the list: Matt Lindland, Gilbert Melendez, Jake Shields, and some other big name surprise
• I expect TUF to be a disappointment with Rampage Jackson getting a lot of camera time saying his crazy off the wall things
• I expect the middleweight division to get tougher
• I expect a few UFC stars to retire (Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin)
• I expect Sean Sherk to get another title shot, but B.J. Penn to beat him badly
• I expect the light heavyweight division to get crazier with guys like Machdia, Thiago Silva, Rashad Evans, and Shogun in the title mix.
• I expect Chuck Liddell to avenge his loss to Keith Jardine by summer
• I expect that Shogun is still only one fight away from a title shot, I think that my top ten in the lightheavyweight at the top ten at light heavyweight, perhaps not in that order.
• I expect Dan Henderson to try Anderson Silva like he hasn’t been tried in a while
• I expect Jon Fitch, Kenny Florian, Sean Sherk, Roger Huerta, Matt Lindland, and either Arlovski or Cro Cop to get a title shot. 
• I expect the former PRIDE guys to turn it around in the octagon
• I expect another solid fight from Wanderlai Silva, can you say rematch?
• I expect the Fedor vs. Randy fight to happen
• I expect other organizations to become more of a competition to the UFC
• I expect Dana White to say many more expletives on national television
• I expect TUF alums to suceed this year even more
• I expect Diego Sanchez to drop to lightweight
• I expect Brock Lesnar to be a middle of the road fighter
• I expect Brandon Vera to drop to lightheavyweight
• I expect Bisping to cry when he gets beat in middleweight
• I expect Tito to loose in the Apprentice

UFC Fighter Rankings

Where do fighters rank in the UFC?  I’ve seen all sorts of thoughts on rankings, so I will chime in and give my rankings, which of course are the best and most accurate.  I am using a few guidelines.

• This is strictly UFC, not including fighters not yet signed in UFC from Pride.  For example, Fedor would be on or near the top of the Heavyweight rankings, but he is yet to sign so he is not included
• This is based not on popularity or even record, but purely on who I perceive to be the best fighters
• I am putting the title holders at number one in each weight class, even though they might not be the best in that class, for example, I would not have Matt Serra as the best fighter in his class, but he is the belt holder.
• Some fighters are rising quickly and others are falling quickly (i.e. Tito and Cro Cop)

HEAVYWEIGHTS

1. Randy “The Natural” Couture

2. Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski

3. Gabriel Gonzaga

4. Cheick Kongo

5. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

6. Tim Sylvia

7. Mirko “Cro Cop”

8. Brandon Vera

9. Frank Mir

10. Jeff Monson 

11. Heath Herring

12. Fabricio Werdum

13. Assuerio Silva

(Note: Fedor, Josh Barnett, and even Aleksander Emelianko may have made the list had they signed. )

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHTS

1. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson

2. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

3. Dan Henderson

4. Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell

5. Wandelai Silva

6. Rashad Evans

7. Houston Alexander

8. Tito Ortiz

9. Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine

10. Forrest Griffin

11. Rogerio “Minotoro” Nogueira

12. Matt “The Hammer” Hamill

13. Micael Bisping

14. Ryoto Machida

15. Jason Lambert

16. Stephan Bonnar

17. Renato “Babalu” Sorbal

18. Wilson Gouveia

19. Marvin Eastman

(Note: I put Hamill above Bisping because I believe he beat Bisping in their fight.  Even though Bisping got the win, Hammil looked better.)

MIDDLEWEIGHT:

1. Anderson Silva

2. Rich Franklin

3. Yushim Okami

4. Terry Martin

5. Nate Marquardt

6. Dan Henderson

7. Jason MacDonald

8. Patrick Cote 

9. Kalib Starnes

10. Chris Leben

11. Martin Kampmann

12. Thales Leites

13. Ivan Salaverry

14. Nate “Rock” Quarry

15. Evan Tanner

16. Kendall Grove

17. Ed Herman

18. Travis Lutter

19. Dean Lister

20. Alessio Sakara

WELTERWEIGHT:

1. Matt Serra

2. Georges St. Pierre

3. Matt Hughes

4. Diego Sanchez

5. Karo Parisyan

6. Josh Koschek

7. Jon Fitch

8. B.J. Penn

9. Marcus Davis

10. Mike Swick

11. Thiago Alves

12. Josh Burkman

13. Luigi Fioravanti

14. Nick Diaz

15. Chris Lytle

16. Edilberto “Crocota” de Oliveira

17. Jonathan Goulet

LIGHTWEIGHT:

1.  Sean Sherk

2. B.J. Penn

3. Joe “Daddy” Stevenson

4. Roger Huerta

5. Kenny Florian

6. Hermes Franca

7. Nick Diaz

8. Joe Lauzon

9.  Din Thomas

10. Marcus Davis

11. Clay Guida

12. Spencer Fisher

13. Frank Edgar

14. Melvin Guillard

15. Drew Fickett

16. Kurt Pellegrino

17. Terry Etim

18. Tyson Griffin

19. Marcus Aurelio

20. Sam Stout

21. Tiago Tavares

22. Nate Diaz

(Note: I listed to 22 because there are so many quality fighters and the last 12-15 of these guys are not far from one another in ranking,  Some rankings have my number 19 Marcus Aurelio much higher, but come on, whose he gonna bump down?)

 Let the disputing begin.  I’d love to hear comments.  Perhaps I left someone off included someone I shouldn’t have.  Perhaps I have someone overrated or another underrated.  Let me know what you think.