The Sports Brief's MMA Rankings (7-23-08)

The time has come.  The Sports Brief is proud to bring you our first ever complete MMA Rankings.  The emergence of such organizations as Affliction and Dream has led us to think outside of the UFC.  We will rank the Top 10 fighters in each weight class from Heavyweight through Lightweight.  Apologies to Urijah Faber and Miguel Torres, but you will not see Featherweight or Bantamweight, because we just don’t know enough about it.  Those fighters do show up, however, on our new Pound 4 Pound rankings.  Also there a list of honorable mentions following each weight class, for the guys who just missed out on the Top 10.  Enjoy the list and let the debates begin.     

Heavyweight:

1. Fedor Emelianenko

2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

3. Randy Couture

4. Andrei Arlovski

5. Josh Barnett 

6. Tim Sylvia

7. Fabricio Werdum

8. Alistair Overeem

9. Brandon Vera

10. Frank Mir

Heath Herring, Chiek Kongo, Ben Rothwell, Gabriel Gonzaga, Aleksander Emelianenko, Mirko Cro Cop

Light Heavyweight:

1. Forrest Griffin

2. Quinton Jackson

3. Chuck Liddell

4. Lyoto Machida

5. Wanderlei Silva

6. Maurcio ‘Shogun’ Rua

7. Thiago Silva

8. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

9. Keith Jardine

10. Rashad Evans

Babalu Sobral, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Tito Ortiz

Middleweight:

1. Anderson Silva

2. Matt Lindland

3. Dan Henderson

4. Rich Franklin

5. Paulo Filho

6. Cung Le

7. Robbie Lawler

8. Yushin Okami

9. Nathan Marquardt

10. Frank Trigg

Patrick Cote, Frank Shamrock, Kazuo Misaki, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Thales Leites, Chris Leben. Michael Bisping, Ricardo Almeida

Welterweight:

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Jon Fitch

3. Thiago Alves

4. Josh Koscheck

5. Diego Sanchez

t-6. Matt Hughes

t-6. Matt Serra

8. Jake Shields

9. Karo Parisyan

10. Nick Thompson

Marcus Davis, Carlos Condit, Mike Swick, Drew Fickett

Lightweight:

1. BJ Penn

2. Takanori Gomi

3. Eddie Alverez

4. Joachim Hansen

5. Shinya Aoki

6. JZ Cavalcante

7. Josh Thomson

8. Tatsuya Kawajiri

9. Sean Sherk

10. Gilbert Melendez

KJ Noons , Nick Diaz, Victor Ribero, Joe Stevenson, Kenny Florian, Roger Huerta, Frankie Edgar,

Pound 4 Pound

1. Anderson Silva

2. Fedor Emelianenko 

3. Georges St. Pierre

4. BJ Penn

5. Urijah Faber

6. Miguel Torres

7. Takanori Gomi

8. Forrest Griffin

9. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

10. Quinton Jackson

'  

-Rich Keefe & Tristan Besse

Check out all of our stuff at www.sportsbrief.blogspot.com and be sure to e-mail us at sportsbrief@gmail.com

IbeargRed-Shirting

497 days ago

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i might suggest you offer a little bit of analysis to go along with the rankings... nothing toooo lengthy but a sentence here or there would help. Also is Ken Shamrock even fighting anymore? I thought Tito Ortiz basically retired him. (that and the fact that he's really old)

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SportsbriefVarsity

497 days ago

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Ibearg, two things:

First off, thanks for the input. We debated analysis for each weight class, which is what we've done for our UFC rankings in the past. However, we thought we'd try going without this time in hopes that it might bring forth a more lively debate. But we'll definitely consider it moving forward.

Secondly, you're right about Ken Shamrock. He is really old and probably shouldn't be fighting anymore, which is why we didn't rank him, nor mention him at any point in this article. His adopted brother Frank, however, did receive an honorable mention in the middleweight division.

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IbeargRed-Shirting

496 days ago

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my bad i misread i thought it said ken i forgot about frank. (a good fighter himself)

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Oh No RomoDraft Pick

497 days ago

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The only real issue I have with the list is Shields spot on the welterweight list. He's a much better fighter than Serra and Hughes. If Shields beats Goat (Thompson), he deserves to be in the top five.

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SportsbriefVarsity

497 days ago

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I think you raise a good point, but I'll disagree for now. Shields has yet to fight in '08 due to a back injury and then issues with Drew Fickett. And while he has a nice 9-fight win streak going, look at his last five opponents: Mike Pyle, Renato Verissimo, Ido Pariente, Ray Steinbeiss and Steve Berger. I submitted Berger in the men's room of my office 10 minutes ago. However, I do think a dominant performance on Saturday night would warrant moving him past the two Matts. I'm hoping Dana goes WWE and makes their fight a "retirement match."

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ShrubberyVarsity Captain

497 days ago

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What, no Gina Carano...freakin dumbass.

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SportsbriefVarsity

497 days ago

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We thought about putting Gina on the pound 4 pound list, but after looking at her picture we forgot what we were doing and just posted as is.

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Anonymous Fanatic #1

496 days ago

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Thanks Sportsbrief, your rankings seem much more valid than most... Especially MMAranks. It's good to see Allistar make a list as well as Cung Le :)

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SportsbriefVarsity

496 days ago

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Thanks for support, glad you enjoy them. Alistair may be one of Rich's favorite fighters, and we're hoping to see him fight Cro Cop at the next DREAM show. Not sure when Cung Le will fight again. He's in the upcoming Tekken movie, but winning those fights won't do much to bolster his rankings!

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Anonymous Fanatic #2

494 days ago

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I had this big semi-analytical post on your HW rankings and then I realized how damn subjective things are.

What it boils down to is I don't think Barnett is high enough and I feel he should be 2 or 3. His last loss was to Big Nog, so I can see him being behind Nog, even though I think he can beat him. Couture hasn't fought in a year, is old and not as spry as he used to be. Arlovski hasn't beaten any decent in ages and had two back to back loses to Sylvia, so he is quite overrated in my book.

my .02

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SchmiggyJKJV Squad

494 days ago

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Ugh, why can't this damn site keep me logged in. That was me btw.

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SportsbriefVarsity

492 days ago

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I think Arlovski's devastating KO victory over Rothwell showed how vicious he can be in the heavyweight division. He's training with acclaimed boxing trainer Freddie Roach, and his striking seems to be polished now.

I can understand your arguments for Barnett and Couture. For Barnett, he has lost 3 times to Cro Cop and split with Big Nog. To be honest, I wish Couture and Fedor could fight with Arlovski and Barnett against each on the undercard, the winners meeting after.

For Couture, the inactivity sucks, but he notched two very dominant wins in '07. He's the master of game plans, his wrestling is top notch and striking is more than adequate. 3, 4 and 5 could be a toss up, but as you said, it's subjective.

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