The Sports Brief's MMA rankings - 11.19.08

Heavyweight:

1. Fedor Emelianenko

2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

3. Brock Lesnar

4. Andrei Arlovski

5. Josh Barnett

6. Randy Couture

7. Tim Sylvia

8. Alistair Overeem

9. Frank Mir

10. Gabriel Gonzaga

Honorable mention: Shane Carwin, Ben Rothwell, Fabricio Werdum, Heath Herring, Chiek Kongo, Aleksander Emelianenko, Mirko Cro Cop, Junior Dos Santos

What an impressive performance by Lesnar at UFC 91. At this point, you have to think that guys like Fedor, Nog and Mir have the best chance to take him down with their ability to win a fight off their back. Gonzaga had a solid showing, as well, and with his size, grappling and jiu-jitsu technique, perhaps he’s on his way to another title challenge. Shane Carwin is a sleeper, as well. His striking may be more ferocious than Lesnar, but his wrestling, while credible, is not up to par. It’ll be interesting to see how the UFC develops him as a potential star. Nonetheless, the Fedor-Arlovski fight on the Affliction card should be a blockbuster.

Light Heavyweight:

1. Forrest Griffin

2. Quinton Jackson

3. Lyoto Machida

4. Wanderlei Silva

5. Rashad Evans

6. Maurcio ‘Shogun’ Rua

7. Chuck Liddell

8. Thiago Silva

9. Keith Jardine

10. Babalu Sobral

Honorable mention: Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Tito Ortiz, Vladimir Matyushenko, Brandon Vera, Luis Cane

Pretty cool that UFC 92 will feature four of The Sports Brief’s top-5 light heavyweights in the world on the same card. Machida and Silva will finally touch gloves at UFC 94, with the winner potentially looking at a title shot in the near future. Shogun returns at UFC 93 against Mark Coleman, and there are rumblings about a Chuck Liddell-Anderson Silva fight headlining UFC 95 in London, England. A lot of activity in this division in the coming months as the top fighters are competing against each other. It’ll be interesting to see how the division shakes out once the dust has settled.

Middleweight:

1. Anderson Silva

2. Matt Lindland

3. Dan Henderson

4. Rich Franklin

5. Robbie Lawler

6. Cung Le

7. Yushin Okami

8. Gegard Mousasi

9. Michael Bisping

10. Nathan Marquardt

Honorable mention: Denis Kang, Cael Sonnen, Paulo Filho, Frank Trigg, Patrick Cote, Frank Shamrock, Kazuo Misaki, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Thales Leites, Demian Maia, Chris Leben, Ricardo Almeida, Ronaldo Souza

The Anderson Silva-Patrick Cote was disappointing in how it ended, but I don’t feel Silva should have caught that much flack. I interpreted his performance as slow and methodical, picking apart his opponent in Roy Jones like fashion (his idol, by the way). While it was unfortunate to see Cote injure his knee to end the fight, there’s no doubt he was on his way to a loss. Perhaps the most unfortunate part of all this is that he almost deserves a rematch because of the premature ending, something that I certainly don’t want to see. But the division is becoming more and more interesting. Lawler could potentially come over after EliteXC closed up shop, and Denis Kang has just been added to the mix fresh off a devastating knockout over “The man formerly known as the Beastman” Marvin Eastman.

Bisping and Maia seem in line for a contender clash, as well. Meanwhile, Henderson and Franklin will mix it up at 205. What does that do for anyone? Okami returns soon and will most likely be granted the next crack at Silva, but I don’t see him winning that fight if he even gets it. And with the WEC folding, Cael Sonnen is now a name to be discussed. His win over Filho, however, is tainted due to Filho showing up fat and disinterested.

Anyone see Mousasi kick the snot out of Ronaldo Souza? Look out for this guy. I’d be interested to see who he fights next.

Welterweight:

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Jon Fitch

3. Jake Shields

4. Thiago Alves

5. Josh Koscheck

6. Diego Sanchez

t-7. Matt Hughes

t-7. Matt Serra

9. Karo Parisyan

10. Carlos Condit

Honorable mention: Nick Thompson, Mike Swick, Marcus Davis, Drew Fickett, Jay Hieron

This weight class has been fairly inactive as of late aside from Thiago Alves destroying Josh Koscheck. But I’ll tell you this: I became a huge Koscheck fan because of that fight. He took the fight on two weeks notice, took all that punishment but continued to come forward and scored some notable points against Alves. He had his moments and even appeared to hurt Alves at one point. And despite that convincing loss he’s still headlining the Dec. 10 Fight Night against Yoshida. The St. Pierre-Penn fight is still a couple months away, and this division will continue to be fairly quiet for a while. Hopefully Jake Shields signs with the UFC. He’s a legitimate threat to anyone in this division, especially the titleholder.

Lightweight:

1. BJ Penn

2. Eddie Alvarez

3. Joachim Hansen

4. Shinya Aoki

5. JZ Cavalcante

6. Takanori Gomi

7. Josh Thomson

8. Tatsuya Kawajiri

9. Sean Sherk

10. Kenny Florian

Honorable mention: Gilbert Melendez, KJ Noons, Nick Diaz, Victor Ribero, Joe Stevenson, Roger Huerta, Frankie Edgar

What an effort by Kenny Florian, and kudos to him for calling out BJ Penn. There’s no one left in the division for him to fight right now, not even Sean Sherk (at least not at the moment). The only unfortunate thing is that is will still be a long time before a fight with Penn happens, considering he is not fighting GSP until Super Bowl weekend.

Meanwhile, overseas where most of the lightweight talent is these guys all appear heading towards the K-1 New Years Eve event, where Hansen and Calvalcante are already scheduled to fight. Alvarez was supposed to fight Diaz on the Nov. 8 ShoXC event, but that was obviously scrapped. That would have been one hell of a fight. Suprisingly, Gomi lost a split decision to Johnny No Name last week, but we’ll chalk that up to a bad night. He’s still one of the best of the world.

Pound 4 Pound:

1. Anderson Silva

2. Fedor Emelianenko

3. Georges St. Pierre

4. BJ Penn

5. Miguel Torres

6. Forrest Griffin

7. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

8. Mike Brown

9. Quinton Jackson

10. Brock Lesnar

Lesnar creeps in with his impressive performance over Couture, and honestly, the sky is the limit for this guy. Don’t be surprised if he makes his way up this chart over the next year. Meanwhile, let’s all welcome unheralded Mike Brown to the mix, as he pops in at number 8 on the list. His impressive destruction of former WEC featherweight champ and pound for pound elitist Urijah Faber was shocking to some, but somewhat expected by others. He was bigger, stronger and more powerful than the former champ, and up until he caught Faber with that short right, he had been dominating and controlling the fight. I interpreted Faber’s ridiculous spinning back elbow as a somewhat desperate move, a sign that he realized it would take something spectacular and unordinary to chop down Brown.

Well there you have it. Let us know what you think and if we missed any fighters that you feel should be mentioned here. Chances are we may have, but for the most part we think we’ve accounted for the best in the world here.

-Bess

Like what you see? Check out more of The Sports Brief at http://sportsbrief.blogspot.com], or e-mail us at sportsbrief@gmail.com

AfraidofedhochuliDraft Pick

226 days ago

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Wow. there is a lot of information here. I am not a big MMA fan, but I applaude your hard work!

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SportsbriefVarsity

226 days ago

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Thanks for the support and giving it a read even though you're not a big fan. We're both pretty big followers so this stuff is fun to write about.

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Steel TownDraft Pick

225 days ago

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The problem is, MMA like boxing puts it's premier fights on PPV. I would have loved to have seen Lesnar fight Coture but I'm not gonna pay for it. I tried to find a bar that would be showing the fight but, no luck.

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Anonymous Fanatic #1

225 days ago

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Steeltown - You're right, but can you blame either sport for doing that? You put the best fight cards on PPV b/c the buys will bring in nearly $40M in revenue. Lesnar-Couture was expecting 1.2M PPV buys.

But there are a couple differences between MMA, and the UFC in particular, and boxing: First off, the UFC loads up its fight cards with quality matchups top to bottom. Some argue the non-televised fights are the best b/c those guys let it all hang out trying to earn a shot at a televised fight. Look at the upcoming "Ultimate 2008" card on 12/27. Two titles are on the line, and the 3rd best fight is between Rampage Jackson and Wanderlei Silva. Guys like Yushin Okami, Dean Lister, and Matt Hammill won't be televised. But the beauty of the UFC is that if some of the televised fights end early and they need to fill time, they show those fights during the PPV telecast.

Boxing, meanwhile, typically puts one marquee matchup at the top of the fight card and fills with matchups between guys like you and me. Other than Zab Judah, can you tell me the name of anyone else on the Roy Jones - Joe Calzaghe undercard? Can you tell me who else is fighting on the De la Hoya - Pacquiao card? I certainly can't, and most of the general public can't either. But ask a guy what he thinks about the next UFC card and he'll rattle off a number of guys fighting on it.

And don't forget about the UFC's partnership with SpikeTV, either. They put on a number of free cards throughout the year, and we'll be treated to two more within four days coming up in December (10th and 13th). UFC 89 last month on Spike featured Chris Leben v. Michael Bisping as well as Keith Jardine, Brandon Vera, Chris Lytle, Marcus Davis and others. And last September, UFC 75 was on Spike and was headlined by a light heavyweight unification bout between Rampage and Dan Henderson.

So I don't really think there's much of a problem in comparison to boxing at all. The only problem I have is that Eddie Bravo isn't employed as a ringside scorer anymore. Although anytime Joe Rogan mentions Eddie Bravo's rubberguard, that tends to make up for it.

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Steel TownDraft Pick

225 days ago

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I'm guessing that this is you Sportsbrief. If not, sign up. Anyways, I should have gone into more detail. You are right about the revenue to a point. Yes, it may bring in $40m but so could a TV contract with a major network. So perhaps they have to use PPV for now to sustain the franchise, but if they don't eventually put themselves out there they will lose fans.

My biggest problem with them being on PPV is that there is not enough exposure to the public. Most people won't watch the PPV to see if they like the sport. So what do they do? They watch what they can on TV. But as you know, the ones generally seen are inferior to UFC. That is how a joke like Kimbo Slice becomes a house hold name instead of quality fighters. A lot more than 1.2m people have access to showtime. I remember watching UFC 8 back in highschool (for free when everyone knew someone that had an illegal cable box). It was the only brand available which made PPV a decent option. Now, the average Joe turns on the tube and sees MMA on 4 different channels, but none of them are even close to the quality of UFC. Unfortunately that is what most peoples exposure to the sport.

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SportsbriefVarsity

224 days ago

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Sorry Steeltown, that was me above. Regarding a TV deal with a major network, the UFC has made a point to let it be known that it won't sign a deal unless it's for the right price. There's no rush for this franchise because the exposure it's getting on SpikeTV is more than enough at this time. Spike is a tremendous network for UFC because of its appeal to the 18-34 age group, and aside from the live events shown on Spike, we also get treated to The Ultimate Fighter, UFC Unleashed, and one-offs like UFC All Access and UFC Countdown.

Meanwhile, Zuffa owned WEC also has a deal with Versus, and while it's talent pool is smaller than the UFC, the quality of fights and broadcasts shown there have been solid to this point. Because it's Zuffa owned, WEC has made a point to cross promote UFC and WEC shows on both Versus and Spike which is broadening its exposure, as well.

The EliteXC deal with CBS was tremendous for the growth of MMA, but there was a catch-22 in that it also set it back in a way. As you said, a fighter like Kimbo Slice becoming a household name in the sport was a joke b/c of his lack of experience and his superstardom had been gained through YouTube and not his professional fighting resume. But he was exposed on national television, and his stock has plummeted. But I don't think it hurt the UFC, because the company doesn't need to reach out to people who aren't currently fans or those who are just learning the sport. There's a massive fan base already assembled, and at some point it will reach out to those casual fans when the deal is finally right. But for now, the work being done with SpikeTV is still giving it enough exposure in the interim. And Strikeforce is on NBC at like 3 in the morning. There aren't as many people watching that as you may think. I haven't seen a show yet and I'm a pretty hardcore fan.

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