Lyoto Machida is still the light heavyweight champion of the UFC, but not many people agree with the three judges who allowed him to keep his belt after 25 minutes in the Octagon with Shogun Rua on Saturday night.
So does Machida keep his status as the top light heavyweight in MMA in my latest Top 10? He does, but Shogun also moves up in the rankings after a very close fight with the champ. The full rankings are below.
I don't think we've all given enough credit to Thiago Silva.
To review, Silva is 14-1 in his MMA career, and the only loss is to the undefeated undisputed champion of the light heavyweight division, Lyoto Machida. Of Silva's 14 wins, he's finished 10 opponents in the first round, the most recent of which was Keith Jardine Saturday night at UFC 102.
And yet the UFC's light heavyweight division is so stacked that on my list of the Top 10 light heavyweights in MMA, there are eight UFC fighters ahead of Silva. The full list is below.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Randy Couture are both old and past their primes. But even old and past their primes, Nogueira and Couture are plenty good.
After their epic battle on Saturday night, which Nogueira won by unanimous decision, I consider both Couture and Nogueira to be among the Top 5 heavyweights in mixed martial arts. But at the same time, I think there's a pretty big gap between the Top 2 heavyweights in MMA -- Brock Lesnar and Fedor Emelianenko -- and everyone else.
So as I go through my new list of the Top 10 heavyweights in MMA, I mean no disrespect to Couture and Nogueira even as I say they're not close to the best.
In B.J. Penn's seven fights since returning to the UFC in 2006, he's 4-3. That record doesn't even come close to telling the story of Penn, the most dominant lightweight fighter in MMA history.
World Extreme Cagefighting is home to the best featherweights in MMA. Mike Brown is the undisputed champion of the world, he should have a great fight with Jose Aldo late this year, and Urijah Faber, the man Brown beat twice, is still probably the WEC's biggest draw.
But there's one problem with the WEC's featherweights: They're not doing enough to promote Wagnney Fabiano. You could make a case that Fabiano is more deserving of a title shot against Brown than Aldo is, and Fabiano certainly deserves to be heavily promoted as a future title contender. Instead, Fabiano's fight with Erik Koch next month isn't even on the live TV portion of the card.
For the first time in a very, very long time, Miguel Torres is not the best bantamweight in mixed martial arts. No, Brian Bowles, who dominated Torres in a first-round knockout Sunday night at WEC 42, is now the best of the bantamweights.
But while some might think it hurts the WEC to have a popular and famous champion go down, I think Bowles beating Torres has reinvigorated the bantamweight division. Bowles vs. Dominick Cruz, a rematch between Torres and Takeya Mizugaki and fights involving Rani Yahya, Manny Tapia, Akitoshi Tamura and Joseph Benavidez (who should move down to flyweight as soon as the WEC adds 125-pounders) are all on the horizon. That makes the bantamweight division more exciting than ever. The list of the top 10 bantamweights is below.
After a big win at UFC 101, Anderson Silva has moved up the mixed martial arts pound-for-pound rankings. But is he now the No. 1 fighter in the world? Not in my rankings, which are below.
Most of the best middleweights in mixed martial arts are in the UFC, just as most of the best fighters in every weight class from bantamweight to heavyweight are under contract to Zuffa. But as I post my new list of the Top 10 middleweights in MMA, a list topped by UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva, I want to commend Affliction for putting together the best middleweight fight possible outside the Octagon: Vitor Belfort vs. Jorge Santiago.
Georges St Pierre dominated Thiago Alves for 25 minutes on Saturday night at UFC 100, solidifying his spot as the No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter in mixed martial arts. But he's still not close to No. 1.
I still consider Fedor Emelianenko the best fighter in MMA, in any weight class, by a significant margin. Fedor has a tough test against Josh Barnett on August 1 at Affliction Trilogy, and maybe Barnett will shock the world and force me to reconsider my pound-for-pound rankings, but for now, as you'll see below, it's still Fedor, alone at the top.
Georges St. Pierre has, in his last five fights, avenged his only two career losses and beaten the three toughest opponents the UFC could find for him. He's dominated all five fights, winning all 18 rounds. So what's next for GSP?
Take a look after examining my list of the Top 10 welterweights in MMA.
I don't think we've all given enough credit to Thiago Silva.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Randy Couture are both old and past their primes. But even old and past their primes, Nogueira and Couture are plenty good.
World Extreme Cagefighting is home to the best featherweights in MMA. Mike Brown is the undisputed champion of the world, he should have a great fight with Jose Aldo late this year, and Urijah Faber, the man Brown beat twice, is still probably the WEC's biggest draw.
For the first time in a very, very long time, Miguel Torres is not the best bantamweight in mixed martial arts. No, Brian Bowles, who dominated Torres in a first-round knockout Sunday night at WEC 42, is now the best of the bantamweights.
Georges St Pierre dominated Thiago Alves for 25 minutes on Saturday night at UFC 100, solidifying his spot as the No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter in mixed martial arts. But he's still not close to No. 1.
Georges St. Pierre has, in his last five fights, avenged his only two career losses and beaten the three toughest opponents the UFC could find for him. He's dominated all five fights, winning all 18 rounds. So what's next for GSP?
