Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, Light Heavyweights
When you’re trying to rank MMA fighters, it’s easy to say you’ll just rank them based on who they’ve beaten and who they’ve lost to inside the cage. It’s a lot harder to actually create the rankings when you realize that it’s mathematically impossible to rank every fighter ahead of the guys he’s beaten and behind the guys who have beaten him.
That’s the challenge of picking the No. 2 light heavyweight in the world right now. UFC light heavyweight champion Shogun Rua is No. 1, but there are three candidates for No. 2: Rampage Jackson, Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans. And there’s simply no way to rank those three without putting one of them behind someone he’s beaten, and another one ahead of a man who has beaten him. Machida beat Evans, Evans beat Rampage, and Rampage beat Machida. Any way you slice it, someone has to get ranked ahead of someone who beat him in the cage.
So who’s No. 2? I make my choice below.