With Anderson Silva set to face off against Yushin Okami in August and Georges St-Pierre set to square off with Nick Diaz in October, the great pound-for-pound debate is set to rear its head again. The pound-for-pound rankings are one of the most exciting and controversial debates within the MMA community.
There are many problems that exist within the debate, and these involve fighters that fight in different organizations, strength of competition and the ability of fighters to finish fights. However, the main problem with pound-for-pound rankings is that they are completely hypothetical.
The true meaning of the rankings is to objectively look at each fighter’s skill set and try to determine who would win if both fighters were the same size. Trying to determine these rankings is easy in certain cases.
If Brock Lesnar weighed 155 pounds, would he be able to beat Jose Aldo? The answer to that question would be a resounding no. However, in some cases the lines are somewhat blurry and a deeper analysis is called for.
We begin to take a closer look at each fighter’s record as well as who they have beaten and how. Sometimes, we are even lucky enough to have two fighters that are only one weight class apart, and the opportunity arises to put together a dream fight.
This brings us to Anderson Silva and GSP. While it is up for debate who is the clear cut No. 1, there is almost no debating that these two men are the consensus No. 1 and No. 2 fighters in the world.
Personally, I believe the nod goes to GSP. While I understand that he hasn’t shown the ability to finish anyone since UFC 94 when BJ Penn’s corner threw in the towel after the fourth round, I still believe he has been the more dominant fighter, and his skill set is the one that has given Silva the most trouble over the years.
While Silva has had plenty of highlight-reel finishes, he has also looked very human at times in his tenure in the UFC. He was taken down and controlled by Travis Lutter, Dan Henderson and was also on the receiving end of a brutal beating by Chael Sonnen.
On the other hand, ever since being stopped by Matt Serra at UFC 69, St-Pierre has dominated everyone that he has fought, and the outcomes of his fights have never been in question. While finishes are important, thoroughly dominating someone for a full 15 or 25 minutes leaves no doubt as to who the better fighter is.
A potential showdown between the world’s two best fighters has been mentioned by fans for several years now. The goal of that fight would be to determine who the world’s true No. 1 fighter is.
However, that logic is flawed, and that fight would only determine who the No. 1 fighter would be if St-Pierre were to emerge victorious. While both men would weigh in at 185 lbs, Anderson is the only one out of those two men to be a true 185-pounder. St-Pierre noted that before his fight with Jake Shields that he was walking around at 194 lbs while Anderson usually cuts to 185 from 215.
This is a 20-pound difference between the two, and if Silva were to win it would leave the door open for people to argue that when two very talented men square off, the bigger fighter will win.
This same scenario was present when St-Pierre fought BJ Penn. Both men are tremendously talented, but when BJ weighed in at 166 lbs, that was his actual weight, and he did not have to cut weight. This weight advantage was clearly evident when St-Pierre was able to repeatedly take BJ down and not let him get up.
While I do believe that St-Pierre is the better fighter, it would have been a much more interesting and maybe even more competitive fight had the two men weighed the same.
Pound-for-pound rankings will always be a hot button topic in MMA and a fun thing to talk about. Everyone has their own opinions, and it’s interesting to hear different points of view on who people believe is the world’s best fighter.
However, pound-for-pound rankings remain problematic because it’s purely speculation. We also need to be wary in certain situations when fighters from different weight classes square off. If the smaller fighter wins then they can claim to be the better pound for pound fighter, but when the larger man beats the smaller man, it does not necessarily prove anything.
Just like BJ Penn vs. Georges St-Pierre did not determine who the better pound-for-pound fighter is, neither will St-Pierre vs. Silva.
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