Bleacher Report MMA now brings you our official rankings for the month of December. For the remainder of the month, things in the middleweight division will be relativity quiet. We will not see any of the higher ranked fighters in action, but all of th…
Bleacher Report MMA now brings you our official rankings for the month of December. For the remainder of the month, things in the middleweight division will be relativity quiet. We will not see any of the higher ranked fighters in action, but all of that will change in early 2012 when we see Chael Sonnen […]
Bleacher Report’s official December’s MMA rankings are in and this section will cover the Welterweight division of the sport, a division that has had few changes over the last month. With top fighters like Georges St-Pierre, …
Bleacher Report’s official December’s MMA rankings are in and this section will cover the Welterweight division of the sport, a division that has had few changes over the last month. With top fighters like Georges St-Pierre, Nick Diaz and Jon Fitch leading the division, it can only be described as one of the deepest in MMA, and with […]
Ronda Rousey is the next big thing in women’s mixed martial arts.
The undefeated Rousey, who beat Julia Budd on the Nov. 18 Strikeforce Challengers card, has been running through her competition like few fighters, male or female, we’ve ever seen: Rousey is 4-0, and incredibly all four of her wins have come in less than a minute, all by armbar. Before turning pro she had three amateur fights, and she won all three of those by armbar in less than a minute, too.
And so, although she’s still new to the sport and still hasn’t been tested against the best women Strikeforce has to offer, Rousey makes my Top 5 as we rank the top pound-for-pound fighters in women’s MMA. She looks that good.
What we don’t know yet is whether Rousey is more than just a one-trick pony: If she faces an opponent who’s able to keep the fight standing, will she be able to hold her own exchanging punches? And although she’s not going to face anyone who’s on her level as a judo player, will she be able to execute more than just her go-to arm bar if she faces an opponent who’s sophisticated enough on the ground not to let Rousey get her arm?
It remains to be seen. But I think she’s a future champion, and I think she deserves her place on the list of the top women in the sport, which is below.
1. Cris Cyborg (1): After more than a year away, Cyborg returns to defend her women’s 145-pound title against Hiroko Yamanaka. That’s an interesting matchup; Yamanaka has a 12-1 record and will have a height and reach advantage over Cyborg. But Yamanaka has never fought outside Japan before, and Cyborg has been so dominant that at this point it’s very tough to see anyone beating her.
2. Zoila Gurgel (2): It’s unfortunate that after Gurgel’s huge win over Megumi Fujii, she’s only been able to fight once. She’s currently nursing a torn ACL and won’t be back any time soon. It would make sense for Bellator to arrange another women’s tournament for the right to take on Gurgel, although it’s not clear whether that’s in the promotion’s plans.
3. Miesha Tate (7): Tate turned in a great performance against Marloes Coenen to win the Strikeforce 135-pound women’s championship. What really worked for her in the Coenen fight was her superior wrestling, and it’s her wrestling that would make her a favorite to beat almost any female fighter in the world.
4. Megumi Fujii (3): In the year since suffering her one and only loss to Gurgel, Fujii has gone back to Japan and won a couple of unanimous decisions. I’d like to see her back in the Bellator cage in 2012, and a rematch with Gurgel would be the biggest women’s fight Bellator could make.
5. Ronda Rousey (NR): Rousey has been calling out Tate, and although the next shot at Tate’s 135-pound title was supposed to go to Sarah Kaufman, Zuffa may decide that Rousey is too hot to hold off on right now. Rousey is an easy sell for promoters because she’s smart and articulate and an Olympic bronze medalist in judo, and putting her in the cage with Tate would be one of the most marketable female fights that Strikeforce could arrange.
6. Marloes Coenen (4): First Coenen lost her Strikeforce title to Tate, then she lost her contract when her management at Golden Glory feuded with Zuffa. Now it’s anyone’s guess when or where she might fight next; she’s with an organization called BlackEye Promotions, which has no events scheduled.
7. Sarah Kaufman (5): Kaufman’s only loss was to Coenen, and since then she’s won two in a row, supposedly earning a title shot against Tate, whom Kaufman beat in 2009. The question is whether Strikeforce will push Kaufman aside to put Rousey in the cage with Tate.
8. Jessica Aguilar (8): Aguilar looked great in her unanimous decision win over Lisa Ellis-Ward at Bellator 58. Aguilar has now won seven of her last eight fights, with the only loss coming by split decision to Gurgel.
9. Tara LaRosa (6): LaRosa has been inactive since her great heel-hook submission of Carina Damm in March, and as a result a couple of more active fighters have leapfrogged her in the rankings. LaRosa is one of the real pioneers for women’s MMA. Let’s hope she’s back in the cage soon.
10. Alexis Davis (NR): Davis has had a couple big wins since we last updated our women’s rankings, beating Julie Kedzie by unanimous decision in July and then beating Amanda Nunes by TKO in September. I hope Zuffa keeps Strikeforce’s 135-pound women’s division alive, because Davis could be a great opponent for Tate, Kaufman or Rousey.
Filed under: UFC, Bellator, Rankings, LightweightsMichael Chandler defeated Eddie Alvarez in what may have been the best MMA fight of the year, winning the Bellator lightweight title. Does that make Chandler a Top 10 lightweight?
Michael Chandler defeated Eddie Alvarez in what may have been the best MMA fight of the year, winning the Bellator lightweight title. Does that make Chandler a Top 10 lightweight?
Not on my list.
I loved the Chandler-Alvarez fight, and I like the 9-0 Chandler a lot. I think he’s one of the most talented young lightweights in the sport, and I think it speaks well for Bellator’s ability to spot talent that they signed him for their lightweight division. (Chandler fought twice for Strikeforce before Bellator scooped him up, and it was obviously a big mistake for Strikeforce to let him get away.) But while Chandler would be in my Top 20, I just can’t put him in my Top 10 yet.
So what could Chandler do to move into the Top 10? I’d love to see Bellator match Chandler up with Shinya Aoki. The previous plan had been to book an Alvarez-Aoki fight, but now that Chandler is the champ in Bellator, Chandler-Aoki would be more appealing. I’d also like to see Chandler take on Kurt Pellegrino, a lightweight who had a winning record in the UFC and is now set to make his Bellator debut against Patricky Freire. Putting Chandler in the cage with a UFC veteran would give us all a good idea how he stacks up against UFC lightweights.
Chandler’s win against Alvarez was obviously the biggest of his career so far. I want to see him get another big win before I put him in the Top 10.
The fighters who are in the Top 10 at 155 pounds are below.
1. Frankie Edgar (1): If there was any doubt after Edgar’s two decision victories over B.J. Penn and his draw with Gray Maynard, there’s no doubt anymore: Edgar’s TKO win over Gray Maynard makes him the top lightweight in the world. He’ll have his hands full, however, when he takes on Ben Henderson in February.
2. Gilbert Melendez (3): Melendez, the Strikeforce lightweight champion, should be fighting one of the top lightweights in the UFC. Instead, he’ll defend his belt against Jorge Masvidal, who’s not in my Top 10 or — as far as I know — anyone else’s.
3. Gray Maynard (2): No two fighters have ever met inside the Octagon four times, but if Maynard wins another couple of fights, he’ll have a good case that he deserves to get a fourth shot at Edgar. Maynard is 1-1-1 in his three career fights against Edgar so far.
4. Ben Henderson (6): The former World Extreme Cagefighting lightweight champion, Henderson is now 3-0 in the UFC, with unanimous decision wins over Mark Bocek, Jim Miller and Clay Guida. He’ll get a chance to make his case for being the best in the world when he fights Edgar in Japan.
5. Clay Guida (4): Guida’s four-fight winning streak was snapped by Henderson, but he’ll be back. One thing we can always count on from Guida is that he’s going to stay active, win most of the time, and put on a good show when he loses. Guida has won the Fight of the Night award in four of his last five losses.
6. Anthony Pettis (5): Pettis already has a win over Henderson on his record, and that win was supposed to earn him a shot at the UFC belt. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out that way for Pettis, and when he lost to Guida he lost his chance to fight for the title. But Pettis looked good in beating Jeremy Stephens in October, and if he beats Joe Lauzon at UFC 144, he’ll have to be considered a strong contender for a lightweight title shot.
7. Jim Miller (9): Miller’s loss to Henderson in August may have cost him a title shot. The good news is that his next opponent, Melvin Guillard, is tailor-made for Miller to take down and submit.
8. Shinya Aoki (7): Aoki’s submission victories over Lyle Beerbohm, Rich Clementi and Rob McCullough have been impressive enough, but none of those three is even close to a Top 10 lightweight. Aoki’s level of competition leaves a lot to be desired.
9. Donald Cerrone (NR): Cerrone is 4-0 in the UFC this year and still has one more fight to go in 2011, against Nate Diaz at UFC 141. He could become the first fighter to go 5-0 in the UFC in one calendar year since Roger Huerta in 2007.
10. Nate Diaz (NR): It’s great to see Diaz back at lightweight and looking good in his win over Takanori Gomi. Diaz is too lanky for welterweight, but at lightweight he looks great, and his fight with Cerrone should be tremendous.
Filed under: UFC, Rankings, Light HeavyweightsOther than Jon Jones, no light heavyweight in mixed martial arts has been more impressive than Dan Henderson in the last 12 months.
Henderson brutally knocked out Renato “Babalu” Sobral in December, won th…
Other than Jon Jones, no light heavyweight in mixed martial arts has been more impressive than Dan Henderson in the last 12 months.
Henderson brutally knocked out Renato “Babalu” Sobral in December, won the Strikeforce light heavyweight title with a TKO over Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante in March, took another TKO victory over Fedor Emelianenko in July as a light heavyweight fighting against a heavyweight, and then beat Shogun Rua in an all-time classic at UFC 139.
So where does that put Henderson? He’s certainly in our light heavyweight Top 5, but it’s still tough to justify Henderson going higher than fifth. Henderson did, after all, lose to Rampage Jackson, who lost to Rashad Evans, who lost to Lyoto Machida (who also lost to Rampage). The light heavyweight division has been so competitive for so long, with so many of the top fighters picking each other off, that after Jones, any of the next five guys could easily be put in any order. My order is below.
1. Jon Jones (1): The light heavyweight champion has easily separated himself from the pack, with two dominant wins over two other Top 10 light heavyweights, Shogun Rua and Rampage Jackson. Jones will try to make it three dominant wins over three other Top 10 light heavyweights when he takes on Lyoto Machida on December 10 at UFC 140.
2. Rashad Evans (2): Evans is a tough one to rank because he’s been so inactive of late: He’s only fought three times in the last two and a half years. But he’s been impressive in all three of those fights, beating Tito Ortiz, Rampage Jackson and Thiago Silva, and he has earned the light heavyweight title shot that he’ll supposedly get whenever he and Jones are healthy and able to fight at the same time.
3. Lyoto Machida (4): Machida is a tough one to rank: Should he be below Evans, even though he brutally beat Evans? Should he be above Rampage and Shogun, even though both of them beat him? There’s really no fair way to rank them, since Evans, Machida and Jackson all went 1-1 in their fights against each other. Machida will get a chance to show where he belongs in the light heavyweight division when he takes on Jones.
4. Rampage Jackson (5): Jackson has fought all the best of the best in the light heavyweight division, beating Machida and Henderson in the UFC, and losing to Jones, Evans and Forrest Griffin in the UFC and Shogun in Pride. It’s impossible not to put Rampage behind someone he’s beaten and above someone he’s lost to, but given the totality of his career No. 4 sounds about right.
5. Dan Henderson (6): As great as Henderson has looked in the last year, I can’t rank him ahead of Rampage, given what happened when Rampage and Henderson fought. I’d sure love to see a rematch of that one, though.
6. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (3): Shogun is only 2-3 in his last five fights, but it’s about as impressive a 2-3 record as a light heavyweight could possibly have: The two wins were brutal first-round knockouts of Machida and Griffin, while the three losses were close decisions against Machida and Henderson, and a loss to Jones in which he admittedly looked bad — but then again Jones makes everyone look bad.
7. Forrest Griffin (7): The biggest question about Griffin is whether, at age 32 and having a wife and kid, he’s still interested in completely committing himself to MMA. When Griffin is on, he’s good enough to beat high-quality opponents like Rich Franklin, Rampage and Shogun. He looked decidedly off in his rematch loss to Shogun in August, however.
8. Rafael Cavalcante (8): Feijao bounced back from his loss to Henderson and beat Yoel Romero Palacio in September, and now would be a good time to see him in the UFC, where there are a lot more good fights for him.
9. Phil Davis (9): The 9-0 Davis was pulled from a fight with Evans in August because of a knee injury, and there’s still no word on when he’ll be ready to return. A former NCAA wrestling champion, Davis is one of the most talented athletes in the light heavyweight division, and he’ll be fighting for the belt eventually.
10. Thiago Silva (10): I’ve been waiting for someone to step up and take the bottom spot in the Top 10 from Silva, who’s been suspended all year for taking performance-enhancing drugs. But no one has really been able to do that, and so Silva stays. He should return early in 2012.
Filed under: UFC, Rankings, HeavyweightsJunior Dos Santos has had a rather amazing UFC career. Signed to make his debut against Fabricio Werdum at UFC 90, Dos Santos was such a big underdog that some people suggested he was only brought to the UFC beca…
Junior Dos Santos has had a rather amazing UFC career. Signed to make his debut against Fabricio Werdum at UFC 90, Dos Santos was such a big underdog that some people suggested he was only brought to the UFC because it would give Werdum an easy win on his way to a heavyweight title shot. Instead, Dos Santos knocked Werdum out in the first round, beginning a UFC run that would lead to him taking the heavyweight belt from Cain Velasquez on Saturday night.
There’s nothing the least bit fancy about what Dos Santos does: He just hits the other guy really, really hard. Dos Santos is 8-0 in the UFC, and he finished six of his opponents with punches, while winning the other two fights by lopsided unanimous decision, battering those two opponents with punches for 15 minutes each. And yet even though everyone who steps into the Octagon with Dos Santos knows what’s coming, no one can do anything about it.
So there’s little doubt that Dos Santos is at the top of our heavyweight rankings. For the rest of the rankings, see below.
Top 10 heavyweights in mixed martial arts (Editor’s note: The individual fighter’s ranking the last time we did heavyweights are in parentheses.)
1. Junior Dos Santos (2): The biggest question for the UFC’s bottom line is how many of the new viewers who tuned in to see the fight on Saturday night are now Dos Santos fans who will pay to watch him again. Dos Santos isn’t a proven pay-per-view draw yet, but he’s an appealing and likable fighter who has just reached by far his biggest audience yet.
2. Cain Velasquez (1): I firmly believe that Velasquez will be back. Velasquez has too much talent and too much work ethic not to be fighting for the heavyweight title again some day in the future.
3. Alistair Overeem (3): I think Overeem would represent the most interesting possible opponent for Dos Santos. Overeem is the one fighter in the heavyweight division who might actually be a better striker than Dos Santos, and if Overeem can beat Brock Lesnar on December 30, then some time in 2012 we’ll see Overeem and Dos Santos go at it.
4. Brock Lesnar (4): Lesnar was articulate and engaging in his commentary role on the UFC on Fox broadcast, and seeing him again was a reminder of just how important a star he’s become to the UFC. His fight with Overeem will likely be the UFC’s biggest pay-per-view draw of 2011, and if he wins that fight his bout with Dos Santos would likely be the UFC’s biggest pay-per-view draw of 2012.
5. Fabricio Werdum (5): In the last four years Werdum’s only losses have been to Dos Santos and Overeem, while he’s had impressive victories over Gabriel Gonzaga, Brandon Vera, Mike Kyle, Antonio Silva and Fedor Emelianenko. Werdum fights high-level opponents and usually comes out on top, and I’m excited about the prospects of seeing him back in the UFC soon.
6. Daniel Cormier (6): The 9-0 Cormier has hardly even been tested so far in his MMA career, including a dominant first-round knockout victory over Antonio Silva in September. He’s set to face Josh Barnett in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix final, and if he wins that fight, the logical next step would be a shot at the UFC heavyweight title.
7. Shane Carwin (7): Carwin has lost back-to-back fights to Lesnar and Dos Santos, and his bad back is expected to keep him out for several more months, so he may drop in the heavyweight rankings soon.
8. Frank Mir (8): Mir has won two in a row since being knocked out by Carwin a year and a half ago, and in December he’ll try to make it three straight wins with a rematch against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. If Mir wins that one, he’d make a lot of sense as the next opponent for Velasquez.
9. Josh Barnett (9): Although UFC President Dana White has badmouthed Barnett many times, there’s little doubt that he’ll be welcomed back to the UFC if he beats Cormier to win the Strikeforce tournament.
10. Antonio Silva (10): Bigfoot’s future is a bit murky because the future is murky for everyone who’s still on the Strikeforce side of the Zuffa roster. But in the UFC there are a lot of very interesting fights for Silva. A UFC debut against the loser over the Overeem-Lesnar bout would be a huge heavyweight fight to make in 2012.
Ronda Rousey is the next big thing in women’s mixed martial arts.
Michael Chandler defeated 
Other than 
Junior Dos Santos has had a rather amazing