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MMA Top 10 Heavyweights: Daniel Cormier Shows He’s for Real

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, Heavyweights

It’s been a busy time in the heavyweight division in mixed martial arts: The UFC has announced that Cain Velasquez will defend the heavyweight title against Junior dos Santos on Fox, that Brock Lesnar will return against former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem in what should be the year’s biggest pay-per-view, and that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will attempt to continue his comeback with a rematch against Frank Mir.

But the most exciting thing to happen in the heavyweight division recently has been the emergence of Daniel Cormier.

Cormier didn’t just win against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinal. He won in devastating fashion and did it by out-striking Silva, not by out-wrestling him, which most people thought was Cormier’s only path to victory. The victory vaults Cormier into the heavyweight Top 10, which is below.

Top 10 Heavyweights in MMA
(Editor’s note: The individual fighter’s ranking the last time we did heavyweights are in parentheses.)

1. Cain Velasquez (1): The champion will finally return to the Octagon against Junior dos Santos in November, after more than a year away. He says he’s at full strength after shoulder surgery. He’ll need to be against dos Santos, who’s a better striker than anyone Velasquez has ever faced.

2. Junior dos Santos (2): In a sign of how big the dos Santos-Velasquez fight is going to be, Fox was advertising it during its Week 1 NFL games. That’s the kind of promotion that will bring these two heavyweights — and the UFC — to a whole new audience.

3. Alistair Overeem (3): By signing to face Lesnar at the end of the year, Overeem has accepted the biggest challenge of his MMA career: Overeem has never faced anyone as physically strong as Lesnar, or anyone with Lesnar’s wrestling pedigree. Overeem won’t be able to throw Lesnar around or bully him in the clinch, the way he’s been able to do against so many of his recent opponents.

4. Brock Lesnar (4): The big problem Lesnar had in his last two fights is that he didn’t react well to getting hit in the face by Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez. That could become an even bigger problem when he faces Overeem, who’s an absolutely devastating striker.

5. Fabricio Werdum (5): Werdum is the best Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioner in the heavyweight division and a threat to submit anyone he faces, but at the moment it’s hard to see where he goes: Fans aren’t exactly clamoring to see him again after his lackluster performance in his June loss to Overeem, and the uncertain future of Strikeforce may have him waiting around for a while before he finds his next fight.

6. Daniel Cormier (NR): Cormier is an Olympic wrestler and maybe the best pure wrestler in all of MMA, but what’s so impressive about Cormier is how far his striking has come. Cormier made a conscious effort to turn himself into a well-rounded mixed martial artist rather than simply a wrestler who plays to his strengths in the cage, and the results on display in his knockout win over Bigfoot were stunning. Cormier is now 9-0 and a real force in the heavyweight division.

7. Shane Carwin (7): Carwin is now on a two-fight losing streak, but there’s no shame in losing to Lesnar and dos Santos. The bigger question facing Carwin is whether he’s lost some of his devastating power. The 36-year-old, 255-pound Carwin who lost to dos Santos didnt’ look nearly as powerful as the 35-year-old, 265-pound Carwin who knocked out Frank Mir.

8. Frank Mir (8): Mir should be favored to beat Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira again in their December rematch. If he does, he’ll position himself to make another run at the UFC heavyweight title in 2012, although he’ll have to get in line behind the Lesnar-Overeem winner.

9. Josh Barnett (10): Barnett is now on an eight-fight winning streak, and he hasn’t lost since meeting Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in Pride in 2006. He’ll have his hands full in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix final, however, as he won’t be able to take down Daniel Cormier and control him on the ground, which was Barnett’s path to victory over Brett Rogers and Sergei Kharitonov.

10. Antonio Silva (6): The way Silva dropped like a sack of potatoes against Cormier raises some questions about his striking defense, but Silva is still a big talent who could potentially have some very interesting matchups against heavyweights in either Strikeforce or the UFC.

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Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, Heavyweights

But the most exciting thing to happen in the heavyweight division recently has been the emergence of Daniel Cormier.

Top 10 Heavyweights in MMA
(Editor’s note: The individual fighter’s ranking the last time we did heavyweights are in parentheses.)

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UFC Power Rankings: 5 Best Sports Fights of the Decade Outside the Octagon

Over the past decade we have seen some of the greatest fights in the history of the UFC. While the UFC has clearly been the center stage for fighters across the globe, it’s certainly not the only place we’ve seen exciting fights. While figh…

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UFC Power Rankings: 5 Best Sports Fights of the Decade Outside the Octagon

MMA Top 10 Pound-for-Pound: Anderson Silva Stands Far Above the Rest

Filed under: UFC, Rankings, OverallSaying that Anderson Silva the best fighter in MMA is an accurate statement, but it’s also an understatement. Just calling Silva the best doesn’t really capture just how big a gap there is between Silva and the rest o…

Filed under: UFC, Rankings, Overall

Saying that Anderson Silva the best fighter in MMA is an accurate statement, but it’s also an understatement. Just calling Silva the best doesn’t really capture just how big a gap there is between Silva and the rest of the sport right now.

Since signing with the UFC in 2006, Silva is 14-0, which is the best record anyone has ever had in the UFC. But it’s not just the fact that he keeps winning, it’s the way he wins. Twelve of Silva’s 14 victories are by stoppage, and he has a wide variety of ways he can stop his opponents: He knocked out Chris Leben and Rich Franklin with knees, James Irvin and Forrest Griffin with punches, and Vitor Belfort with a front kick. He TKO’d Yushin Okami and Nate Marquardt with punches, and Franklin with knees in a rematch. (He also TKO’d Patrick Cote, although you can’t give Silva a whole lot of credit for the way Cote’s knee buckled underneath him.) Silva made Chael Sonnen tap out to a triangle armbar, made Dan Henderson tap out to a rear-naked choke and made Travis Lutter tap out by holding him in a triangle and elbowing him in the head.

Winning percentage and stoppages aren’t the only way to measure a fighter, but a fighter’s record gives you a pretty good idea how good he is, and how often he finishes his opponent gives you a pretty good idea how dominant he is. And there’s really no one on Silva’s level when it comes to fighting at a high level, consistently winning and stopping his opponents with great frequency.

We’ll compare Silva to the rest of the best fighters in MMA below.

Top 10 Pound-for-Pound Fighters in MMA
(Number in parentheses is the fighter’s rank in the last pound-for-pound list.)

1. Anderson Silva (1): Silva is the all-time UFC record holder for consecutive wins and wins in title fights, and he’s twice moved up in weight class and destroyed the two opponents he met at 205 pounds. The only real question is whether the UFC can keep finding good opponents for him; other than a Sonnen rematch there’s not a lot for Silva to do at middleweight.

2. Georges St. Pierre (2): In the same time that Silva has gone 14-0, St. Pierre has gone 10-1, with three wins by TKO, one by submission and six by decision. The methodical way St. Pierre controls fights by insisting on doing what he does best and never allowing his opponents to do what they do best is impressive, but it’s not as impressive as the way Silva crushes people. And, of course, GSP lacks Silva’s undefeated record inside the Octagon.

3. Jon Jones (3): Jones’ record looks a lot like Silva’s: He’s 13-1, with eight wins by knockout or TKO, three by submission and two by decision. And Jones could easily be 14-0 with one more stoppage; his disqualification loss to Matt Hamill is really more like a TKO win for the purposes of considering how good Jones is. The difference between Jones and Silva is that Jones has only been fighting professionally for three and a half years, has only been in the UFC for eight fights and only started fighting the best of the best this year. Jones is the active fighter whose accomplishments may look the most like Silva’s one day, but Jones isn’t there yet.

4. Jose Aldo (4): In the same time that Silva has gone 14-0, Aldo is 11-0, with seven wins by knockout or TKO and four wins by decision. Aldo is somewhat similar to Silva as a striker in the diverse way he can finish fights with his hands, feet, knees and elbows. But he’s not quite as consistent as Silva, and unlike Silva he hasn’t yet proven that he can finish fights with his submission game.

5. Dominick Cruz (5): In the same time that Silva has gone 14-0, Cruz is 12-1, with one win by knockout, one win by TKO on a doctor stoppage, one win by submission and nine wins by decision. Cruz’s stand-up style is very effective in its own way but a lot different from — and nowhere near as destructive as — Silva’s style. Cruz is the master of point-fighting, and that’s respectable, but if he ever wants to be considered one of the truly great fighters he’s going to need to finish more fights.

6. Frank Edgar (6): In the same time that Silva has gone 14-0, Edgar is 10-1-1, with one win by TKO, one by submission and eight by decision. The loss and the draw came against the man Edgar will face at UFC 136…

7. Gray Maynard (7): In the same time that Silva has gone 14-0, Maynard is 8-0-1, with one win by knockout and seven by decision. Maynard also had two wins, a loss and a no contest in his Ultimate Fighter days. Maynard was something of an anti-Silva during his eight-fight winning streak prior to fighting Edgar, as he’d consistently win but rarely dominate and often bore. His fight with Edgar, however, was sensational, and if he can win the rematch, he’ll eliminate any doubt about what a great fighter he is.

8. Cain Velasquez (8): Velasquez is 9-0, including eight wins by knockout or TKO and one by decision. Velasquez has only seven UFC fights, so he has a long way to go before he has achieved as much as Silva, but his run of dominance to begin his career has been impressive. The big question is whether he can keep it up as he recovers from a serious shoulder injury, starting with Junior dos Santos in November.

9. Shogun Rua (10): Shogun’s pounding of Forrest Griffin moves him up a spot in the pound-for-pound rankings. The Rua of the Pride days was a lot like Silva: In the three and a half years he fought in Pride, Shogun went 12-1, with nine wins by knockout or TKO, one win by submission and one win by decision. But he’s not quite that fighter anymore; in the same time that Silva has gone 14-0, Rua is 8-3. Rua is still a great fighter who I’d pick to beat anyone at 205 pounds not named Jon Jones, but knee injuries have robbed him of some of his explosiveness.

10. Junior dos Santos (9): Dos Santos is 13-1, with eight wins by knockout or TKO, three by submission and two by decision. Unlike Silva, dos Santos’s decision victories have been thoroughly impressive, and he has shown knockout power like few fighters in MMA have. If he passes his toughest test yet when he faces Velasquez, dos Santos will have a good case that he belongs near the top of the pound-for-pound list.

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MMA Top 10 Middleweights: Anderson Silva Makes It Look Easy

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, MiddleweightsThere’s plenty of talent in the middleweight division in the UFC. Vitor Belfort is pound-for-pound as hard a puncher as anyone in mixed martial arts. Chael Sonnen’s MMA wrestling is first-rate. Demi…

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, Middleweights

There’s plenty of talent in the middleweight division in the UFC. Vitor Belfort is pound-for-pound as hard a puncher as anyone in mixed martial arts. Chael Sonnen‘s MMA wrestling is first-rate. Demian Maia‘s Brazilian jiu jitsu is world class.

And yet when we survey the middleweight division, it almost feels like a pointless exercise. Anderson Silva has spent the last five years proving himself to be so far ahead of the rest of the 185-pound class that the rest of the division doesn’t seem all that interesting. At UFC 134, Silva spent one round measuring Yushin Okami, then made Okami look like a rank amateur in the second round.

So as we look at the top 10 middleweights in MMA, we’re looking at a list of talented fighters, all of whom have either already lost to Silva or would surely lose to Silva. He’s head and shoulders above the rest.

Top 10 Middleweights in MMA
(Editor’s note: The individual fighter’s ranking the last time we did middleweights are in parentheses.)

1. Anderson Silva (1): As great an offensive striker as Silva is, his stand-up defense may be even more impressive. Silva’s head movement is so good that he can stand right in front of his opponents with his chin up and his hands below his waist and know they’re not going to be able to hit him. He does things that no one else in combat sports can do.

2. Vitor Belfort (3): The combination of Belfort’s very impressive knockout of Yoshihiro Akiyama and Chael Sonnen’s continued inactivity gets Belfort a bump in the rankings. But while Belfort is saying he wants another shot at Silva, it’s hard to see why the UFC would do that. Belfort will need more than one win to get a rematch after Silva’s brutal knockout of Belfort in February.

3. Chael Sonnen (2): The one big fight left for Silva at middleweight is a rematch with Sonnen, who’s the only person who has really even challenged Silva in the UFC. If Sonnen beats Brian Stann at UFC 136, Silva-Sonnen 2 is the fight to make next.

4. Yushin Okami (4): Prior to meeting Silva, Okami had only been finished once in 31 pro fights, and that was almost eight years ago. Okami is a big, strong guy with a good chin, but Silva toyed with him. That’s how big the gap is between Silva and the rest of the Top 10 middleweights.

5. Mark Munoz (5): Munoz is the highest-ranked middleweight who hasn’t yet had a chance to face Silva, and his wrestling pedigree would make him an interesting matchup with the champion. We’re probably not going to see Munoz vs. Silva outside the Black House gym, however. Up next for Munoz is Chris Leben in the main event at UFC 138.

6. Demian Maia (6): Maia will try to rebound from his loss to Munoz with a fight against Jorge Santiago at UFC 136. Maia is only 3-3 in his last six fights and hasn’t submitted anyone since Chael Sonnen at UFC 95, and if he loses to Santiago, he’ll drop out of the Top 10.

7. Brian Stann (7): As a charismatic, articulate fighter who won a Silver Star for service in Iraq, Stann is a guy the UFC should want to put front and center on Fox: He’s just who the UFC brass should want representing them in front of a mainstream audience. If Stann beats Sonnen at UFC 136, would the UFC consider putting Stann in a middleweight title fight on Fox? Or would that fight be too lucrative on pay-per-view for the UFC to give it away for free?

8. Chris Leben (8): If Leben can beat Munoz in November, he might be able to make the case that he deserves a shot at the middleweight belt in 2012. But considering how easily Silva beat Leben the first time those two fought, a rematch probably wouldn’t be pretty for the Crippler.

9. Ronaldo Souza (9): Jacare is the Strikeforce middleweight champion, and one of the best Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioners in the world, but until he moves to the UFC and fights better competition it’s hard to move him any higher in the rankings. His next fight, with Luke Rockhold on September 10, shouldn’t be much of a challenge.

10. Michael Bisping (10): Bisping will coach The Ultimate Fighter and then fight Jason “Mayhem” Miller in December. A win there would get him close to title contention, although he’d likely need one more victory in 2012 before he’d get a crack at Silva.

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UFC 134 Results: MMA Pound-for-Pound Rankings

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva added on to one of the greatest legacies in professional sports with a TKO victory over Yushin Okami at UFC 134 on Saturday night. The champion used his deadly boxing and Matrix-like head movement to pick the co…

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UFC 134 Results: MMA Pound-for-Pound Rankings

MMA Top 10 Bantamweights: Benavidez Stuck at No. 2

Filed under: UFC, Rankings, BantamweightsJoseph Benavidez doesn’t get enough respect.

Benavidez is probably the best flyweight in MMA, but he so far hasn’t had the opportunity to prove that because the UFC doesn’t have a flyweight class. So the tiny B…

Filed under: UFC, Rankings, Bantamweights

Joseph Benavidez doesn’t get enough respect.

Benavidez is probably the best flyweight in MMA, but he so far hasn’t had the opportunity to prove that because the UFC doesn’t have a flyweight class. So the tiny Benavidez is fighting bigger guys at 135 pounds, and he’s doing a remarkable job of it, beating every single opponent he’s faced except the bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz.

That makes Benavidez the No. 2 bantamweight in MMA, and yet the No. 2 bantamweight in MMA doesn’t even get to fight on TV: His victory over Eddie Wineland at UFC on Versus 5 was shown only on Facebook, not on Versus. If Benavidez were the flyweight champion, he’d be fighting on the top of the card. Instead he’s fighting on Facebook.

And since Benavidez has already had his chances at Cruz and lost, he’s going to remain stuck as the No. 2 fighter in a weight class the UFC doesn’t do much to promote. At least until the flyweight class opens up.

Top 10 Bantamweights in MMA
(Number in parentheses is the fighter’s rank in the last bantamweight list.)

1. Dominick Cruz (1): Cruz’s upcoming bantamweight title defense against Demetrious Johnson will be shown on Versus, not on pay-per-view, a further illustration of how the bantamweight class hasn’t really been fully integrated into the UFC. But it’s a great deal for fans to get a pay-per-view-worthy fight for free.

2. Joseph Benavidez (4): When he’s not fighting Cruz, he dominates: Benavidez is 15-2 in his career, with the two losses coming to Cruz and the 15 wins featuring eight submissions, three TKOs and four unanimous decisions, none of which was close.

3. Brian Bowles (2): The former WEC bantamweight champion, whose only loss came to Cruz, will almost certainly get the next shot at the bantamweight belt if he can beat Urijah Faber at UFC 139 in November.

4. Urijah Faber (3): Even though he just lost to Cruz in his last fight, beating Bowles might be enough for Faber to get another shot at the bantamweight title. In a largely overlooked weight class, Faber is still the most popular fighter, and he’s the only bantamweight the UFC would put in a pay-per-view main event.

5. Demetrious Johnson (5): Can Johnson beat Cruz? It’s an awfully tall order. Johnson has good takedowns and is a good wrestler, but Cruz rarely allows his opponents to get close enough to him to take him down. The oddsmakers have installed Johnson as a +300 or higher underdog, which means Johnson beating Cruz would be almost as big an upset as Yushin Okami beating Anderson Silva.

6. Scott Jorgensen (6): Jorgensen draws Jeff Curran at UFC 137, in a fight that Jorgensen should win handily. Curran has had a long and impressive MMA career, but it’s been five years since Curran beat anyone notable.

7. Miguel Torres (7): Torres was the best bantamweight in the world a few years ago, but he needs some time to regroup after having lost three of his last five. At age 30 it’s not too late for Torres to get back into bantamweight title contention, but younger, faster opponents like Benavidez and Johnson have exposed some flaws in Torres’ game.

8. Brad Pickett (8): The British Pickett gets to fight in front of his home crowd at UFC 138, when he takes on Renan Barao in Birmingham, England. Pickett has won 10 of his last 11 fights but has been sidelined all of this year with an injury.

9. Renan Barão (10): Barao lost his first pro fight and has gone an incredible 26-0 since then, including a unanimous decision victory over Cole Escovedo at UFC 130. He hasn’t faced anyone nearly as good as Pickett during that streak, however, so he’s getting ready for his toughest test yet.

10. Eddie Wineland (9): Wineland is coming off back-to-back decision losses, but he looked good enough in losing to Faber and Benavidez that he deserves to remain in the Top 10. Barely.

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