Tag: Rankings

MMA Top 10 Featherweights: Aldo on Top, Mendes No. 2

Filed under: UFC, Bellator, Rankings, FeatherweightsJose Aldo has now made his UFC debut and won the UFC’s first featherweight title fight, an entertaining if not terribly competitive unanimous decision over Mark Hominick at UFC 129. So what does the U…

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Jose Aldo has now made his UFC debut and won the UFC’s first featherweight title fight, an entertaining if not terribly competitive unanimous decision over Mark Hominick at UFC 129. So what does the UFC do with Aldo from here?

The fight I think the UFC really wants to make for Aldo is against Kenny Florian, who has more name recognition than anyone else on the UFC’s featherweight roster. If Florian wins his featherweight debut against Diego Nunes at UFC 131, he’ll instantly step into title contention — and into the featherweight Top 10.

But for now, the No. 1 featherweight appears headed toward an August showdown with the undefeated Chad Mendes — and on my featherweight rankings, that’s the right call.

MMA Top 10 Pound-for-Pound: GSP, Aldo Miss a Chance to Move Up

Filed under: UFC, Rankings, Overall
Heading into UFC 129, I thought both welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and featherweight champion Jose Aldo had a good chance of putting on the kind of performance that would move them up in the pound-for-poun…

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Heading into UFC 129, I thought both welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and featherweight champion Jose Aldo had a good chance of putting on the kind of performance that would move them up in the pound-for-pound rankings.

GSP did what he usually does and won a dominant unanimous decision over a good opponent in Jake Shields, but he didn’t do anything that makes him leapfrog Anderson Silva at the top of the list. And Aldo won a classic battle with Mark Hominick, but it wasn’t the kind of transcendent performance that could put him on top of the MMA world.

So as we review the Top 10 pound-for-pound fighters in mixed martial arts, there’s no change at the top.

MMA Top 10 Lightweights: Gilbert Melendez Makes His Case

Filed under: UFC, WEC, Strikeforce, Bellator, Rankings, LightweightsGilbert Melendez thinks he’s the best lightweight in mixed martial arts. Is he right? I don’t think so, not yet. But I sure would love to find out.

The best thing about the UFC buying…

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Gilbert Melendez thinks he’s the best lightweight in mixed martial arts. Is he right? I don’t think so, not yet. But I sure would love to find out.

The best thing about the UFC buying Strikeforce is that it means we’ll eventually see the champions of the respective promotions fighting each other. For now the mantra is “business as usual,” but we all know it’s just a matter of time before we see the best of Strikeforce inside the Octagon. And there might not be a better fight out there than Melendez taking on the top of the UFC lightweight division.

It will probably be 2012 before we get to see that: UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar has to fight Gray Maynard in May, and the winner of that fight is expected to fight the winner of the June Anthony Pettis-Clay Guida bout after that. But it sure would be fun to see Melendez retiring the Strikeforce belt to his trophy case and fighting for the UFC gold.

Find out where I think Melendez stacks up in the lightweight division below.

MMA Top 10 Bantamweights: Cruz, Faber on a Collision Course

Filed under: UFC, WEC, Rankings, BantamweightsThe two best 135-pound fighters in the world will square off some time later this year for the first ever UFC bantamweight title match in what should be a great showcase for what has quietly become one of t…

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The two best 135-pound fighters in the world will square off some time later this year for the first ever UFC bantamweight title match in what should be a great showcase for what has quietly become one of the UFC’s most talented weight classes.

Before the UFC absorbed World Extreme Cagefighting, the smaller guys were largely overlooked by casual MMA fans. But now that the UFC has added the WEC’s bantamweights — and also snapped up some 135-pounders from other promotions — the bantamweight class is stacked. In fact, as I put together my latest ranking of the Top 10 bantamweights in mixed martial arts, all 10 of them are now under contract to the UFC.

The top two, as you probably suspect, are bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and the only man to defeat him, Urijah Faber. Those two will square off at UFC 132. But the rest of the bantamweight division includes several talented fighters who could become worthy challengers to the bantamweight title in the years ahead.

MMA Top 10 Light Heavyweights: Any Stopping Jon Jones?

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, Light HeavyweightsThe Jon Jones Era, as you’ve surely heard, has begun: Jones is the new UFC light heavyweight champion, and everyone who follows MMA agrees that he’s going to be the champion for a long, long ti…

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The Jon Jones Era, as you’ve surely heard, has begun: Jones is the new UFC light heavyweight champion, and everyone who follows MMA agrees that he’s going to be the champion for a long, long time.

However, the light heavyweight division is so talented that it’s been nearly impossible for anyone to hold the belt for long: Chuck Liddell lost it to Rampage Jackson, who lost it to Forrest Griffin, who lost it to Rashad Evans, who lost it to Lyoto Machida, who lost it to Shogun Rua, who lost it to Jones. We’ve had seven different champions in the last four years, so why is everyone so sure that Jones is going to hold onto the belt for so long?

The biggest reason, I think, is Jones’ age. With the exception of Evans losing to Machida, every champion I mentioned above lost the belt to someone younger than him. But there aren’t any contenders on the horizon younger than the 23-year-old Jones. Not only is Jones already the best, but he’s going to keep getting better as the rest of the Top 10 light heavyweights in mixed martial arts get older.

So as I list the Top 10 light heavyweights below, I’ll talk about how I’d like their chances against Jones — even though I expect Jones to reign over all of them for a long time.

MMA Top 10 Pound-for-Pound: Jon Jones Surges

Filed under: UFC, Rankings, OverallThe last time I ranked the Top 10 pound-for-pound fighters in MMA, I heard from a lot of readers who thought it was too early to have Jon Jones on the list.

No one is going to say that now.

After Jones smashed “Shog…

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Jon Jones wears the UFC light heavyweight belt at UFC 128.The last time I ranked the Top 10 pound-for-pound fighters in MMA, I heard from a lot of readers who thought it was too early to have Jon Jones on the list.

No one is going to say that now.

After Jones smashed “Shogun” Rua at UFC 128, the question isn’t whether Jones is one of the sport’s Top 10 pound-for-pound fighters — everyone agrees that he is. Now the question is just how high Jones belongs on the pound-for-pound list.

I think Jones is doing things we haven’t seen before, and dominating his opponents in ways that few fighters can equal, and so I have Jones among the truly elite on my latest list, which is below.