Tag: Rankings/List

People are still underrating Anthony Johnson.

Your guess is as good as mine as to the reasons for it. Ever since making his piece with the fact that his true home is at light heavyweight or heavyweight, he has basically been unstoppable.

Last summer, he dismantled the rusty robot that is Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in a mere 44 seconds. Then he found himself a big underdog against Alexander Gustafsson, but he made the Swedish hometown fans (and Gustafsson himself) break down in tears after a 135-second beatdown. 

That was five months ago. Now, he fights for the UFC light heavyweight title this Saturday at UFC 187. Will he win? He is, again, a slight underdog to the Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier.

But there’s one area where he is an undisputed favorite: in the hunt for the UFC’s scariest active knockout artist.

Who else is in there? Here’s the top-10 list. This includes all weight classes and styles. It doesn’t need to be only one-punch knockout power. It doesn’t need to be only muay thai. It just needs to be guys who are always, every time, a serious knockout threat to their opponents.

Recent success and current status carry significant weight. Duck, cover up and enjoy.

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At UFC Fight Night 66, Frankie Edgar bested Urijah Faber to cement his place as next in line for a shot at the 145-pound championship.

Edgar has now won four in a row since losing in a decision against Jose Aldo in his featherweight debut. During his streak, The Answer beat former UFC champion B.J. Penn and a former WEC champion in Faber.

Meanwhile, Faber slipped up on an opportunity to get back into the 145-pound title shot conversation. As a result, it seems likely The California Kid will return to the bantamweight division, where he has competed over the past several years.

Was the win enough to earn Edgar a spot in the top-15 pound-for-pound rankings? Did it elevate him to the No. 1 contender position in the featherweight rankings?

Here is a look at the good calls and bad calls made in the latest official UFC rankings.

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A lot of these recent international UFC cards, especially those tucked firmly in the shadowy crook of a far larger event, are going unnoticed by the MMA public.

UFC Fight Night 66, which aired Saturday morning from Manila in The Philippines exactly one week before the massive UFC 187 pay-per-view will find new owners for not one but two UFC championship belts, appears to fall into that crevasse.

The numbers will ultimately how interested people are, but on paper, this was a far more interesting card than your average obscurely located cable broadcast, and may not have deserved the wholesale write-off it received from a wide swath of the vocal hardcore fan set.

At the top, you have two fighters very much at the top of their games. Recent champion Frankie “The Answer” Edgar and perennial contender “The California Kid” Urijah Faber meet at featherweight—a weight class not exactly a natural home for either—to determine what, exactly, we still have in these immensely popular but aging veterans. Could be title shot, could a place on the novelty circuit.

There’s more. Filipino-American Mark Munoz announced before that his fight here against Luke Barnatt will be his last, regardless of outcome. And in the co-main event, Gegard Mousasi tries to take a big step forward against tough boxing specialist Costas Philippou.

Stories abounded across the 12-fight slate. And as usual, the final stat lines only reveal so much. Here are the real winners and losers from Manila. 

As usual, for the literal-minded among us, full results appear on the final slide.

 

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At UFC Fight Night 65, Stipe Miocic picked up a dominant win over Mark Hunt and emerged as one of the top contenders in the heavyweight division.

Though Miocic was putting a beating on Hunt, it looked like the judges would determine the outcome on Saturday. However, some Miocic ground-and-pound midway through the fifth and final round forced referee John Sharp to end the contest.

Was the victory enough to elevate Miocic‘s already lofty position in the heavyweight rankings? Did the loss result in Hunt’s removal from the Top Five heavyweight contenders?

Here is a look at the good calls and bad calls made in the latest official UFC rankings.

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Wrestling has developed into one of the most useful mixed martial arts tools in all of the UFC.

Some say it’s the foundation for elite fighters.

Now while it may be difficult to compare wrestling’s overall effectiveness against other pedigrees like jiu-jitsu, we can at least marvel in its excellence.

Driven by strength, discipline and determination, the art of wrestling has given us the double-leg takedown, power slams and the always popular ground-and-pound.

It’s a major reason why some of MMA‘s most prized entities remain on top.

Here are the best wrestlers in the UFC today in each weight class.

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