Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The FtF Top Ten MMA Rankings

Our Following the Flow rankings are based primarily on record. These rankings are based on what the fighters have proven, not what they are capable of doing.


Heavyweights

1.) Fedor Emelianenko
2.) Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
3.) Josh Barnett
4.) Mirko Filopovic
5.) Randy Couture
6.) Mark Hunt
7.) Tim Sylvia
8.) Andrei Arlovski
9.) Gabriel Gonzaga. I'm not giving him the keys to the kingdom, yet.
10.) Brandon Vera. He might be better than Arlovski but he hasn't proven it yet.


Light Heavyweights

1.) Dan Henderson
2.) Chuck Liddell
3.) Wanderlei Silva
4.) Quinton Jackson
5.) Mauricio Rua
6.) Tito Ortiz
7.) Sokodjou
8.) Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
9.) Ricardo Arona
10.) Rashad Evans


Middleweights

1.) Dan Henderson
2.) Matt Lindland
3.) Anderson Silva
4.) Nathan Marquardt. A nice win streak with names like Salaverry and Lister helps a lot.
5.) Paulo Filho. He might deserve to be higher with his record.
6.) Rich Franklin
7.) Yushin Okami
8.) Kazuo Misaki. He's lost a number of fights but he's beaten some real heavies.
9.) Denis Kang
10.) Robbie Lawler


Welterweights

1.) Matt Hughes. Losing to GSP does little to diminish his standing.
2.) Georges St. Pierre.
3.) Matt Serra. He needs more than one win to be top dog.
4.) Karo Parisyan. His record and the names on it entitle him to this spot.
5.) Josh Koscheck
6.) Jake Shields
7.) Diego Sanchez
8.) Akira Kikuchi
9.) Jon Fitch
10.) Thiago Alves. Assuming he returns from suspension.


Lightweights

1.) BJ Penn
2.) Takanori Gomi
3.) Nick Diaz. If his domination over Gomi hadn't been changed to NC he might be #2.
4.) Hayato Sakurai
4.) Jens Pulver
5.) Sean Sherk
6.) Hermes Franca
7.) Kenny Florian
8.) Spencer Fisher
9.) Shinya Aoki
10.) Gilbert Melendez


If these seem skewed toward UFC fighters, I apologize but I do not feel that it is necessarily wrong. A lot of people, for a while, assumed that the Pride fighters were on another level because of the depth of competition. I made this mistake too but with the recent defections of several Pride fighters to the UFC and their subsequent wins, not to mention Nick Diaz's upset of Gomi, that seems to have been exposed as a myth. Rampage's KO of the Iceman does little to change that on its own.


Sunday, May 13, 2007

Can we make this happen?

With the terrifying upset of Georges St. Pierre by Matt Serra and the minor upet of Diego Sanchez, who has been demoted to a mere 'bad dream' rather than 'Nightmare', by Josh Koscheck things have changed quite a bit in the UFC welterweight division. I think we'll see Kos and GSP hooking up pretty soon and I can't wait for that.

Koscheck's takedowns are phenomenal, arguably better than Matt Hughes himself and it would be interesting to see if he could manage to do what Hughes could not. Namely, take down St. Pierre. The Candadian's takedown defense has become nearly legendary but he's also shown strong takedown ability. Just look at his win over Sean Sherk. Koscheck, for his part, has already said St. Pierre can't take him down and he could be right.

With his improved stand-up game this could be a slugfest between two young, TALENTED fighters. Yes, all capital letters. You bet your ass I mean it.

On the stand up Kos seems to favor hands mostly but he's very light on his feet and his boxing looks to be significantly better than Georges'. On the other hand GSP mixes punches with kicks very well, and put on a clinic with his shins against the former champion, Hughes. Well okay, maybe not the nutshots but I really felt that Hughes over-emphasized at least one of those. I mean really, did he go commando and not wear a cup? Somehow I doubt it.

I think this fight is on the horizon and I couldn't be more thrilled with that possibility. This would be a marquee matchup and would fit rather nicely on the UFC 72 card that just seems a bit weak. Especially when you take in to consideration the blockbuster nature of the following one, UFC 73.