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.