Dec 9, 2008 - 8:55:02 AM By Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist 1. Georges St. Pierre: See: Silva, Anderson. The top fighter in the world in his weight class, and its not even close.
2. Thiago Alves: Okay, I'm a believer. I've had the image of him getting triangle'd in his UFC debut against Spencer Fisher burned into my memory for so long, it took me a while to realize this is a totally different fighter in the last couple years, and specifically in his last three fights. Without doing any research whatsoever, I'm going to blindly state that no one, in any division, can boast better victims in their last three fights than Karo Parisyan, Matt Hughes, and Josh Koscheck. Anyone want to challenge that?
3. Jon Fitch: Poor guy. He fills the same role Rich Franklin did in the middleweight division, and the one Sean Sherk maintains a level lower. Great fighter, just not on the level of the champ.
4. Josh Koscheck: Very impressive in defeat, and fulfilling his previous commitment to main event the troops event against Yoshiuki Yoshida will endear him to management.
5. Diego Sanchez: Alves definitely deserves a title shot now, but I really wish we could've seen that fight. Diego isn't great in any one area except the one you can't teach: heart.
6. Jake Shields: Paul Daley said his Shields' striking is rudimentary, and he might be right, but it doesn't matter if you can't keep him from putting you on your back. I hope he signs with the UFC so we can see him against the best of the best, but I wouldn't be opposed to him challenging Carlos Condit for his WEC title.
7. Carlos Condit: A very, very good fighter, but we'll never know how good he really is if the UFC doesn't start sending a couple welterweights to really challenge him.
8. Dustin Hazelett: I like everything about this guy; the beard, the entrance music (best of the night at UFC 91 for my money), his aloof attitude towards the fans, and his ridiculously slick ground game. Can't wait til he's good enough to fight GSP. And mark my words, that time will come.
9. Matt Hughes: Same as Chuck Liddell, in that this is a respect ranking and I think he's done, but Hughes won't get a chance to prove me wrong because his likely last fight will be against Matt Serra. I know Serra was the champ, and I'm glad he got his fifteen minutes, but can we stop pretending he's a top level fighter now?
10. Marcus Davis: Unlike Hughes and Liddell, Davis is actually evolving and reinventing himself as a fighter as he gets older. I love it. CANNOT WAIT for his fight with Chris Lytle.
Note: He hasn't had a fight at welterweight, but I fully expect Martin Kampmann to be a monster when he drops down. A spot on this list is being kept warm for him if he performs as I expect him to.
