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May 30, 2009 - 10:12:13 AM By Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist It's been a long time coming, but we've finally updated our staff rankings here at MMATorch.com. Voted on by a panel of Jamie Penick, Jason Bent, Alex Williams, Frank Hyden, and Matt Pelkey, we rank the top ten, all organizations, for the lightweight through heavyweight divisions. We'll be updating these monthly at the very end/very beginning of each month.
We'd also like to hear from you, the readers. We'll be compiling a separate Reader's Rankings as well, to be posted on the site. I'm setting a deadline of next Friday, June 5th to get your responses in. They will only be accepted by email at matt6buckeye@hotmail.com. Please include your real name along with the rankings, as you'll be credited on the rankings post. So without further ado, the updated Torch staff rankings.
JUNE 2009
Heavyweights
1. Fedor Emelianenko (50 pts.)
2. Frank Mir (42)
3. Brock Lesnar (37)
4. Andrei Arlovski (36)
5. Josh Barnett (32)
6. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera (27)
7. Randy Couture (18)
8. Shane Carwin (10)
9. Cheick Kongo (8)
10. Alistair Overeem (5)
Others receiving votes: Mirko Filipovic (4), Cain Velasquez (3), Tim Sylvia (3), Junior Dos Santos (2),
Pelkey's Analysis: A little more detailed breakdown of the voting for you. I'm only mildly surprised by the fact that every #1 fighter in their respective division was a unanimous number one. We're in quite an era right now folks. This is the best set of champions we've ever witnessed. By far. Worth noting that Thiago Alves was the only unanimous #2 fighter in any division. Though I'm guessing if we did a featherweight rankings we'd be able to add Urijah Faber to that list.
It's crazy to think how some of the mighty have fallen. Just a couple years ago Matt Hughes, Cro Cop, and Gomi were considered among the very best in the world. Fast forward to today and Matt Hughes is still hanging onto a top ten ranking by a thread, and Cro Cop and Gomi are also-rans in the "Others receiving votes" category. There's also a bit of cross-divisional voting while we wait for some things to shake out. Gerard Mousasi has announced that he's done as a middlweight, so he gets no votes there, but obviously submitting Mark Hunt wasn't enough for most of us to put him in the top ten of the light-heavyweights. Dan Henderson's last fight was at 205, but his next will be at his natural home of 185 against Bisping. Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva recieve votes in both categories because...they're stuck in some weird 195lb. limbo.
Gerard Mousasi, Hayato Sakurai, and Dustin Hazelett all received a single vote, which means that one person gave them one tenth place vote. Want to know who submitted those votes? Penick for Mousasi, Alex Williams for Sakurai, and your's truly for Dustin Hazelett.
So the polls are officially open, so let's hear from you guys.
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