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By: Alex Williams, MMATorch Contributor 1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
3. Brock Lesnar
4. Josh Barnett
5. Andrei Arlovski
6. Randy Couture
7. Tim Sylvia
8. Junior Dos Santos
9. Fabricio Werdum
10. Gabriel Gonzaga
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order): Aleksander Emelianenko, Sergei Kharitonov, Alistair Overeem, Ben Rothwell, Heath Herring, Cain Velasquez, Frank "The Über-Athlete" Mir
***
Brock Lesnar debuts in the Top Ten at number three because of the impressiveness of his stoppage victory over Randy Couture. One could contend that Josh Barnett and Andrei Arlovski should be ranked ahead of him. This is a reasonable argument, but ultimately, I put Lesnar on top. Couture has dominated two Top Ten fighters (Tim Sylvia and Gabriel Gonzaga) in the last year-and-a-half. Meanwhile, Barnett has essentially been treading water the past two years since he swapped wins with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and lost for a third time in his career to Mirko Cro Cop (though this latter defeat came only after he had engaged and prevailed against Nogueira in a twenty minute war). Save for a knock out of Ben Rothwell, Arlovski has not looked particularly impressive since 2006, even when beating fighters like Fabricio Werdum. What is more, Arlovski has never bested an opponent the caliber of Couture.
I doubt Juniors Dos Santos is really the eighth best heavyweight in the world, though given his KO of Werdum, I cannot justify placing him any lower.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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