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By Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist With the end of the decade (assuming you count 2000-2009 as this decade, which, for the purpose of this feature, I do) rapidly approaching, I thought I'd put finger to keyboard and come up with a list of the top 100 fighters of the aughts, i.e. the fighters are only ranked based on what they accomplished this decade. Sorry Royce Gracie. Everyday between now and the end of the year, I'll be counting them down from 100 to 1. No scientific formulas here. Strictly subjective. Criteria include: record, big wins, periods of dominance, activity, and to a lesser extent, popularity. Popularity will mostly be used to break ties. If two guys have accomplished relatively the same in the last ten years, the bigger star will get the higher slot. Also, being good towards the end of the decade carried more weight for me than at the beginning. The pool of talent is so much deeper now than it was ten years ago, when MMA was still trying to break away from the wrestling dominated days of the late '90's. When listing a fighter's record, their career record is listed first, with their record between 2000-2009 in parentheses. Any questions or comments on the rankings can be directed towards matt6buckeye@hotmail.com.
91. Yushin "Thunder" Okami
Record: 23-4 (23-4)
Notable Wins: Nick Thomson, Anderson Silva, Alan Belcher, Mike Swick, Jason MacDonald, Evan Tanner, Dean Lister
Bad Losses: None
The Skinny: Despite being something other than a personal favorite (i.e. his fights put me to sleep), there's no denying Okami's place on this list. For those unaware, he does technically hold a victory over Anderson Silva, but it was due to an illegal upkick from Silva while Okami was on the ground. So that win holds about as much sway with me as Michael Bisping's over Matt Hamill does with others. I've long complained that despite an impressive 7-1 mark in the UFC, he lost in his only step up to elite competition to Rich Franklin at UFC 72. While that remains true, I can't deny that the rest of his Octagon wins are still impressive. He hasn't fought a single "can", and he flat-out sapped Mike Swick of his will to fight by muscling him around the cage for three rounds.
I still don't see him as ever being a true title contender, but if he can dominate Chael Sonnen at UFC 104 the same way he has the vast majority of his foes, guys like me are eventually gonna have to start eating their words. Unlike most Japanese fighters, he actually has a strong wrestling base, and his strength is his biggest advantage. If his game keeps evolving and his striking ever gets to the same level as his wrestling, he'll truly be a force in the middleweight division for years to come. At only 28, he still has plenty of time to make that happen.
92. Michael "The Count" Bisping
Record: 17-2 (17-2)
Notable Wins: Matt Hamill, Chris Leben
Bad Losses: None
The Skinny: Ok, ok so the resume is a little thin for a spot on this list, but the won-loss record is impressive, and Bisping has lead to charge towards respectability for British MMA. He's also a former winner of The Ultimate Fighter and has headlined multiple numbered UFC events. His fight with Dan Henderson at UFC 100 may have proven that he was a touch over-rated, but that doesn't take away from his other accomplishments. He started his career 14-0 before his first loss to Rashad Evans. The fact also remains that he's 7-2 in the UFC and his only two losses are to perhaps two of the top ten pound-for-pound fighters in the world. That's not too shabby. If it sounds like I'm going overboard trying to justify his spot its because...well, its probably because I am.
Like I said, the resume is a little thin, but you can't discount his importance to the growth of an entire sport to an entire country. That alone makes him worth of inclusion. It'll be interesting to see where he goes from here, but if he can brush aside the devastating knockout in his last outing, the sky is still the limit. He's only thirty years old, and with only 19 fights to his name, he doesn't have the tread on the tires that some other fighters (cough, Big Nog, cough) do.
93. Ryo "Piranha" Chonan
Record: 16-10 (16-10)
Notable Wins: Hayato Sakurai, Carlos Newton, Anderson Silva, Joey Villasenor, Roan Carneiro (2)
Bad Losses: Hikaru Sato
The Skinny: Forget his wins over Sakurai, Newton, Villasenor, and Carneiro. Forget that he's lost to ridiculously tough fighters like Ricardo Almeida, Dan Henderson, Karo Parisyan, and Paulo Filho. If Chonan's only fight of his career was the one against Anderson Silva, I still would've included him on this list. He was severely out-sized and severely out-classed on the feet (watch the fight on mute and ignore Mauro Renallo's claims otherwise), but when so many other fighters would've folded or ridden out a decision loss, Chonan went for broke and delivered one of MMA's all-time great highlights. Pulling a move out of his ass's ass, he went for a flying scissors trip right into a heel hook and had Silva furiously tapping out before he even knew what happened.
Before finally debuting in the UFC in late 2007, Chonan had already carved out his spot in the MMA annals with lengthy runs in DEEP and Pride. Like I said, his win over the Spider alone got him on this list, but the rest of his resume got him higher. Because Pride always had a morbid fascination with size mismatches, he was often paired with fighters 20-30 pounds bigger than him and rarely seemed in over his head. After a disappointing 1-3 record in the UFC, Chonan's career came full-circle, as he made a successful return to DEEP, out-pointing Jutaro Nakao in his last fight.
94. Ben Rothwell
Record: 30-6
Notable Wins: Ricco Rodriguez, Travis Fulton, Roy Nelson, Krzysztof Soszynski (2)
Bad Losses: None
The Skinny: Perhaps one of the last very good fighters to come out of the Militech camp, Rothwell has carved himself a very nice career over the last eight years on regional circuits, before moving on to the semi-big leagues of the IFL, and now he'll get a chance to show his stuff to a large audience in the UFC. He'll probably never be the UFC heavyweight champion, but the face of the now-defunct IFL's heavyweight division deserves a spot here, right?
He looks the part of a barroom brawler, but he's well rounded, with eleven of his thirty victories coming by submission. You also have a love a guy that's allergic to the judge's scorecards and that's Rothwell, who's only seen the end of a fight four times in thirty-six bouts. His losses range from decent to very good opponents, with nothing embarrassing on his resume. He's still young at 27, but with so many fights under his belt, its possible his best days are behind him. Regardless, he'll get a chance to prove me wrong, as he's the under-the-radar fighter of the recent influx of talent to the UFC's suddenly deep heavyweight division.
The Skinny: Our second entrant to have fought his entire career this decade, Mark Hunt is here for two reasons: his two notable (see, also: HUGE) wins over Wanderlei and Cro Cop and his ridiculous level of competition throughout his MMA career. And these aren't Rich Franklin's win over Wand or Cheick Kongo's over Cro Cop. Hunt, competing previously as a well-regarded K-1 kickboxer, beat two of the all-time greats when they were in the smack-dab middle of their respective primes. Never known for his ground game, but famous for his ability to absorb punishment, Hunt was matched up with Pride's two biggest stars, expected to be on the receiving end of the MMA equivalent of a pro-wrestling squash match. Instead he took everything they had to offer and dished out more.
Clearly those two wins are carrying his spot on this least seeing as how he's under .500, but a closer look at his resume shows his worth. After starting out his career 5-1, Hunt has lost his last five fights spanning the last 3+ years. His opponents? From longest ago to most recent: Josh Barnett, Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem, Melvin Manhoef, and Gegard Mousasi. Yeesh. His fight with Manhoef, who was giving up more than fifty pounds, showed that Hunt's once impenetrable chin is now, well, penetrable. Nonetheless, his unexpected run as Pride's 1-2-3 Kid earns him a special mention on this list.
96. Jeff "The Snowman" Monson
Record: 31-9 (28-7)
Notable Wins: Brandon Lee Hinkle, Marcio Cruz, Kaz Fujita, Ricco Rodriguez, Roy Nelson, Sergei Kharitonov
Bad Losses: None
The Skinny: Monson has been a fringe top-10 heavyweight for years now, and its his consistancy and quality wins that find him securely on this list. The only knock is that he's never been able to get completely over the hump. He's the first fighter on the list to fight for a UFC title, but he lost possibly the most excrutiatingly boring fight of all time to Tim Sylvia back at UFC 65 for Sylvia's strap. That loss unfortunately ended a fantastic 16 fight win streak for "The Snowman". Thankfully, it also cured insomnia for millions. After the loss to Sylvia, Monson went on to claim some of the biggest names on his victim's list with wins over Fujita, Ricco, Nelson, and Kharitonov in his next 10 fights.
It should be noted that Monson does indeed have to bad losses on his resume, to Tom Saur and David Dodd (and the fact that they were both by submission makes them even worse), but they were both in the 90's, so they don't come into play here. Monson has been one of the top submission specialists in the heavyweight division over the last decade, with 18 of his 28 wins in the aughts coming by way of tap out. At 5'9 and 240lbs. he's a bowling ball of submission terror and has regularly competed in the annual Abu Dhabi Submission Championships.
97. Dennis "Superman" Hallman
Record: 41-12-2 (31-10-2)
Notable Wins: Matt Hughes, Delson Heleno, Rory Singer
Bad Losses: None
The Skinny: Its possible I'm giving Hallman too much credit for his wins over Matt Hughes (especially considering the first one was in the 90's), but as you can see by the first two entrants on these rankings, I have a soft spot for guys who have been around for forever, take on all challengers, and are still fighting at a reasonably high level. Plus, that's easily the biggest win of anyone on the list so far, and big wins are one of, if not the, biggest criteria. He's had four one-fight stints with the UFC, and he's also fought for Shooto, Strikeforce, and the IFL at different times in his career. Other than the vitories over Matt Hughes, he's a little short in the big wins department, but he's also never lost to a fighter with a sub-.500 record (ok, so Mike McClure finished his career at 2-3, but he was 1-0 when he faced Hallman all the way back in 1999).
His other losses have been to Dave Menne, Caol Uno, Paul Rodriguez, Jens Pulver, Amaury Bitetti, Frank Trigg twice, Drew Fickett, Ansar Chalangov, Jorge Rivera, and Ryan McGivern. Not a clunker in the bunch. He's yet another fighter who's well past his prime, but when ranking the top fighters of the decade, that's what the bottom ten (or twenty...or thirty, who knows?) is for, right?
98. "Razor" Rob McCullough
Record: 17-5 (17-5)
Notable Wins: Nam Phan, Rich Crunkilton, Marcus Hicks, Ryan Healy
Bad Losses: None
The Skinny: In just our third entrant on the countdown, we get not only our first fighter to have his entire career in this decade, but also our first champ of a major promotion. Ok, ok so the WEC lightweight division isn't now and certainly wasn't then a murderers row of contenders, but being a champ carries a lot of weight in my rankings. Clearly I also had to reach a little with the "notable" wins, but there was a time when the WEC was just starting to pick up steam and they had two stars: Urijah Faber and "Razor" Rob.
As the competition has gotten better in his home promotion, McCullough has seen his stock fall back to the pack, but he's still a solid fighter, and was one of the guys who helped put the WEC on the map a few years ago. His losses have also only come to good competition. The worst losses on his resume, to Kenneth Alexander and Harris Sarmiento, have both been avenged, and the only ones that haven't were to top-20ish lightweights Josh Thomson, Jamie Varner, and Donald Cerrone. "Razor" Rob's best days may be behind him, but his nearly two year run as the face of the WEC's lightweight division is enough to earn him a spot on the list.
99. Joe "El Dirte" Doerksen
Record: 43-12 (38-10)
Notable Wins: Lee Murray, John Alessio, Denis Kang, Chris Leben, Ed Herman, Patrick Cote
Bad Losses: None
The Skinny: El Dirte is another fighter who's been around seemingly forever and has bounced around from big leagues to minor leagues for an entire decade. He's only managed a 1-5 record in his various stints in the UFC, but he always seems to be a three fight win streak away from another crack at the big time.
His impressive career record is marred only by various losing streaks against tough competition. Like I said, he doesn't have any bad losses. His worst loss of the decade came all the way back in 2001 against Stephan Potvin, an above .500 fighter who's also faced pretty decent competition. His most notable losses came to Nate Marquardt on the main card of UFC 58: USA vs. Canada, and at WEC 29 to Paulo Filho in Filho's first fight on American soil.
He won't go down in history as one of the elite fighters of his time, but his long list of solid wins, his lack of bad losses, and the fact that he's averaged four wins a year this decade is enough to earn him a spot on this list.
100. Travis "The Ironman" Fulton
Record: 191-45-11 (125-24-5)
Notable Wins: Wesley "Cabbage" Correira, Joe Riggs, Wes Sims
Bad Losses: Too many to list
The Skinny: Let's just call this a lifetime achievement award. I had to have Fulton on my list somewhere and it probably would've been an insult to other fighters I left off to have him any higher than 100. Supposedly the guy doesn't even train, he just fights. Considering he's averaged a ridiculous fifteen fights a year in the decade, I can believe it.
Clearly the guy has never been one to turn down a fight. His list of wins isn't exactly impressive, but I give him credit for facing some of the fighters he's lost to. Among them: Ricco Rodriguez, Babalu, Dan Severn, Evan Tanner, Rich Franklin, Travis Wiuff, Ben Rothwell, Forrest Griffin, Jeremy Horn, Mike Whitehead, and Chris Tuchscherer. He'll never be a high level mixed martial artist, but the fact that he's been around for forever and fights twice a week was enough to earn a spot on this countdown.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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