Leet's Take
COLUMN: My problems with MMA rankings part one (of five)
Mar 22, 2010 - 3:01:06 PM COLUMN: My problems with MMA rankings part one (of five)

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By: Laramey Leet, MMATorch Columnist

Recently MMATorch's staff posted their overall rankings for all the weight divisions. I will break down the rankings of each division in a five part column. These are strictly my opinions and my thoughts on the division rankings.

We rank the fighters to know who is the best in that particular division. It is not just for conversation; every sport in the world ranks their leaders to know who is "the best". I say "the best" because every person has their own opinion on who the best is. We all have different methods for MMA ranking; dominance, consistency, MMA record, level of opponent, aggressiveness, etc...

This is how MMATorch's staff ranked the Heavyweight Division in March of 2010

1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Brock Lesnar
3. Frank Mir
4. Cain Velasquez
5. Junior Dos Santos
6. Shane Carwin
7. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
8. Brett Rogers
9. Alistair Overeem
10. Fabricio Werdum

Which most things look good on the surface because that is what most MMA fans see when we look at most of the other ranking systems. But this is how I see it:

My first problem with the heavyweight rankings might be where some people stop reading this column! The last time I uttered anything about this man I had death threats and suicide wished e-mails streaming in.

Fedor Emelianenko has arguably one of the best records in MMA, but unlike every other number one fighter in their division, Fedor does not fight the best. Realistically, you have to fight the best to be the best. I'm not taking anything away from Fedor, as he has only so much control over whom he fights, but a fighter should not be number one for record and past alone.

In the earlier part of the decade no one would doubt that Fedor was the best, but lately his performances have been merely decent and have not looked like the obvious dominant #1 heavyweight in the world. Now I am not saying that he does not deserve to be in the top ten, but I just believe that it's not accurate to assume he is #1 without hard analysis of his performances recently, including quality of opponents. Now it is not for me to decide who is the best, but I have been more impressed recently with Cain Velasquez (not saying he should be #1, just comparing) than Fedor.

My second dilemma on the ranking system is why is Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at #7? The man has had without a doubt the toughest opponents to fight since 2006. He has faced the best of the best in the UFC and has proven himself to be in the top 5 at least. Although maybe his TKO and KO losses has dropped him out, your decision.

Another problem with the ranking is how in the world Shane Carwin got to #6 on the rankings without fighting any top tier fighters. Yeah, I know he has straight whooped everybody he has fought, but I believe you have got to earn your stripes and beat a top ten fighter to become a top ten fighter. No disrespect to Shane Carwin because he is one of the most respectable athletes in all of MMA, but I find him too high on the rankings with his level of competition. (That will change of course on March 27 at UFC 111)

This brings me to the most undeserving person on the rankings, Brett Rogers. Who cares that he knocked out Andrei Arlovski? Andrei’s last descent win was against Fabricio Werdum 3 years ago. Since then he has merely fallen off of the map in terms of rankings. Brett Rogers has never beaten a top ten or maybe not even a top twenty fighter in his career. He will soon face off with Alistair Overeem and we will see how he fairs.

Speaking of Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum, both of these men have been lacking great opponents. I am glad to see that they are at the bottom of the list to show that. The man at the top of the rankings falls in the same category, but nevertheless is still at #1.

Fabricio Werdum beat Alistair Overeem four years ago and yet Werdum is ranked under Overeem. Werdum has had fewer losses and has had tougher opponents than Overeem. So my only change to the bottom would be to easily switch them.

My last opposition to the rankings is: where is Randy Couture? Is he not on the rankings because he is not fighting in the weight class at the moment? He has said that he is moving to light heavyweight but I would not be surprised if he jumps back in the division. The man dropped his last two fights at heavyweight, but who he was fighting! If he comes back to heavyweight, I would hope to see him back on the list if he could get into the winning column.

As you can see my rankings are entirely unlike those that were put together. There are fighters I would have switched, kicked out and added onto this list. What changes would you make to the heavyweight division rankings? Or would you make any at all? Let me know what you think or if you would like to know my personal rankings you can either email me at LarLLeet@yahoo.com or leave a comment on MMATorch.com's reader comment area.