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By: Laramey Leet, MMATorch Columnist
Recently MMATorch's staff posted their overall rankings for all the weight divisions. I am breaking down the rankings of each division in a five part column; this is the light heavyweight (LHW) division. 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 Light Heavyweight (LHW) Division in March of 2010
1. Lyoto Machida
2. Mauricio Rua
3. (tie) Rashad Evans
3. (tie) Quinton Jackson
5. Gegard Mousasi
6. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
7. Forrest Griffin
8. (tie) Randy Couture
8. (tie) Thiago Silva
10. Rich Franklin
Other Contenders: Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, Muhammed Lawal, Luiz Cane, Vladimir Matyushenko, Ryan Bader
The top half (1-4) of the rankings is what you normally see on most sites, but the bottom half (5-10) is really scattered.
At UFC 104 Lyoto Machida defended his light heavyweight (LHW) belt against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, as most of us know there is plenty of controversy around the judging on the fight. Like most people I thought that Shogun won three of the five rounds and was going to be the new champ, but the judges called it the other way and Machida kept his belt. With the majority of the MMA world upset that the judges cost Shogun the belt Dana White had a rematch signed that very night between the two. As a fighter you should not leave it in the judge’s hands, but he did and it cost him.
What I am very slowly getting at is if so many people thought that Shogun won the fight, he should be simply ahead of Machida in the rankings. Yes, Machida still has the belt, but if the greater part of the MMA world thinks that he won, it has to be shown somewhere.
Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson are exactly where they need to be. Rampage has gone 2-0 since losing the LHW belt with a very impressive KO of Wanderlei Silva. Rashad Evans just recently defeated Thiago Silva to get his fight with Rampage for the number one contender fight at UFC 114.
In the midst of the rankings lies Strikeforce’s LHW champion Gegard Mousasi. Mousasi began as a middle weight fighter and in mid 2009 he moved to LHW. Since then Mousasi has only had two fights at LHW. His first fight was for the Strikeforce LHW belt and the second was against Rameau Sokoudjou. Both fights ended in TKO. Since Mousasi does not have a laundry list of fights at LHW and has not beaten any top ten opponents at LHW I would not put him this high on the list. I think that he deserves to be on the list, but much closer to the bottom.
That brings us to Antonio Rogerio “Lil Nog” Nogueira. What a resume Nogueira posses. He has wins over Dan Henderson, Alistair Overeem, and recently Luiz Cane. There is no doubt the man has tons of talent. But on the other hand he has not fought a top ten opponent since 2006.
He will soon get a step up in competition when he faces Forrest Griffin at UFC 114. I think Griffin is at a good spot on the list. He lost the UFC LHW belt to Rashad Evans and then dropped his very next fight to the middle weight emperor Anderson Silva. He bounced back with a win over the washed up Tito Ortiz to get a top ten opponent match.
I am really impressed with Thiago Silva, I think that he has everything to be great, but needs to expand his wrestling skills. I can see him much higher on the list, but I cannot complain as to where he is. He has gone 1-2 against top ten opponents and is in a very stacked division at the UFC.
I am a huge fan of Randy Couture, but at the moment he does not belong on the top ten lists for the LHW division. Couture has only two fights at LHW; he squeaked out a decision victory over Brandon Vera (Did you see what Jon Jones did to him?) and choked out a cripple Mark Coleman. He has not beaten a top contender and not fought a top ten opponent at LHW since 2006. So what exactly is he doing at #8 on the rankings?
Talking about undeserving people on the list, let’s talk about Rich Franklin. He has only won one fight at LHW since switching divisions and that was against Matt Hamill. He had a couple of catch weight fights to help out the UFC, but he still only went 1-1 in those. Franklin has not really been consistent since Anderson Silva dismounted him from his middleweight thrown four years ago. In no way should Rich Franklin be in the top ten of the LHW division.
Is it not insane that for some reason these fighters are right beside the person that they will soon be facing? Rampage and Rashad Evans are side by side, Lil Nog and Forrest are side by side, and the two undeserving top ten face each other as well (Rich Franklin and Randy Couture).
After going through all of those fighters, let me speak about the two people that I think should be in the top ten of the LHW division. Anderson Silva should without a doubt be in the top ten. His two fights at LHW were both against top contenders and he completely dominated them. He slaughtered Forrest Griffin and took the fight right out of James Irvin. We all know how the UFC works and if he were any other man, he could possibly have a title shot on just those two fights alone (It's happened to him before). Anderson Silva has accomplished more in the LHW in the past 2 years then Randy Couture and Rich Franklin combined.
These next two individuals are up and comers but have the potential to be great in the division; Jon Jones and Ryan Bader. Both have been absolutely destroying their opponents. While they have not fought any great fighters yet they have both looked equally impressive. I am sure that the next two opponents that fight Bader and Jones will be top contenders or in the top ten.
I hope that the UFC does not make the two fight each other too soon, as they are so promising in the division and would simply meet too early in their career. A loss could set the other back a while, but if the two were to take on a loser (or winner) of Rampage vs Evans, Lil Nog vs Griffin, or Couture vs Franklin would not hurt the fighters as bad. And it would not blemish there good looking records!
Well after rambling on about what I think of the rankings and explaining my choices I will give you my rankings.
1. Mauricio Rua
2. Lyoto Machida
3. Quinton Jackson
4. Anderson Silva
5. Rashad Evans
6. Gegard Mousasi
7. Forrest Griffin
8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
9. Thiago Silva
10. Jon Jones
That is what I think of the LHW division in a nut shell. What changes would you make to the light heavyweight division rankings? Or would you make any at all? Let me know what you think. You can either email me at LarLLeet@yahoo.com or leave a comment on MMATorch.com's reader comment area.
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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