Out of boredom springs my rapidly thrown together top ten lists... (I'm not basing these on accomplishments. I'm basing these on the fighter above defeats the fighter below.) Lightweight 01 BJ Penn 02 Diego Sanchez 03 Gray Maynard 04 Frankie Edgar 05 Sean Sherk 06 Kenny Florian 07 Joe Stevenson 08 Roger Huerta 09 Clay Guida 10 Josh Neer Welterweight 01 Georges St. Pierre 02 Jon Fitch 03 Mike Swick 04 Thiago Alves 05 Josh Koscheck 06 Martin Kampmann 07 Carlos Condit 08 Anthony Johnson 09 Matt Hughes 10 Dan Hardy Middleweight 01 Anderson Silva 02 Dan Henderson 03 Nate Marquardt 04 Vitor Belfort 05 Demian Maia 06 Yushin Okami 07 Chael Sonnen 08 Yoshihiro Akiyama 09 Michael Bisping 10 Denis Kang Light Heavyweight 01 Lyoto Machida 02 Anderson Silva 03 Mauricio Rua 04 Quinton Jackson 05 Rashad Evans 06 Luis Cane 07 Rich Franklin 08 Forrest Griffin 09 Rogerio Nogueira 10 Thiago Sliva Heavyweight 01 Brock Lesnar 02 Frank Mir 03 Rodrigo Nogueria 04 Cain Velasquez 05 Shane Carwin 06 Junior dos Santos 07 Randy Couture 08 Gabriel Gonzaga 09 Heath Herring 10 Cheick Kongo
I'm sure I've forgotten some guys... I think the lightweight group makes the most linear sense. Penn > Sanchez > Maynard is a bit of a guess but it seems likely it would pan out that way. BJ's striking and take down defense will stymie Sanchez. Sanchez is a better wrestler than most, but maybe not Maynard. Though I think his striking and TDD would be sufficient to handle Maynard in a boring decision. Beyond that is actual results: Maynard > Edgar (happened), Edgar > Sherk (happened), Sherk > Florian (happened), and Florian > Stevenson (happened). Stevenson beats Huerta by being a better wrestler and controlling the octagon in a boring decision. Huerta > Guida (happened), then Guida > Neer (assumption). Welterweight is a bit tougher because of the three AKA fighters (Fitch, Swick, Koscheck). Of the three Fitch is the best fighter and Swick is more well-rounded than Koscheck, though Koscheck could wrestle Swick to a decision. Hard to place Alves who has been beaten by Fitch and GSP, both good wrestlers. Would he lose to Swick? Debatable, maybe a stretch. Some cause for argument there. Alves beat Koscheck. Koscheck uses wrestling to dominate Kampmann, who has beaten Condit. Anthony Johnson slots in here because I don't know if he is improving his ground game. He could beat Hughes. Perhaps he could beat Condit and Kampmann? Hard to tell. Both those guys have serious ground and striking skills. Might be too much for AJ at this stage. Matt Hughes is only good for laying on guys and I think he could take down Hardy at will. Baroni might be able to knock Hardy out. Serra might be able to submit him. But Marcus Davis is a good fighter and Hardy beat him so I put Hardy at ten. Middleweight is pretty cut and dry. Silva is way above the rest. Henderson seems to be the second best and would (will?) probably defeat Marquardt in an eliminator match by having superior clinch work and wrestling. Belfort is an explosive striker who was only submitted once by a much larger opponent (Overeem) after gassing out. I think he keeps it on his feet long enough to put a hurt on Maia's suspect chin. Maia easily submits the wrestlers with only average striking below him in Okami and Sonnen. Okami is bigger than Sonnen IIRC and as good of a wrestler. Perhaps Sonnen should go above Okami, but Okami has only lost against premier competition in the UFC so far so I give him the nod. Sexyama is more well rounded than Bisping. Denis Kang doesn't always fight smart or to the best of his abilities but we'll see who comes more prepared soon enough. I'm not including Wanderlei Silva because he hasn't fought at the weight yet. I'm putting Silva at #2 at light heavyweight because he is as good as Lyoto, or better, but their fight would be impossible to predict. Both are excellent counter strikers. Silva has more skills but Machida is a brilliant tactician. It is a dream fight both because everyone wants it to happen and because it never will. I think Silva is a better fighter but I don't know how he could beat Machida unless he chased him, which is totally not Silva's style and might open him up. So I'm giving Lyoto the nod. Shogun demolished Jackson in PRIDE and looks to be back in form. Jackson is better than Evans but could get out wrestled if Sugar goes back to his roots. Henderson is a very good wrestler who couldn't control Jackson so I give Jackson a higher ranking than Evans. Luis Cane is a fast riser in the division but his ground game, wrestling, take-down defense and submission defense are unknowns. Evans is faster and could maybe get him down? Hard fight to call without knowing more about Cane. Cane needs another top opponent to prove himself against. He hits way harder than Rich Franklin and would knock him out, IMHO. Other than striking Franklin doesn't have a lot of strengths. Maybe submission defense but Cane wouldn't go that route. Franklin is a good technical striker who could frustrate Cane more than Cantwell did. Franklin didn't get knocked out by Wandy who hits as hard as anyone so who knows if Franklin's chin is still good or if Anderson is just that much better. Franklin is more well rounded than Griffin, who could probably get a win over Nogueira with movement and wrestling. Silva is good but not great and rounds out the division. I'm leaving out Ryan Bader and Jon Jones who are great wrestlers (albeit in different styles) without notable wins. Heavyweight is easy. Lesnar beats Mir, Mir beats Big Nog. Velasquez' striking is powerful but not technical and he wouldn't want to wrestle Big Nog for fear of being swept and submitted. Plus he's young, and his youthful vigor and wrestling skill is enough to get out of the way of Carwin's lunch boxes and get a wrestling decision over The Engineer. Carwin vs. dos Santos is a great fight and I don't know who to give it to because they are so heavy handed. Dos Santos has more striking skill but Carwin's power is enormous. Dos Santos wins by leg kicks or Carwin wins by KO. I'll give the slant to Carwin but you could argue me out of it without too much trouble. Couture slots in here after the strikers because he's been rocked by two lesser strikers in his last two fights. Plus he doesn't want to fight at heavyweight anymore. I put Gonzaga below him though I think Gabe would take the rematch. Gabe also KO'd Mirko Cro Cop who I have left off the list in favour of the guys that beat him (Gonzaga and Kongo). Gonzaga kills Herring, Herring has beaten Kongo. Todd Duffee and Ben Rothwell have more to prove before they are on this list.
I think Alves is #3 (I think he beats Swick). I think Condit and Johnson beat Kampmann (I felt Condit did have the edge on Kampmann) I think Marquardt beats Hendo. I think Gonzaga beats Couture, and hard to say with Herring or Kongo (they might get outwrestled and lose a decision). Personally I'm guessing that Couture moves back to LHW. I also think Carwin beats Big Nog, maybe Velasquez too.
Marquardt would probably outstrike Hendo. You'd have to think that Yoda wouldn't devise a game plan as stupid as Bisping's "circle to the left". I honestly feel that Marquardt would nullify Hendo's one dimensional striking. Marquardt would just have to basically hold his own in grappling and wrestling. That's a tough call though, he's not at the same level as Hendo but I think he's good enough to minimize the damage in those areas.
I think Marquardt has the edge on Hendo, he's younger, has more power and cardio. He isn't likely to have a bad gameplan against Hendo, coming from Jackson's camp. Anyway, Hendo obviously is no slouch, and obviously isn't to be taken lightly, I'd pick Marquardt as the favourite if they fought. He also probably has the weight advantage. Anyway that wasn't the biggest part of your rankings that I thought were off, the biggest one was having Alves at #5.
anthony johnson can whip anyone on that welterweight list not named GSP.. but he's the heir apparent.. *edit: i also wont be surprised when kongo upsets mir when they fight.. although mir has improved his striking.. if mir decides to strike with kongo.. i think kongo still has the edge..
Anthony Johnson is going to be a fucking beast if they bring him along right. If you had to make one based on potential, where would you rank Jon Jones?
First off, right now I'd pick Fitch and Alves to beat him, and maybe Swick. Although I think he has the tools to pull something off, I just think those guys are ahead of him right now. Kongo definitely has the edge on Mir standing, he took a beating from Velasquez and kept on going. If Mir lands something big on Kongo I predict that Kongo takes the punch, is rocked but manages to recover. If Kongo lands something big on Mir, Mir won't have as good cardio to keep going like Kongo does. Just because of the quality top 10 LHW there, I agree that Jones doesn't make the list at this point. His throws looked awesome, but his striking was a bit wild. I look forward to his fights though, he's pretty exciting to watch.
^ Agreed, Jones is an extremely exciting fighter, and training with Greg Jackson and Firaz Zahabi will take him places. He is so young. The UFC is right not to rush him. They are grooming him to be the next big thing in that division. He's probably not ready to fight the guys on the LHW list at this point. Based on potential he'd definitely be at the top of the LHW list and would be one of the highest overall in the UFC along with guys like Anthony Johnson, Todd Duffee, etc.
