Re: SportsTwo's MMA Hot Six Well Kimbo is pretty hard to judge for me, I mean he does pack a lot of power, but he hasn`t really been tested by some good jiujitsu HWs. Kimbo is kind of a guess for me. Yea, I guess Mir`s record isn`t all that impressive outside of Lesnar and Sylvia. It`s neat to see though that he has submitted guys with 6 different techniques. (Knee Bar, Kimura, Armbar*2, Shoulder lock, toe hold, Triangle Choke) Although I don`t know if toe holds are still legal, and I`m not familiar with the shoulder lock. Not asking for arguing's sake, just would like to see what would be your top 21 HWs? (lol 21 can be Kimbo and I forgot Tim Sylvia in my rankings)
Re: SportsTwo's MMA Hot Six I penalize guys for inactivity or for fighting cans in the Hot Six rankings, but overall this is how I'd rank the heavyweights... (IMHO!) 01. Fedor Emelianenko 02. Minotauro Nogueira 03. Randy Couture 04. Andrei Arlovski 05. Fabricio Werdum 06. Josh Barnett 07. Mirko Filipovic 08. Aleks Emelianenko 09. Brock Lesnar 10. Tim Sylvia 11. Sergei Kharitonov 12. Gabriel Gonzaga 13. Antonio Silva 14. Heath Herring 15. Cheick Kongo 16. Frank Mir 17. Ben Rothwell 18. Alistair Overeem 19. Mark Hunt 20. Travis Wiuff There are a couple of guys on this list Kimbo could probably beat under the right circumstances, but there are other guys who aren't (Fujita, Roger Gracie, Dave Herman, Brett Rogers, Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez, Jeff Monson, Antoni Hardonk, etc.) who I think could take out Kimbo in turn.
Re: SportsTwo's MMA Hot Six Thanks for assembling your list. I was kind of surprized seeing Crocop at #7 though and Gonzaga at #12 and Kongo at #15. I can understand them being outside of the top 10 (Kongo has a weak ground game, and Gonzaga has been inconsistent) but I wouldn't have Crocop that high. Personally I think if Kongo was rematched with Crocop that Kongo would beat him most of the time, just due to his height and strength. I think it could go either way with Gonzaga, but if Gonzaga is smart Crocop had a very hard time defending Gonzaga's ground n pound. Crocop definitely seemed better suited for LHW when he was in the UFC and too small to fight UFC HWs. Although the UFC LHW division is very competitive already. I do like your thought process though on having Tim Sylvia at 10, Gonzaga at 12, and Herring ahead of Kongo. I think Kongo though has potential to break the top 10, even possibly the top 5 especially if he continues to work on takedown defense.
Re: SportsTwo's MMA Hot Six Mirko is stubborn. He's better than he showed in the UFC. I think he never wanted to leave Japan, which is why he didn't train with a cage or with elbows, and didn't fight with much heart stateside. Or maybe he's just never recovered from his epic war with Fedor, I don't know. But you're probably right--he is better suited to light heavyweight. I think he's more talented than at least fifteen of the nineteen other guys on that list but I guess that doesn't win him fights or favour automatically.
Re: SportsTwo's MMA Hot Six Nate Marquardt's destruction of Hitman Kampmann puts him back into the middleweight fray, meaning someone has to go. Inactive Paulo Filho is out. Sugar Rashad is into the light heavyweight rankings, displacing Liddell but behind Machida (Tito Ortiz fights). Wanderlei Silva no longer ranked at 205 lbs.
Re: SportsTwo's MMA Hot Six I believe the "None" organization has dropped Randy Couture. He is a talented kickboxer, with decent submission defense, and somewhat decent takedown defense. His ground and pound is weak, his submission game is weak (with 1 real submission (a guillotine choke), maybe 2 (Barnett`s shoulder injury?) in 23 wins) Although I would understand having Crocop ahead of Josh Barnett, due to Crocop beating him 3 times already, and I would pick Crocop to beat him in a rematch at this point in time.
Shogun needs to be lower, he's fought once in the last year and a half and lost. the other guys have been more active and some have lost yes, but they've also won fights in that time.
yeah, but Page held the UFC belt and defended it before losing it. Shogun beat Rampage due to injury, just like Shogun lost to Coleman due to injury. It's still a loss, but it's a little different than being dominanted.
Breaking somebody's ribs with vicious knees and ending the fight with a soccer kick or three is a bit different than landing awkwardly and snapping your arm 49-seconds into a fight. Rampage has said that Rua is the best fighter he's faced (including Wandy, who wrecked Rampage twice).
Why has Shogun been so inactive? Shogun looked ineffective, and got tired and was clearly beaten by Forrest. Rampage, went 5 rounds against Forrest, landed some good punches to the head, while Forrests did good damage to Rampage`s leg. Rampage lost a close decision.
Rua injured (ruptured) his ACL in training for the Griffin fight and aggravated it during the fight, contributing to his pathetic performance. After the fight he went back to training with the UFC wanting him to fight Chuck Liddell, but he reinjured his ACL again and has been on the shelf since having surgery on it. He wasn't cleared to train until this month or later.
So I expanded the rankings to top ten in each division, guys. That adds 24 more fighters to the pool. Every division is up for debate. Light Heavyweight is a spaghetti junction so let me know what you think about that division especially. Lightweight is also worth discussing at length because of the depth of the talent pool.
Thiago Alves jumps into #3 at welterweight with a convincing win over Josh Koscheck, with Koscheck moving down. Fabricio Werdum drops from heavyweight top ten after a bad knockout loss. Sean Sherk solidifies his place among the best lightweights outclassing lightweight standout Tyson Griffin. Thales Leites enters the middleweight rankings with a predictable squash of Drew McFedries.
Gomi drops badly first for taking a fight with a mediocre opponent, second for losing, third for damaging a promotion built almost exclusively around him.
Some movement in the rankings with Urijah Faber and Paulo Filho dropping, with Mike Thomas Brown moving up to the top spot at featherweight and Leonard Garcia making headway in that division as well.
