Okay which list is more impressive? UFC Middleweights: 1.Anderson Silva 2.Paulo Fihlo 3.Dan Henderson 4. Yushin Okami 5. Nate Marquart 6. Thales Leites 7. Dennis Kang 8. Demian Maia 9. Michael Bisping 10. Patrick Cote Other Middleweights: 1. Gegard Mousasi 2. Yoshihiro Akiyama 3. Robbie Lawler 4. Matt Lindland 5. Jorge Santiago 6. Kazuo Misaki 7. Cung Le 8. Joey Villasenor 9. Jacare Souza 10. Frank Trigg With the soon to happen addition of Paulo Fihlo and Dennis Kang just signing on, the UFC MW division is really looking strong. Anderson Silva is destroying everyone he faces and no one outside the UFC looks like the one who could stop him, although Mousasi is the best competition he’d face. Akiyama, Lawler, and Lindland are a handful for anyone. Lawler has really improve since he was let go by the UFC and I expect him to return once the legal issues are resolved with Elite XC and the fighters contract status. Cung Le is a very interesting prospect, but I wonder how he’d do vs a great grappler who would put him down and make him stay down. Jacare vs Maia would be a BBJ fans wet dream come true. This is probably the division with the closest match ups IMO and could very well end up being 5-5. What do you guys think? Did I leave anyone out from either team who absolutely should be there??
The UFC has bolstered their middleweight division over the last year so much it's impressive, but even more impressive is that nobody on either list stands a half a chance against Anderson Silva (on paper). I think Mousasi is a top-five middleweight and the much-reviled Akiyama is probably top-ten, but the UFC dominates the top-25 or more for this weight class. That's without Rich Franklin, too.
The last PPV Silva pissed me off and I only watched the first round of that Filho WEC fight, the turtling made me change the channel. Thank god it was free. I think Joey Villasenor is a very underrated fighter and I love Cung Le.
