Top 5 of the Top 5: Light Heavyweight Division
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Yeah, I said I'd have it last friday but things happened. Here it is though...Middleweights this Friday unless the world ends or I get busy.
Welcome to the first ever combat-hooligans.com attempt at a ranking system for the 5 major weight classes in MMA: Heavyweight, Light Heavyweight, Middleweight, Welterweight and Lightweight.
A few notes on how this Is going to work. The panel is 1 person, and that one person is me. My rankings aren’t meant as a sign of all-time contributions, what could be done in the future, or a reflection of who I think would win in a fight between 2 fighters. This is pretty much the “What have you done for me lately” way of ranking things. As a result, champions get ranked hire by virtue of being champions.
I’m only ranking fighters I’ve actually seen. As time goes on this will be less and less of an issue, but I am willing to admit that my not having seen a fighter may be the only reason he’s missing from a list.
We’re going to look this week at the Light Heavyweight division (186-205)
Ranking last Updated: 08/27/2007
I want to say for the record that I do not think that Rampage is the best 205 fighter in the world. However, he does deserve to be the #1 ranked fighter because he is the UFC champion and he has 2 victories over Chuck Liddell of whom you may have heard. A loss to Shogun Rua and a couple to Wanderlei Silva are the major ones on his record.
He’s primarily fought at Middleweight but as I mentioned previously being a champion will get you higher in the rankings than guys who I think are probably better but don’t hold the belt. Plus, I’ve probably underestimated Dan Henderson in the past more than any other fighter and this will be payback. He faces Rampage on Sept. 9 to unify the belts, so that will have a definite impact on the next set of rankings.
This is the man who I think is the rightful best 205 pound fighter in the world and now that he’s in the UFC I don’t suspect it will be very long before he is at the top of the rankings. Hell, I think he’s so good I almost put him at the top even though he’s not holding a belt…but Rampage’s destruction of Liddell was too hard to be ignored.
His only 2 losses are to Babalu Sobral and Mark Coleman and those were a long time ago in MMA circles. Plus, at 25 he’s got a long career ahead of him and already holds a 2005 victory over Quinton Jackson.
Hey, don’t forget about this guy. Sure, the loss to Rampage was devastating but it by no means is a cause to forget the 7 straight KO’s that came before it. He does have to work his way back up to the title and his age is a bit of a factor but he’s been so great for so long that you can’t rule him out from getting back to the belt.
It was close for my final spot between Silva and Rimeau Thierry Sokoudjou. It is hard to ignore the fact that Sokoudjou was the first man to KO a Nogueira brother (Rogerio) at Pride 33 and then beat another top 205 fighter in Ricardo Arona at Pride 34 in a short span of time. However, I had to go with Silva in the end because the resume is longer and because he’s going to still be competing against the top of the division. I’m sorry but you’re not going to convince me that the Light Heavyweight Division in Hero’s is deeper than that of the UFC. Silva recently returned to the UFC and (assuming Chuck Liddell beats Keith Jardine) is headed for a probable match with Liddell in December.
Fighter on the rise: Sokoudjou: It is hard to ignore his 2 big wins this year.
Fighter on the Decline: Tito Ortiz: Barely beat Forrest Griffin, looked impressive against an out of gas Ken Shamrock, lost to Chuck Liddell, gassed out against Rashad Evans in a draw. He’s still young and I’m not counting him out but he’s not been as impressive lately as you’d think.
Hidden Gem: Wilson Gouveia, has been impressive every time I’ve seen him.
Fighter I want to see more from: Houston Alexander: He’s too charismatic to not be featured.
My final thoughts on this ranking are that it is the division that is most likely to be shaken up in the next month. We’ve got Gouveia-Lambert, Machida-Nakamura, Rua-Griffin and Liddell-Jardine at UFC 76. Then of course before that we’ve got Henderson-Jackson at UFC 75. So all the top Light Heavyweights are going to be in action soon and there’s the potential for this to have to be the first rankings that are completely redone.
For my heavyweight rankings: click here
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