Top 5 of the Top 5: Middleweight Division
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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 Middleweight Division (171-185)
Ranking last Updated: 09/01/2007
Its not hard to put the UFC Middleweight champion in the top spot. He’s got a big defense coming up against Rich Franklin but has been dominant since joining the UFC with a quick distruction of Chris Leben.
The top spot was easy, the rest is hard. You’ve got Filho, Dan Henderson and Rich Franklin all with an argument. Filho is the WEC Middleweight champion and is talented enough to be in this spot. It hurts him that the Middleweight division is thinner than even the UFC’s and it will be interesting to see where competition comes from. However, the others all have other strikes against them which makes him my #2 in spite of that fact.
Since his lost to Silva, Franklin has bounced back with a convincing win over Jason MacDonald and a pretty boring win over Yushin Okami. He’s next in line for Silva’s title and in front of pretty much a hometown crowd. It is easy to forget how dominant he was when you only focus on Silva devastating his nose. We’ll find out on 10/20 if he’s able to rebound.
I said champions got weighted higher and that is true here. However, he is more focused on his Light Heavyweight career at the moment, preparing to defend against Quinton Jackson at UFC 75. Still, if Henderson were to go back to Middleweight he’d be right in the mix and in a hurry.
Here’s another guy who would be ranked higher if not for the fact that 2 of his last 4 fights were losses to Fedor Emelianenko and Quinton Jackson but in between those he holds victories over Carlos Newton and Jeremy Horn.
He’s still a dangerous Middleweight though even if the competition is harder to find. Plus, I do think the Middleweight division is probably the weakest of the 5 major weight classes.
Fighter on the Decline: Chris Leben – has not looked good in losses to Kalib Starnes, Anderson Silva or Jason MacDonald.
Fighter on the Rise: Terry Martin – has looked impressive in all of his middleweight fights and has Leben up next.
Fighter I want to see more: Jason Miller – Mayhem is one of the most entertaining personalities in the sport.
Previous Rankings:
Next up is the Welterweight Division, maybe the deepest in the world.
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