The WEC was nice enough to give us a great fight card on the versus network for free, so if you didn’t see it last night you can still find it somewhere on the internet most likely. I have nothing against giving my thoughts on a card and hearing what everyone else has to say but that is not what this post is going to be about. For those of you that don’t know Jose Aldo fought last night and won in spectacular fashion, once again, against a game opponent in Manny Gamburyan. With Aldo having three consecutive title fights (two title defenses) and finishing two of the three in the manner that he did I thought to myself . . . How does he now fall in THE POUND FOR POUND LIST? So I did some research.
MMAWeekly.com has the feather weight (145 lbs) rankings as Aldo, Gamburyan, Brown, Faber as 1-4 respectively, so that’s good for business. Current #1 ranked fighters in their weight classes include 135 Dominick Cruise: 1-0 vs #2 ranked Brian Bowles and 2-0 vs #4 ranked Joseph Benavidez. 155 Frankie Edgar: 2-0 vs #5 ranked B.J. Penn. 170 George St. Pierre: 1-0 vs #2, #3, #4 who are Fitch, Koscheck and Alvez. 185 Anderson Silva: 1-0 vs #2, #4, #5, #6 (#3 shields isn’t going to fight at 185 in the near future so these are essentially #2-#5) Sonnen, Marquardt, Maia and Henderson. 205 Mauricio Rua: 1-1 vs #2 Machida and 1-0 vs #4 and #5 Rampage Jackson and little Nog. 265 Brock Lesnar: Has not beaten any of the CURRENT top 5 ranked fighters. Like it or hate it I developed my own top 10 pound for pound list.
#1 George St. Pierre (20-2) - No one can dictate where they want the fight to be better the George. He has the best MMA related wrestling in the business and can finish you on the feet or on the ground. With a win over Koscheck and a possible future fight with Jake Shields he wont have much business left in the welterweight division and can make a run at the middleweights to further cement his number 1 status.
#2 Anderson Silva (27-4) – Everyone knows that if you stand with Anderson and he wants to finish you, he can and will. He has shown off his bjj black belt skills lately with a come from behind victory over Sonnen where he also showed the desire of a true champion. He didn’t really test the waters of the bigger 205 pound division, he dove in head first and defeated former champion Forrest Griffin making one of the best highlight reels of MMA.
#3 Jose Aldo (17-1) – I do not know who is next for him after his KO of Gamburyan, but does it matter? He is as dynamic of a striker as fellow Brazilian Anderson Silva. Although we haven’t seen it too much due to solid take down defense he also is rumored to have very dangerous bjj skills as well. Oh yeah, he just turned 24!!!
#4 Jon Fitch (23-3) – 2 of his 3 losses were eight years ago and the other one was against my #1 P4P GSP. He has very technical kick boxing skills and can impose his will on almost anyone his wrestling. His BJJ skills are very much underrated because he mostly uses them for position rather than submissions. Earlier in his career he fought and won at 205 and 185.
#5 Mauricio Rua (19-4) - He is the champion of one of the most stacked divisions in any organization. He lost a highly disputed championship fight to my #9 Machida and then redeemed himself with KO in their second meeting. 16 wins by KO/TKO give a good picture of his capabilities on his feet while he uses his advanced BJJ skills to nullify submissions and stand back up to use his stand up weapons.
#6 Frankie Edgar (13-1) - The Answer has only been riddled once and he gets a chance at redemption in just a few months to fight the man that gave him the smudge on his career. B.J. Penn is still B.J. Penn which means that a win over him puts your name on the map. Fortunately his name was already on the map so he landed on the P4P list.
#7 Jake Shields (25-4) - Making the move to the stacked welterweight division of the UFC will prove a lot of what Shields has been showing us all along. He is a great fighter. He out wrestled former Olympian Dan Henderson at 185 while he can comfortably fight at 170. 3 of his losses were over eight years ago and he is on a 14 fight win streak which is more fights than #10 and just as many as #6.
#8 Fedor Emilianenko (31-2) – Yes his last fight resulted in a loss, yes everyone wants
him to go to the UFC to fight Brock and the other star studded cast of UFC’s heavyweight division. Strikeforce has a solid heavy weight division as well and with his powerful hands and slick BJJ he should not be looked down upon after his last fight.
#9 Lyoto Machida (16-1) – I’ve stubbed my toes more times today than Machida gets hit in a fight, and I haven’t even gotten out of bed yet. He is one of the most elusive fighters I have ever seen with lightning fast punches and kicks he is a dangerous man. With good take downs and submission skills he stays on the list after his last loss.
#10 Brock Lesnar (5-1) – The only reason I got turned down by an MLB team was because I was too old, not because I haven’t played in over ten years. Well that’s not true but it is for Brock when he tried out for the NFL’s Vikings. He is a freak athlete who is still young in this game. He already has the wrestling credentials to beat anyone and with his submission in his last fight and a win in his next fight we could see the not so little guy in the top 5.
I'm always cautious with P4P lists as it's hard to gauge if someone is really one of the P4P best or if they're just at the top of their division. I do like this list, though, and I think guys like Frankie Edgar and Brock Lesnar will rise or fall on this list as they start getting into the deeper waters of their division. Edgar will be facing Gray Maynard, who gave him his lone career loss, and Lesnar will be facing undefeated challenger Cain Velasquez and possibly Junior Dos Santos after that. I'm also cautious with these lists considering how fast some people get added, but hopefully over the next year we'll be able to find out where most of these guys stand.
ReplyDeleteYea I think it is tough to put any Heavyweights on a p4p list unless you were an undefeated Fedor because of it's lack of depth. If Silva and St. Pierre ever get around to fighting the winner of that should be #1 and #2 on the list and the loser #3.
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