Light Heavyweight Rankings

[INDYjon22]

I like the rankings here except switch Griffin and Lil Nog, Nog is on a 6 fight winning streak where as Griffin has lost 2 of 3. I would also take Cane out of the 10 spot and put in Jones there, tough call cause I think Bader can go there also. Jones still hasnt truly lost yet either, he just lost a little focus with the illegal elbows, he would've won that fight in the 2nd round have it not been stopped for the illegal bows.

Well I don't think you need to switch Griffin and Nog yet. Now, wait until UFC 114 is over and then make a decision. You see, it doesn't make sense to switch those two around quiet yet since they are fighting in a few weeks anyways. Regardless of the rankings now these two will be fighting so there is no real need to get nit picky with their positions right now.

 

[jmt225]

I really don't have a problem with the top ten here, other than Forrest Griffin being #5. I mean, I love Forrest, but what the fuck has he done lately get a spot that high? He lost to Rashad, got his ass handed to him by Anderson Silva, and barely beat Tito Ortiz, who was coming off a nearly two-year lay off. Again, why should anyone look at Forrest Griffin as the 5th best Light Heavyweight in the World? I bet even Forrest himself would say it's ridiculous he's ranked that high.

But other than that, no problem with the list. Rampage being #3 doesn't bother me, since he's no officially back in the sport. He'll get a chance to prove his worth later this month anyway against Rashad Evans.

 

[Buffalo Dave]

Updated Light Heavyweight ranking: These were obviously done before Saturdays Strikeforce card so keep that in mind while looking at King Mo.

1. Mauricio Rua (19-4)
“Shogun” underwent another knee surgery, stemming from an injury suffered in his May 8 title capture against Lyoto Machida. Recovery and rehab will postpone his slated title defense against former champion Rashad Evans, which will now be pushed back until early 2011.

2. Lyoto Machida (16-1)
Despite his father, Yoshizo, announcing that he would like to see his son retire, Machida will do just the opposite. Coming off his brutal knockout loss to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in May, Machida will get right back into the 205-pound fray later this year. He expects to face another former UFC champion, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, in the main event of a yet-to-be-announced UFC card tabbed for Nov. 20.

3. Rashad Evans (15-1-1)
It has now become a waiting game for Evans. With his May win over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Evans earned another crack at the UFC light heavyweight title. However, with champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on the shelf until early 2011 with yet another knee surgery, the real question for Evans remains whether or not he will be placed into an interim title bout while he waits for Shogun to heal.

4. Quinton Jackson (30-8)
Coming off a tough decision loss to rival Rashad Evans in May, Jackson will stay right in the hottest fires at 205 pounds. In the main event of a yet-to-be-announced UFC card slated for Nov. 20, “Rampage” figures to take on fellow former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida.

5. Forrest Griffin (17-6)
Griffin was set for a co-main event bout with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 114 before a shoulder injury forced the original winner of “The Ultimate Fighter” out of the bout. Shoulder injuries continue to be an ongoing concern for the former UFC light heavyweight champion, who had shoulder surgery in late 2007.

6. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (19-3)
After narrowly escaping with an iffy split decision win in his May bout with Jason Brilz, Nogueira now has another tough wrestler on his hands. “Minotoro” will meet unbeaten “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 8 winner Ryan Bader in the co-feature at UFC 119 on Sept. 25.

7. Muhammed Lawal (7-0)
Still riding high after an April upset of Gegard Mousasi in which he took the Strikeforce light heavyweight title, “King Mo” faces his first title defense this month. Lawal will put his strap on the line for the first time on Aug. 21, when he takes on Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante in Houston.

8. Gegard Mousasi (29-3-1)
In a thoroughly pointless exercise, Mousasi needed a mere 31 seconds to force an overweight, late-notice Jake O’Brien to tap to a guillotine at Dream 15. The win sets up the former Strikeforce champion for another likely lopsided bout, as he will meet Tatsuya Mizuno for the vacant Dream light heavyweight title later this year.

9. Jon Jones (11-1)
Stepping up in competition, Jones met well-respected veteran Vladimir Matyushenko UFC Live 2 and positively mauled “The Janitor” with minimal effort in the first round. UFC president Dana White has assured the MMA world that elite opposition is on the way for the 23-year-old wunderkind, who continues to look like a future champion.

10. Thiago Silva (14-2)
Silva was set for a return to the Octagon at UFC 117 on Aug. 7. However, his bout with Tim Boetsch fell by the wayside when his nagging back injuries flared up again, leaving the Brazilian on the sidelines indefinitely as he continues to heal.

Other contenders: Ryan Bader, Randy Couture, Rich Franklin, Vladimir Matyushenko, Renato “Babalu” Sobral.

Taking away the loss handed to King Mo this past Sat. I still don't think I would have him ranked at 7. He has literally beaten nobody besides Mousasi. Yeah he beat Kerr but hes not relevant anymore, hes to busy working on his Jens Pulver stats losing 5 in a row. I would give that spot to Jon Jones all day, the kid has been nothing but spectacular, he still would've won that Hamill fight if not for the illegal elbows. But now with the loss I'm not sure if I keep him in the top 10 at all. Give Feijao his spot. I'd round it out Jones, Mousasi, Feijao, Silva.

I think I would switch Lil Nog and Griffin as well. He hasn't fought since last November and is still out awhile with the shoulder injury. Plus his win/loss record hasn't been to good.

 

[INDYjon22]

I call bullshit that Machida is number 2. He got his ass beat twice in a row, no way he sits at 2 on this list. Rashad Evans takes that spot since he is the number one contender. I would also move Lil Nog to 4. Sure his last fight wasn't excellent but he won, and that bumps him up ahead of Jackson who is coming off of a loss and Griffin who has been out for nearly a year. I have Griffin ahead of Jackson only because he has the more recent victory, that could be switched very easily. Mousasi and Jones are both coming off of wins as well, whereas we just saw Lawal get defeated. And, Bader gets the 10 spot because he has been on a roll and picked up a good win over Jardine, a victory over Lil Nog could move him past Jones.

1. Rua
2. Evans
3. Machida
4. Nogueira
5. Griffin
6. Jackson
7. Mousasi
8. Jones
9. Lawal
10. Bader

 

[Fizzy]

I can see why Machida is #2. Why the fuck do you think Rashad is number two? He got his ass beat by Machida and it wasn't even close. Thing about the LHW division is that Machida and Rua are far ahead of everybody at this point in time. Machida deserves the number two spot over Rashad at this point in time. I also don't think you can say Machida got his ass beat twice in a row considering the first fight wasn't much of an ass kicking. It was a very close fight. The second one was an ass beating, but no way was the first one.

My list:

Rua
Machida
Evans
Lil Nog
Forrest
Rampage
Jones
Lawal
Mousasi
Bader

 

[INDYjon22]

The number 1 and 2 guys fought and Rua won and the number 3 and 4 guys fought and Evans won. How I see it that puts Rua at 1 and Evans at 2. This may sound a litte contrived but don't live in the past but in the here and now and the here and now shows that Evans is number 2 currently. Now, I will not deny at all that Machida is the superior fighter, but he is currently the number 3 guy, that will change soon enough I'm sure.

EDIT: I will also concede that it was a little wrong of me to say that Machida got his ass beat twice, because that frankly isn't true and was a poor choice of words. I was letting my bias against Machida shine through. However, the second fight was a beating and as far as I am concerned Machida did lose twice in a row. I scored Rua winning both fights, though the first one was much closer.

 

[Fizzy]

I agree that the second fight was an ass beating, and even the first fight I had scored Shogun winning. Heres the flaw with your logic behind the number one and two guys fighting, and the three and four guys fighting. The two and three guy already fought, and look what happened. The number three guy got dominated. How can a win over a guy ranked lower than Machida bump Rashad above him when Rashad got destroyed by Machida? I don't understand it at all. I'm not a fan of Machida, or Rashad so in no way can I be biased towards one or the other. I just think since Machida beat Rashad easily that Machida should be ranked above him. It's not even like the fight happened years ago as it was a fairly recent fight.

 

[INDYjon22]

I see what your saying but the problem with your logic is that your using MMA math, which is just a bull shit equation. Just because fighter A beat fighter B does not mean anything when it comes to this list. If that were the case then Rampage should never have gotten ranked 4 ahead of Griffin and also mean that Anderson Silva should never be ranked higher then Yushin Okami. Now, obviously Anderson is the better overall fighter then Okami and is deserving of being higher, but your saying because Machida beat Rashad then he shouldn't be ranked higher. That is the equivalent of saying Okami should be ranked ahead of Anderson because he beat him. It's flawed. Evans is the number 1 contender for the title, thus making him the number 2 guy regardless of if he was beaten by Machida.

 

[Fizzy]

I thought rankings were to show who the top fighters in each division. Just because someone is the number one contender doesn't mean he is the number two guy in the division. In this case it means you can't have Machida/Shogun three times in a row so they need new challengers. All in all Machida is the better fighter, and is truly the number two in the division. It's not arguable that he is the second best fighter right now in the LHW division. That alone should mean he is number two. He knocked out the current number one contender, and by beating lesser talent than Machida, Rashad should just surpass him in the rankings? I don't think so. Look at Welterweight, where even though he's boring John Fitch isn't the number one contender, but he is the second best in the division right now even though people get a title shot over him.

You say if my logic were true than those fighters wouldn't surpass the others on the rankings. Both of the fights you mentioned happened years ago, and both fighters went on different paths since then. They truly surpassed the other where in this case Rashad has not clearly surpassed Machida. I don't know what else to say other than I thought rankings were to show the true top fighters in each division. In my opinion Machida is the #2 fighter in the weight class and got there by beating Rashad.

 

[INDYjon22]

He did get to number 2, hell he was number 1 for awhile, but the fact of the matter is he lost. And loses move you down the ladder. If you go down then someone else goes up. For the time being the person who went down is Machida and the person who went up is Rashad. Just look at Fedor. He dominated a lot of guys for a very long time but one loss to Werdum moved him down to 3 and Werdum to 2. If your theory were correct then Fedor would still be ahead of Werdum but he isn't and neither is Machida for now.

 

[Via Armbar]

Honestly, and this is the way I feel with most rankings, the only spots that matter or usually make any kind of sense if the top 3 or 4 spots. Let's take a look:

Rua- The champion and most logical choice for the top spot.

Machida- The man that was beaten by the last champion. The only reason he holds the number two spot is because he has beaten the current number one contender and third place fighter.

Evans- Beat a top ten fighter in Thiago Silva and another in Rampage. There would be no doubt about him being in the number two spot if it wasn't for the fact that Machida beat him.

After that it gets murky. Who do you place fourth? Rampage? Jackson lost to Griffin so shouldn't that put him at least behind Forrest? Then again, Forrest has only one victory since coming off two straight losses, one of them being to a man who doesn't even compete regularly at LHW. BUT he has beaten the current champion. It's a mess really. It all depends on how you look at things. Either you rank it by number of wins so you can put guys like Diet Nog in there who haven't beaten any top guys yet or you do it by who they have beaten. Could you really put Nog in the top five after a win over Cane and a debatable win over Brilz? I think Jones has better wins than Nog does at this point, as does Bader.

So for me personally, I base the top couple of spots on who they have fought. Rua beating Machida, Lyoto beating Rashad and so on. After that, it gets to the point where you have to figure in the newer guys who have great records so far but haven't fought anyone in the top 5 yet. That's when the Jones and the Bader's come into play. If I had to establish a top ten for LHW it would look something like this:

1. Rua
2. Machida
3. Evans
4. Forrest
5. Rampage (it wouldn't really matter if Rampage and Forrest switched spots)
6. Diet Nog
7. Cavalcante
8. Mousasi
9. Jones
10. Bader

Some would argue about Mousasi having a spot on the list over King Mo, it wouldn't be a big deal if Mo was in that spot instead. These things are all incredibly subjective and there are many variables involved. Much more will be determined regarding the top three after Rampage and Machida fight, perhaps earning one of those two men a title shot after Rashad.