Light Heavyweight rankings

Here are my current linear rankings for the UFC Light Heavyweight division, and the latest community rankings via Unspun. My personal linear top Light Heavyweight fighters currently active in the UFC:

1. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
   - Welcome to the UFC Mr. Shogun sir. Despite the fact that he's likely 1-2 fights away from a rematch with Jackson, I don't see anything in the transition from PRIDE to the UFC that makes me think the results are any different the second go round.
2. Quinton Jackson
   - One of the few divisions where I feel the current title holder deserves to be up at the top of the list... if it wasn't for Shogun moving over Rampage would stand alone here...
3. Rashad Evans
   - Despite being a fan of Tito Ortiz in the past and a big fan of Team Punishment, I think Evans handily defeats Tito Ortiz at UFC 73.
4. Lyoto Machida
   - the dark secret of the UFC's Light Heavyweight division. His highly technical counter-based style won't win him a lot of fans or get him a lot of TV time, but I think he stands a lot farther up this list than most give him credit for...
5. Chuck Liddell
   - too early to say if age or partying has finally caught up to Chuck since he simply made a mistake and got caught at UFC 71 and prevented us from seeing the fight we wanted. However, I do feel everyone above beats Chuck most of the time. Machida is a big assumption but I think Machida is smart enough to force Liddell to come after him and not vice-versa.
6. Dan Henderson
   - I'm a big fan of Henderson but I really think he belongs at Middleweight. I don't think he can hang at 205 for long despite the win over Wandy. But I'd love to be proven wrong...
7. Michael Bisping
   - Despite trouble with Sinosic, Bisping still ranks here with me
8. Houston Alexander
   - welcome to the UFC, Houston Alexander.
9. Thiago Silva
   - Chute Boxe. 'Nuff said.
10. Tito Ortiz
    - its been WAAAAAY too long since Tito has beaten anyone of substance to rank him any higher.
11. Forrest Griffin
    - one of the few divisions with the depth to need to go past a top ten. Hopefully Forrest rebounds nicely this weekend but I think he's going to be in a tougher fight than many expect against Ramirez.
12. Renato Sobral
    - Tough to not be a fan of Babalu, but he clearly came back too quickly from the Liddell fight and its hard to consider him a favorite over anyone above him on this list...

Here are the latest community rankings via Unspun:

Technorati Profile

Introducing Unspun and my UFC rankings - Heavyweight

Cujofan pointed me towards a new software feature from Amazon.com called Unspun. What is Unspun you ask? From their FAQ:

Existing methods for community collaboration on the Web aren't good at developing consensus rankings. If you do a web search for "sexiest movies," you might find websites that have lists of "sexiest movies," but each will be the opinion of the individual who authored that website.

Wikis (as prominently and beautifully exemplified by Wikipedia) are an excellent mechanism for community collaboration, but they don't support consensus rankings. Imagine a large group of people editing and re-editing a wiki page that purported to have a ranked list of "sexiest movies." It wouldn't work -- they'd step on each other.

So that's the niche that UnSpun endeavors to fill.

If you want to see the community consensus on what's the best or the worst, the scariest or the funniest, the tastiest or the dumbest, UnSpun provides the right amount of structure to make that possible.

So Cujofan and I immediately put together rankings for the UFC weight classes.

These are designed to be only fighters currently under UFC contract. So Fedor isn't at #1 in heavyweight because he's not under UFC contract and thus not eligible to be ranked.

Here are the current UFC heavyweight rankings via the Unspun community:



Here are my personal rankings which I've submitted on Unspun, with a bit of explanation. First off, these are meant to be linear rankings. That is to say, this is not a list of "this guy is holding the belt, and here are the other nine guys in relative order who should get to fight for it." Instead, this is designed to rank from top to bottom who the relative best fighters are in the UFC. #1 should usually beat #2-#9. #2 should usually beat #3-#9 but not #1. etc. That's not to say that #1 beats #2 four times out of five, but instead at least six out of ten times.

1. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
   - I think "Big Nog" is the best of the current crop of UFC heavyweights.
2. Mirko Cro Cop
   - despite the viscous KO at the hands of Gonzaga, I think Mirko would defeat Gonzaga in a rematch. Cro Cop will now train in a cage and train to better defend elbows on the ground.
3. Gabriel Gonzaga
   - yes, I think Gonzaga defeats Couture at UFC 74.
4. Randy Couture
   - I think was fantastic that Couture took the belt from Timmy... but I don't believe he's at the top of the UFC heavyweight division except in title only...
5. Brandon Vera
   - I feel we haven't seen enough out of "The Truth" lately to rank him any higher at this point. Especially after the long layoff. He could rocket up the chart quickly though...
6. Tim Sylvia
   - I am not a Tim Sylvia fan in the slightest, but I've got to acknowledge that he belongs about here on this list. Definitely ahead of AA after beating him twice.
7. Andrei Arlovski
   - Having dropped two of three to Tim Sylvia, AA ends up at #7.
8. Fabricio Werdum
   - Despite the poor showing against Arlovski, still makes #8.
9. Heath Herring
   - More of a statement on the lack of depth at heavyweight.
10. Cheick Kongo
    - If he were five years younger he'd be a force to be reckoned with. As is, his pitiful ground game makes him an entertaining striker but a poor mixed martial artist.

So vote for your favorites in the poll, and feel free to comment here on what you think.

I'll be back soon with posts for each of the rest of the UFC weight classes. If you want to find those polls in the meantime just search for "UFC" on Unspun...

-P