Sherdog.com’s Pound-for-Pound Top 10
http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Sherdogcoms-Pound-for-Pound-Top-10-21720
It was a fairly wild year for the
pound-for-pound landscape in
mixed martial arts.
Of
course, MMA’s pound-for-pound top trio -- Anderson
Silva, Georges St. Pierre and Fedor Emelianenko --
stayed intact, each one picking up two wins in 2009.
Some were less enthusing, like Silva’s win over Thales
Leites, and some were not quite so competitive, like
St. Pierre’s routs of B.J. Penn and Thiago Alves. But
they all, in one way or another, whether perfunctory
or dramatic, reinforced the status of the sport’s Big
Three.
However, entrants Lyoto Machida, Jose
Aldo and Brian Bowles all picked up titles under the
Zuffa LLC banner and moved into these pound-for-pound
rankings with their sensational knockouts over the
likes of Rashad Evans, Mike Thomas Brown and Miguel
Torres. Meanwhile, Penn, after beginning the year with
a humbling defeat to rival St. Pierre, rebounded
soundly with a pair of brilliant blowouts of Kenny
Florian and Diego Sanchez.
Here’s hoping 2010
can offer the same excitement among the
pound-for-pound elite.
1. Anderson
Silva (25-4)
The year began miserably for
Silva, as he underwhelmed against mid-level title
challenger Thales Leites to the point of public
outrage. However, he turned in arguably the finest
performance of his career in August, when he
humiliated and demolished former UFC light heavyweight
champion Forrest Griffin in the first round. Now, an
enigmatic elbow injury has disrupted the beginning of
Silva’s 2010, postponing a slated showdown with fellow
Brazilian Vitor Belfort. However, Silva expects to be
healthy enough for his next Brazilian-versus-Brazilian
title defense -- hopefully, more entertaining than his
last -- come April.
2. Georges St.
Pierre (19-2)
St. Pierre got into the
cage just twice in 2009, but he came away with two
dominant victories over B.J. Penn and Thiago Alves.
However, his most significant successes may have come
outside the Octagon, as he picked up sponsorships with
Gatorade and Under Armour and more deeply entrenched
himself as one of Canada’s most beloved athletes. The
2010 campaign for St. Pierre will start at UFC 111 on
March 27 in Newark, N.J., when he takes on surging
British challenger Dan Hardy.
3. Fedor
Emelianenko (31-1, 1 NC)
In Strikeforce’s
first foray onto live network television, Emelianenko
showed the skills and a flair for the dramatic that
have made him one of the best and most beloved MMA
fighters in the world, as he thrillingly halted Brett
Rogers in the second round. None-too-surprisingly,
“The Last Emperor” has been tabbed to headline the
second Strikeforce show on CBS come April, when he
will see opposition from another standout heavyweight
in Fabricio Werdum. A victory over the grappling star
would leave Emelianenko with just one more obvious
foil in Strikeforce’s heavyweight division -- the
elusive Alistair Overeem.
4. Lyoto
Machida (16-0)
It may not go down as the
worst decision of 2009, but it was certainly the least
popular. Machida’s unanimous points verdict over
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in October so inflamed the MMA
world that all parties involved agreed to an immediate
rematch. Hand surgery on “The Dragon” pushed the date
of the fight back until May 1 in Montreal, but it will
still be one of 2010’s biggest bouts when it does
happen. The whole Machida-Rua scenario should serve as
a vivid reminder that the anointing oil is often
called for prematurely in MMA.
5. B.J.
Penn (15-5-1)
Fans and critics alike
always wanted an incarnation of Penn that was keen to
dominate the lightweight division. Though Penn’s
obvious talent flickered occasionally during his run
across multiple weight classes, “The Prodigy” has
looked every bit his nickname since his return to
lightweight. Two elite fighters in Kenny Florian and
Diego Sanchez could not mount a morsel of offense
against Penn, who dominated them en route to
late-round finishes. Of course, conversation has
quickly turned to whether or not Penn has already rid
the division of all its serious challengers.
6. Jose Aldo (16-1)
Perhaps it is
fitting that 2009 will come to a close with Aldo on
top of the 145-pound division, punctuating a year in
which the featherweight class has played a prominent
role on all corners of the globe. Since his World
Extreme Cagefighting debut in June 2008, Aldo is 6-0
with six stoppages, including four in 2009 alone. In
his WEC title capture over Mike Thomas Brown, Aldo was
positively dominant in crushing a pound-for-pound
entrant. The featherweight division continues to
expand and improve and may have some flux still in
store, but Aldo’s youth, skill set and killer instinct
have positioned him as a potentially long-term
dominant figure.
7. Jon Fitch (21-3, 1
NC)
It’s not easy being Fitch. There was
a time not long ago when MMA fans flooded UFC
matchmaker Joe Silva’s inbox with demands that the
former Purdue University wrestling team captain be put
on the UFC 68 main card. Now, Fitch’s
potent-but-prosaic grappling has made him a persona
non grata among fans, who seem to have little patience
for his style. With a tougher-than-expected victory
over Mike Pierce at UFC 107, Fitch moved his record to
11-1 in the UFC, in perhaps MMA’s deepest weight
class. However, with six straight fights seeing the
final bell, some conclusive endings are the only
antidote to Fitch’s unpopular position.
8. Mike Thomas Brown (22-5)
Brown
remains the number two fighter in a deep and rapidly
intensifying weight class. Yet, he seems a forgotten
man in light of his one-sided loss to Jose Aldo in
November, despite the strength of his wins over Urijah
Faber (twice), Leonard Garcia and Jeff Curran. The
world may not be clamoring for a rematch between Brown
and Aldo, but the American Top Team standout has a
wealth of interesting talent to face at 145 pounds.
Brown's rebuilding process will begin at WEC 46 on
Jan. 10, when he takes on tough Philadelphian
Anthony Morrison.
9. Brian Bowles
(8-0)
Though Miguel Torres was supposed
to be the bantamweight division’s first serious star,
that opportunity now resides with Bowles. However,
despite how impressive Bowles was in capturing the WEC
135-pound title from Torres in August, that
opportunity will be a difficult one to cash in on. The
bantamweight division continues to spawn more and more
young challengers, rapidly improving their games from
fight-to-fight. Bowles will meet one of those
contenders in his first title defense on March 6, when
he battles once-beaten Dominick Cruz in the WEC 47
main event.
10. Thiago Alves (16-6)
It was an inauspicious 2009 for Alves. After
waiting months to challenge welterweight kingpin
Georges St. Pierre for the UFC title, he was handed a
one-sided loss in his five-rounder against “Rush.” It
was a far cry from the 2008 campaign that saw him run
over three top 10 welterweights. However, with a crop
of new and interesting challenges in the UFC ranks,
2010 may be a rebound year for the Fortaleza, Brazil,
native. Alves’ year will begin at UFC 111 on March 27,
when he will meet a yet-to-be-named opponent.
