The hosts of The Hammer MMA Radio have been contributing to the UFC’s Official Fighter Rankings since its inception earlier this year. While the UFC themselves have confirmed that these rankings may not necessarily impact their matchmaking, the three of us still put a lot of thought into our selection process at the conclusion of each event. Following each event we will be breaking down our thought process on a few of the relevant divisions right here at Last Word On Sports.
You can find our updated Rankings, as well as the overall UFC Rankings at http://www.ufc.com/rankings, both updated on the Monday immediately following every UFC event.
UFC On Fuel 10: Nogueira vs. Werdum
Steve Jeffery: Fabricio Werdum continued his run towards to the UFC Heavyweight title last Saturday night by submitting the notoriously hard to finish Antônio “Minotauro” Nogueria in the main event. A third win in a row against a tough opponent like Nogueria would usually be enough to move a fighter up the rankings, but we already had Werdum in the #2 slot due to his mostly impressive run in Strikeforce.
As Werdum has already lost to the deserving current number one contender Junior Dos Santos, we really can’t move him up any higher at this time, so he’ll have to remain at #2, but this latest win might just be enough to get him a shot at whoever’s champion following the next Velasquez/Dos Santos fight.
Also, we’re actually one of the few voters in the Official UFC Rankings that didn’t have Nogueira ranked in the top ten at all going into this fight. He will obviously remain unranked. While Big Nog put on a decent performance, by losing this fight the legend has likely seen the end of any last chance at the top again.
Steve Jeffery: Last Saturday night’s card didn’t have any Welterweights that were ranked in the top ten of the division. It did have Erick Silva though, who seems to have as bright a future of any young fighter in the UFC. “Indio” finished an underrated Jason High in just over a minute, and also won the submission of the night bonus in a night full of impressive submissions.
Erick Silva’s UFC record doesn’t quite tell the whole story of his ability. While his unfair DQ loss to Carlo Prater and his hard fought loss to Jon Fitch can be looked past, we still can’t put him in the top ten of such a competitive division until he gets a chance to prove himself against better competition. Hopefully someone in ranked in the ten-to-fifteen range.
Steve Jeffery: Raphael Assuncao looked solid beating Vaughn Lee last weekend, but he was expected to win that fight. After a spotty run at Featherweight, admittedly only losing to really great competition, he’s now knocked off four UFC Bantamweights in a row. His spot stuck on the Facebook prelims as opposed to the TV card really shows how underrated and under-appreciated Assuncao is in the company, despite being #6 on both The Hammer MMA Radio’s rankings, as well as the overall consensus ranking.
The six men above him though include two champions; a man that’s beaten him, the last contender, the current contender, and Brad Pickett. It was a hard call to make leaving Assuncao below Pickett, but they’ve beaten about the same level of competition lately, so we’ll have to re-evaluate after Pickett’s upcoming fight with Michael McDonald.
The Hammer MMA Radio has featured interviews with some of the biggest names in MMA over the years, including Georges St. Pierre, Matt Hughes, BJ Penn, Sean Sherk, Mark Coleman, Rory MacDonald, Brendan Schaub, Mark Bocek, Nate Diaz, Mark Hominick, Martin Kampmann, Johny Hendricks, and many more, all of which are archived at http://www.thehammermma.com.
The Hammer MMA Radio continues to bring unparalleled, independent coverage of all things MMA to fans of the sport and they always bring you straight goods and the last word, and we at LWOS are pleased to be partners with them.
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