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 161: Evans vs. Henderson
Steve Jeffery: Well, so much for Roy Nelson’s title run. Following three consecutive first-round knockouts “Big” Country” had made his way pretty high up the rankings (#7 on our list, and even #5 overall). Unfortunately it seems like Nelson made the all-too-common mistake of trading all of his momentum for a short-notice fight that he was not prepared for.
On the other hand, his opponent Stipe Miocic made up for his loss to Stefan Struve late last year by dismantling Nelson for three straight rounds. It was the biggest win of his career, and was enough to push him into the top ten for the first time. We’ll have to see if he can keep it up against an opponent who is ready for him.
We’ve now moved Miocic one slot ahead of Nelson, but also moved both of them below Travis Browne for the time being, mostly so we can see how Browne looks in his upcoming fight against Alistair Overeem.
Steve Jeffery: Rashad Evans managed to stop his freefall down the Light Heavyweight division with a split decision victory over Dan Henderson. While the fight was extremely close, it was also the best that Evans has looked in his last few fights. His speed, movement, and gameplan were a lot closer to the Rashad Evans that became a champion, than the one who barely showed up to fight Jones and Nogueira.
Although the fight was close, Dan Henderson fell just short again, much like in his last fight against Lyoto Machida. Although there’s no shame in losing back-to-back fights with former champions, the 42 year old grew noticeably more tired as the fight went on, and any chance for one last title run seems unlikely.
Still, the nature of these last two losses keeps Henderson at the #5 spot for now, with Rashad moving back up to #4. The only men above them currently are Alexander Gustafsson (the next title contender), Lyoto Machida (who has beaten both of them), and Glover Teixeira (the strongest prospect in the division since Jon Jones).
Steve Jeffery: Alexis Davis has long been one of the most impressive women fighters and as expected she beat the lower-ranked Rosi Sexton. Although Davis won a unanimous decision, she actually had more trouble with Sexton than we estimated. Whether due to first-time nerves or by tiring out during a never-ending triangle choke in the first round, it was an issue that could have cost her the fight against a more dangerous opponent.
Even with the win, we have decided to keep Davis at #5 due to the high quality of opposition ahead of her but she could easily surpass Liz Carmouche depending on how they each look in their next fight.
Although she has always been unranked by the majority, we already had Sexton at #8 going into this fight, and can’t really move her any lower at the moment since Sheila Gaff just lost very quickly, and Germaine de Randamie remains untested.
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.
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