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 162: Silva vs. Weidman
Steve Jeffery: Well, this is interesting. For the first time since 2006, the UFC Middleweight Champion isn’t named Anderson Silva. Number one contender Chris Weidman followed through on his promise to become champion, and did so in a memorable, ridiculous fight. Now we get to wait and see how long he can last at the top.
Anderson Silva obviously moves down to the top contender slot, both because he’s been promised an immediate rematch if he wants it, and also because really, who can doubt that he’s still the best non-champion in the division.
Also, Mark Munoz seems to have rebounded from his loss to Weidman last year, but we already had him ranked at #4, which was many slots above the overall consensus. The #4 position still seems accurate for now, with only very recent title contenders above him.
Steve Jeffery: UFC 162 was a great night for Featherweight action. Cub Swanson continued his run to the top, with another convincing victory over a top ten guy, this time against Dennis Siver. We already had Swanson ranked pretty high, but this win seems to finally put him above Chad Mendes, who just hasn’t been facing the same level of competition that Swanson has lately. Only Ricardo Lamas, who was the last man to beat Swanson, remains above him now.
We’ve also moved Frankie Edgar up closer to the top, now that he’s actually won a fight at featherweight. His overall ability could arguably put him at #1, but he just needs to have more fights in the division, and string some wins together first
The UFC Featherweight division is especially strong lately, and we still haven’t even included Anthony Pettis on our list, instead deciding to wait until he actually fights at 145 pounds.
Steve Jeffery: It’s not very often that we get to update the overall Pound-For-Pound rankings, but when the greatest fighter of all time loses to a relative rookie, things get shaken up considerably. For the last few years it’s been obvious to us that the top three were Silva, St. Pierre, and Jones, in that order. Everyone else (including even Jose Aldo) are a couple of steps behind.
So now with this loss, Anderson Silva slips down, while St. Pierre and Jones slide upwards. Silva’s seven-year run of dominance keeps him ahead of most, but his next fight will make a difference.
Weidman also enters our list for the first time, but further down due to his limited amount of career fights. Really, other than Silva and Munoz, his resume is still a bit underwhelming from a pound-for-pound perspective, but a couple of successful title defenses will likely send the new champion skyrocketing up the list. Former Heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos falls out of the top ten to make room for Weidman.
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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