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 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, all updated on the Monday immediately following every UFC event.
UFC On Fox 8: Johnson vs. Moraga
Steve Jeffery: While the co-main event between Rory MacDonald and Jake Ellenberger at UFC On Fox 8 was disappointing to watch, it did answer some important questions in the Welterweight division. MacDonald now has his first win over a Top Ten opponent, and that combined with his five fight winning streak is enough for us to move him up to the #3 slot in our rankings. Unfortunately for him, the unexciting fight will probably keep him out of the title picture for now, but he may finally get the rematch that he’s been asking for against Carlos Condit.
His opponent, Jake Ellenberger, had by far his worst performance ever in the UFC, but we already had him ranked all the way down at #7, quite a bit below the overall consensus. As he lost to a higher-ranked opponent, we are leaving him at #7, but this makes it a lot easier for the three men below him to possibly surpass him.
Also, Robbie Lawler looked impressive yet again beating late replacement Bobby Voelker, but that’s not really enough to move him any higher at this point. Lawler really does deserve a higher-ranked opponent next time though.
Steve Jeffery: Last Saturday’s UFC On Fox 8 was the first time that more than one women’s fight have taken place on the same card. This is a practice that we hope continues, as so far the women’s fights have been some of the best on the entire card. This isn’t always the case though, as Germaine de Randamie and Julie Kedzie seemed to sleepwalk though all three rounds of their fight. The previously unranked De Randamie did manage to get the biggest win of her career over the veteran Kedzie, allowing her to leapfrog her to the #8 slot.
Meanwhile, Liz Carmouche handily defeated late fill-in fighter Jessica Andrade as expected. While she looked impressive, the already highly-ranked Carmouche (#4) will need to beat a higher level of opponent to move past elite competition like Tate, Zingano, and Kaufman, and possibly get another shot at the title.
With only twelve female fighters in the UFC so far, the bottom half of their Top Ten is a little weak, but this will also give them all a chance to move up quickly with a couple of solid wins.
Steve Jeffery: For the second update in a row we get a rare chance to adjust the Pound-For-Pound rankings. Up until now we had former Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar just holding onto the #10 spot due to only having close losses to the very best fighters in two divisions. With the recent addition of Chris Weidman, and now Flyweight Champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, Frankie Edgar has finally fallen off of our list.
While many of the other voters in the official UFC rankings have had Mighty Mouse ranked in the P4P Top Ten for a while, we had trouble including him because of his too-close fights with Ian McCall and Joseph Benavidez, as well as the overall lack of depth at Flyweight.
Having just finished John Moraga by submission, Johnson now has wins over the top four contenders in his division. That’s something that no other champion at any weight class can say right now. If Johnson can keep this up, he’ll be racing through our Pound-For-Pound list in no time.
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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