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 164: Henderson vs. Pettis
Steve Jeffery: The actual Lightweight divisional rankings don’t require much explanation following new Champion Anthony Pettis’ win over Ben Henderson. Pettis takes the Championship slot, and Henderson moves down to #1. No problem.
Instead, we’re going to break down our updated Pound-For-Pound Rankings this week, not only due to Henderson’s loss, but also due to some changes that needed to be made. Ben Henderson’s loss moved him quite far down the list, from #5, down to #10. While Henderson’s last few years have been impressive, a couple of too-close fights and the existence of one man that he just can’t beat leave him just barely hanging on.
Meanwhile, we finally decided to slide Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz a few slots down the Pound-For-Pound list. While he’s been sitting out injured for the past two years, Interim Bantamweight Champion Renan Barao has been in his division beating all of the top names in his division.
Steve Jeffery: Josh Barnett returned to the UFC for the first time in over ten years and with one win over Frank Mir, is now firmly entrenched in the Heavyweight Top Ten. Granted, Frank Mir has not been on the best run of his career, but he was the #6 ranked Heavyweight for a reason, and it usually takes a pretty solid fighter to beat him.
Barnett now takes Mir’s spot at #6, bumping Mir down to #7, where a fight against closely ranked Alistair Overeem seems almost inevitable. Barnett on the other hand has interesting fight possibilities against most of the names above him, and maybe even an up-and-coming guy like Stipe Miocic.
It’s possible that the UFC will wait to see the result of the Heavyweight Championship fight in October between Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos before matching some of these fighters up with one another.
Steve Jeffery: This was a tough one for us. The Featherweight division currently has four fighters who could all be legitimate challengers to Jose Aldo’s title. Ricardo Lamas, Cub Swanson and Chad Mendes are all on serious win streaks with multiple finishes over other top ten fighters. Frankie Edgar is a former pound-for-pound great who put up a solid fight with Aldo, but still only has one win in the division.
Lamas’ wins over Koch, Swanson and Hioki are probably the most impressive overall, but only marginally, so he keeps his #1 ranking for now. Chad Mendes just knocked out Clay Guida, and also holds a win in the past over Cub Swanson, so we have bumped him up to right behind Lamas at #2. Cub Swanson’s recent run has been incredible, but it’s hard to rank him higher than two guys who have beaten him, so he’s holding tight at #3 for now. Finally, Frankie Edgar may be the best fighter of all of them, but it will take better Featherweight wins than Charles Oliviera for him to advance past #4 in this highly competitive division.
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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