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 Fight Night: Machida vs. Munoz
Steve Jeffery: Lyoto Machida’s debut in the UFC’s Middleweight division this past weekend really helped us solve our rankings problem in the division. As mentioned last week, CB Dollaway was in our top ten just because we had no other better option at the time.
Machida looked in the best shape of his career knocking out perennial top five fighter Mark Munoz by a headkick in the first round. Machida now takes over Munoz’s #5 spot, and is likely close to a title shot in this recently rejuvenated division.
Meanwhile, Munoz drops down a spot while we wait and see if he can turn the ship around in his next fight.
Steve Jeffery: Light Heavyweight is another division that’s been hard to create a consistent Top Ten for, due to a lack of standout options (compared to a division like Welterweight which has over fifteen fighters that wouldn’t look out of place in a top ten list), and fighters just leaving the division.
Lyoto Machida’s move to middleweight results in everyone else sliding up a spot, and then someone new moving into the #10 slot. As usual, Ryan Bader is our choice, continuing our trend of adding and removing him constantly due to circumstance.
Other options that we didn’t go with include James Te-Huna (he still doesn’t have that big win, but will have a chance against Shogun in December), and Jimi Manuwa (who has been racking up unranked wins including one this past weekend). Neither of these guys have actual top ten wins like Bader does (Little Nog and Rampage), so he’s the easy pick for now regardless of his high-profile losses.
Steve Jeffery: John Lineker is in a pretty unique situation in the UFC Flyweight division. He’s obviously talented and on a winning streak that continued last Saturday against the ranked Phil Harris. Unfortunately, he also missed weight for the third time, and it’s turning into a big problem.
Missing weight in a title fight would mean that the title can’t be on the line, and it also casts a shadow over wins against the fighters who managed to come in at the contracted size against him. Either way, Lineker likely needs a win over a higher profile Flyweight before getting a title shot, but it’s hard to move him any further up the rankings after beating a lower-ranked fighter in a catchweight fight.
Depending on how his next fight goes, Lineker may wind up an unranked Bantamweight in the future. Also, Phil Harris barely hangs on at the bottom of the Top Ten due to the circumstances, and the lack of a legitimately stronger option at this 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, Renan Barao, 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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