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 has 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: Hunt vs. Bigfoot
Steve Jeffery: Mark Hunt vs. Bigfoot Silva exceeded everyone’s expectations, and may just be the best heavyweight fight in UFC history. The fight was a draw and for once no one seems to be complaining about the decision.
Both fighters were still fighting hard in the 4th and 5th rounds, which was not only a surprise but also a good sign for their future individual success. Due to the fight having no winner, it seems right to just keep both fighters at their previous rankings (Silva at #4, Hunt at #9) for now. They will get a chance to prove themselves again either in a rematch, or in separate higher profile fights coming off of the success of this war.
Further down the card, Soa Palelei crushed Pat Barry in violent fashion. Barry isn’t a highly ranked fighter, but it was Palelei’s highest profile win yet, and with two wins so far in the UFC’s heavyweight division it’s possible that Palelei will get a higher ranked opponent next time out.
Steve Jeffery: Shogun Rua really needed a win last weekend. The former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion has been inconsistent in the last few years, and has spent the year rapidly sliding down the rankings.
His opponent James Te-Huna has had a lot of recent success, but he failed against his only recent top-10 opponent (Glover Teixeira) earlier this year. A win over Shogun would have finally broken Te-Huna into the top-10, but it wasn’t meant to be. Meanwhile Shogun’s impressive knockout keeps him locked in the top-10 for now.
Ryan Bader has also been hanging around the bottom of the Light Heavyweight top-10 forever, and while a win over Anthony Perosh isn’t much for the resume, the combination of Bader delivering an epic beating, and Gegard Mousasi’s overall inactivity (and impending middleweight debut) seems enough to push Bader up a notch to #9 at the moment.
Steve Jeffery: It was inevitable that Julie Kedzie would eventually fall out of the top-10. While she is a women’s MMA pioneer and a solid all-around fighter, it has been a while since she has won a fight. Also, the UFC have been hiring more female fighters, making it a lot harder for anyone to stay near the top of the division.
Bethe Correia was a replacement fighter that took the fight against Kedzie on relatively short notice when Aleksandra Albu was injured. Correia’s performance was impressive though, and she remained one step ahead of Kedzie for most of their fight.
Her win moves her into the #10 slot, while Kedzie slides out of the top-10 completely. It’s probably for the best though, as Kedzie announced post-fight that she was retiring from fighting completely.
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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