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.
Note: This is the first week that the rankings have been altered to include the Top 15 fighters in each category.
UFC 168: Weidman vs. Silva
Steve Jeffery: The two best middleweights in the world faced each other again last Saturday night, and it resulted yet again in a unique and somewhat unsatisfactory conclusion. Former Champion Anderson Silva tried to regain his title but broke his leg on when Champion Chris Weidman blocked a kick with a perfectly timed check. It was gross.
Obviously Weidman remains the deserving, defending Champion but the real questions are with Anderson Silva. Even with these past two losses he remains the second best fighter in the division (it wasn’t that long ago that he destroyed the man beneath him, Vitor Belfort) and hopefully will get a chance to prove it again if he can recover from this brutal injury.
It’s also possible that Silva will choose to retire rather than put himself through the level of rehab required to return. For now though, Anderson Silva keeps his spot directly below the Champion, at least until Weidman defends against Vitor Belfort in 2014.
Steve Jeffery: There was only one heavyweight fight at UFC 168 and it was between the #5 and #6 ranked fighters Josh Barnett and Travis Browne. Barnett was the favorite, but he became the second fighter to run into Browne’s now signature elbows to the head during a takedown attempt.
Obviously Browne now moves ahead of Barnett, but we can’t move him past the #4 ranked Bigfoot Silva since Bigfoot beat Browne fairly recently. Nevertheless, Browne is on a hot streak, and looks to be facing #2 ranked Fabricio Werdum for the next title shot.
Meanwhile Barnett doesn’t fall far due to his recent win over Frank Mir, and will likely get a ranked opponent next time out in his rebound fight.
Finally, now that the rankings include the top 15 fighters, the depth issues in the division really start to show as out of the five new fighters only Gabriel Gonzaga has shown any momentum in recent history.
Steve Jeffery: For most of 2013 the Pound For Pound rankings were probably the easiest of all to determine. Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, Jon Jones and Jose Aldo were locked into place and not going anywhere.
Since then Silva has lost twice to Weidman, St. Pierre has more or less retired, and Demetrious Johnson, Renan Barao and Ronda Rousey have dominated their divisions as impressively as possible.
With a second (and at least somewhat more decisive) win over Anderson Silva, the undefeated Weidman has officially staked his claim on the P4P list and should keep rising. And Ronda Rousey’s continued improvement can’t be denied following her title defense last weekend. She will get the chance to test herself further against the remaining threats in her division (including Sara McMann and Cat Zingano) in 2014.
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, Sara McMann, and many more, all of which are archived at http://www.thehammermma.com.
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