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-173: Barao vs. Dillashaw
Steve Jeffery: Well that was a surprise. While a lot of people had TJ Dillashaw pegged as a future UFC Champion, but as of UFC 173 in 2014, most expected him to just be the latest victim of the reigning, dominating UFC Bantamweight Champion Renan Barao.
Dillashaw fought a near perfect fight including a 5th round knockout, in one of the biggest upsets in recent memory. He jumps from #5 on our list, to being the champion, and now we’ll see how long he can keep it.
Even though he lost the title, Barao has recent beaten the other largest threats in the division (minus inactive Dominick Cruz), and whether he gets a quick rematch or not, he is still currently the deserving #1 Ranked contender at Bantamweight.
Takaya Mitzugaki also competed at UFC-173 and while his win over Francisco Rivera was impressive, we didn’t have Rivera ranked (although many others on the panel did), so it’s hard to bump Mitzugaki higher than Raphael Assuncao who already has a (controversial) win over the new champion.
Steve Jeffery: Daniel Cormier has been a difficult fighter to rank. He won the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix (as an alternate no less, beating current highly ranked UFC Heavyweights Antonio Silva and Josh Barnett), and then began his UFC career with a couple of solid heavyweight wins over guys in the bottom half of the top ten (Mir and Nelson).
That run put him in good position to make a run for the UFC Light Heavyweight title when he dropped down a weight class. Unfortunately his first win in the division was against the least accomplished fighter on the roster. His win last weekend over Dan Henderson was a huge statement, but Henderson is in his mid-40s, and has now lost 4 of his last 5 fights.
We’ve had Cormier ranked relatively low while waiting for a signature LHW win, and while soundly defeating Henderson helps, we could only move him up to #5 at the moment because current #4 Anthony “Rumble” Johnson’s recent win over Phil Davis is a more impressive victory against a more relevant opponent.
Henderson meanwhile continues to bounce around the bottom half of the top ten but is always one big punch from flying back up the list.
Steve Jeffery: As you can see by the image to the left, TJ Dillashaw’s UFC Bantamweight Championship appears to have broken the UFC’s Pound-For-Pound system.
Renan Barao was finally getting the pound-for-pound respect that he had been earning. UFC President Dana White spent the last few weeks pushing that Barao may be the #1 fighter in the world (a sentiment that seems to alternate depending on which champion has the nearest upcoming fight). We had him at #4.
With this loss Barao’s nine year unbeaten streak and run of name fighter wins in the UFC still keeps him on the pound-for-pound list, but losing to an (at least) 5-to-1 underdog, also drops Barao out of the elite list for now.
We settled on #8 overall for Renan Barao, right below Anderson Silva, the last streaking champion whose puzzle was figured out by an American wrestler. If Barao can win an eventual rematch then he’ll work his way back up. As for Dillashaw, the win last Saturday was impressive but his second best win ever was over the fading Mike Easton. Dillashaw’s not pound-for-pound level quite yet.
The Hammer MMA Radio has featured interviews with some of the biggest names in MMA over the years, including Matt Hughes, BJ Penn, Sean Sherk, Mark Coleman, Michael Bisping, Dan Henderson, Renan Barao, Rory MacDonald, Brendan Schaub, Nate Diaz, Mark Hominick, TJ Dillashaw, Sara McMann, 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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