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Yahoo! Sports MMA Top 10
By Dave Doyle, Yahoo! Sports
February 7, 2008
Feb. 2 should have been Randy Couture’s night. Instead, it might have been the evening the sport of mixed martial arts moved on without the Hall of Fame legend.
Couture was slated to defend his UFC heavyweight title on the night before the Super Bowl long before he decided to walk out on his contract.
But instead of Couture’s absence crippling the heavyweight division, Feb. 2 became the night the UFC’s 265-lb. weight class was revived. Consider:
# Brock Lesnar showed major potential in his loss to Frank Mir. From a pure fan-interest perspective, Lesnar is already in the category of stars such as Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. And if you think that’s a hype, consider this: Dave Meltzer’s Jan. 21 column on Lesnar did more clicks than any piece of content on Yahoo! Sports that week, and yes, that includes Super Bowl-related pieces.
# Mir gets the rub from the win over Lesnar and has revived his career as a money player. People love redemption stories and fans will rally around a guy who had it all, nearly lost it all, and has picked himself up and started climbing back to the top.
# Tim Sylvia lost to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but put in the sort of effort fans always suspected “The Maine-iac” had in him. Sylvia pushed the pace and dominated Nogueira for two rounds before getting submitted in the third.
# Finally, Nogueira added another notch to his Hall of Fame legacy with his dramatic win over Sylvia. And he just may have snatched away Couture’s role as the crafty veteran who defies the odds, as well.
MMA is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind business. The longer Couture stays on the sidelines, the less money a potential match with Fedor Emelianenko, which would have been the hottest match in the world six months ago, will make.
Couture dropped three spots this month, from No. 5 to No. 8. That’s just one adjustment to the Top 10 after a month in which both Nogueira and B.J. Penn claimed championship gold.
10. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
Points: 12
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Light heavyweight
Hometown: Curitiba, Brazil.
Record: 16-3
Last month's ranking: 10
Most recent result: lost to Forrest Griffin, submission, Sept. 22
Analysis: Yahoo! got several reader emails last month asking why Shogun is ranked and Forrest Griffin isn’t, even though Griffin submitted Rua. I didn’t vote for either, but from the feedback I’ve gotten, my educated guess is that voters who went with Shogun feel the body of work over his career, which includes a KO win over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, outweighs that of Griffin, whose win over Rua was his first over a world-class fighter.
9. Urijah Faber
Points: 45
Affiliation: WEC
Weight class: Featherweight (WEC featherweight champion)
Hometown: Sacramento, Calif.
Record: 20-1
Last month's ranking: 8
2007 results: def. Jeff Curran, submission R2, Dec. 12
Analysis: Is the California Kid ready for pay-per-view? Faber’s next title defense, against Jens Pulver, will take place in either April or May, with his hometown of Sacramento and Reno mentioned as potential sites. There are also rumblings the card might be held on pay-per-view instead of basic cable.
8. Randy Couture
Points: 57
Affiliation:Under contract to UFC
Weight class: Heavyweight
Hometown: Gresham, Ore.
Record: 16-8
Last month's ranking: 5
Most recent results: def. Gabriel Gonzaga, Round 3 TKO, Aug. 25
Analysis: Both Couture and Dan Henderson dropped last month after Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and B.J. Penn won titles and vaulted over them.
7. Dan Henderson
Points: 58
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Light heavyweight/middleweight (final PRIDE 183 lb. champion)
Hometown: Victorville, Calif.
Record: 22-6
Last month's ranking: 6
Most recent result: lost to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, decision, Sept. 8
Analysis: Henderson seems to be making a slow slide down the rankings, but he has a golden opportunity to prove the skeptics wrong when he takes on No. 1 Anderson Silva on March 1.
6. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Points: 68
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Heavyweight (UFC interim heavyweight champion)
Hometown: Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil
Record: 31-4-1
Last month's ranking: 9
Recent results: def. Tim Sylvia, Round 3 submission, Feb. 2
Analysis: Nogueira added to his legend with a crafty and courageous win over Tim Sylvia on Feb. 2. The victory made him the first fighter to hold versions of both the UFC and PRIDE heavyweight belts. Big Nog’s Black House crew, which includes Anderson Silva and Loyoto Machida, might be the hottest camp in the world right now.
5. B.J. Penn
Points: 81 (1 first-place vote)
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Lightweight (UFC lightweight champion)
Hometown: Hilo, Hawaii
Record: 12-4-1
Last month's ranking: 8
Most recent result: def. Joe Stevenson, Round 2 submission, Jan. 19
Analysis: Penn jumped three spots in the rankings after his dominant win over Stevenson in England. To contend for the top spot, Penn is going to need to prove he can sustain excellence over a period of time and not revert to his less-motivated ways.
4. Fedor Emelianenko
Points: 114 (1 first-place vote)
Affiliation: M-1
Weight class: Heavyweight
Hometown: Stary Oskol, Russia
Record: 27-1 (1 no-contest)
Last month's ranking: 4
Most recent result: Defeated Hong Man-Choi, Round 1 submission, Dec. 31.
Analysis: Former K-1 star Bob Sapp recently said he’d like a crack at Fedor. Such a match would no doubt excite those who like to spend their weekend nights in their basement blogging about Japanese network television ratings. But for the 99.99 percent or so of MMA fans who watch the sport because they want to see the best fight the best, it would make for yet another underwhelming Fedor show.
3. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
Points: 114 (1 first-place vote)
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Light heavyweight (UFC lt. heavyweight champion)
Hometown: Memphis, Tenn.
Record: 28-6
Last month's ranking: 3
Most recent result: def. Dan Henderson, decision, Sept. 8
Analysis: One of the downsides of The Ultimate Fighter is that when a major name films the Spike TV show, they’re taken out of the fight mix for months. Jackson is expected to defend his title against Forrest Griffin in July, which would be a 10-month break between fights.
2. Georges St. Pierre
Points: 132 (3 first-place votes)
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Welterweight (interim welterweight champion)
Hometown: Ste. Isidore, Quebec
Record: 15-2
Last month's ranking: 2
Most recent result: Def. Matt Hughes, Round 2 submission, Dec. 29.
Analysis: St. Pierre edged closer to Silva’s top spot, narrowing the gap from 13 points last month to four. If St. Pierre puts on another show when he faces Matt Serra under the pressure of fighting in his hometown on April 19, voters will have a tough choice for the top spot.
1. Anderson "Spider" Silva
Points: 136 (9 first-place votes)
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Middleweight (UFC middleweight champion)
Hometown: Curitiba, Brazil
Record: 20-4
Last month's ranking: 1
Most recent result: def. Rich Franklin, Round 2 TKO, Oct. 20
Analysis: Pollsters become more enamored with St. Pierre with each passing month, but Silva has a golden opportunity to prove he deserves the top spot when he takes on No. 7 Dan Henderson on March 1 and goes for his seventh consecutive victory.
