wow, it’s about time rich got back to the top of the list!! now that lutter showed us how easy it is to take silva down he doesn’t look so (unstoppable) no pun intended.

rich will be champ again!!! mark my words!!

Didn’t Silva just go under the knife on his knee’s? That is why it was so easy to take him down…The more Silva heals the better he will be on his take down defense…I am not taking anything from Rich, but Silva friggin dominated him, so it’s really tough for me to say Rich will be champ once again…now hoping he is, that’s another story….

Also, I love the poll! Most are voting for Arlovski! After watching Cro Cop go down to Kevin Randleman in Pride it’s easy to say Andre has the best chance just because of his knockout power….

Franklin will never be Champ again as long as the Spider has the belt Frankins not going to take it from him. the Lutter fight went to the ground because that is where silva wanted to take it, He wanted to win by submission to prove he is better which he did prove.Another thing is Mike Swick should’nt even be in the top ten middlewights.

Couture on the top Heaveyweight list? And ahead of Brandon “The Truth” Vera? Someone’s been sucking too much UFC promotion smoke.

Savior-

The Vera decision was tough. It came down to Couture’s extensive experience inside the Octagon against some of the top fighters in the sport. Vera is an excecllent fighter, but he has not been in the cage with opponents anywhere near the same level as the Natural.

Hope that helps explain the thinking behind the decision.

I’d like to see you incorporate the current champ into the rankings. Just because someone is the champ doesn’t necessarily mean you think they are ranked number 1, ya know? (Timmy boy is a good example in my book.)

PS — the link from the rankings page to this page is wrong — it says 2006 instead of 2007.

Thanks Jaxia — the link was wrong. It’s been fixed.

We’ve talked extensively about ranking them all straight up and including the champion. We’ll discuss it again the next time around as well as consult with a few others. Thanks for the suggestion.

nice job on the rankings…i wish they would have showed the marquardt fight the other night, i don’t know much about him, everyone ranks him high…its crazy they didn’t show that fight on fight night

great calls on the list!!!

i know you already said it but guillard has to make the lightweight list…

can BJ really fight at 155?… time will tell

wish Diaz didnt bolt… hes number 5

could Macdonald beat Tanner? hell no

Rampage would lose to Sobral but i guess you to put Rampage at 2 cuz Sobral doesnt deserve shot #3 at Chuck.

give us Babalu vs Tito.. PLLLEEAASSEE!!!!!!

Couture beats Vera in any fight. Go Randy!!

And the Spider beats Ace 9 times out of 10. Total domination. Sorry Franklin fans

UFC! We need The Axe Murderer and Dan Hendersen. Get em.

I agree with jaxia…I think that putting the champ into the rankings is a good idea. I think that clearly we would all agree Tim is not at the top of the list like Anderson would be. The rankings look pretty good though

OK Babalu???Number 2 of all places? I was hoping to see Rashad a little higher, but none the less i hope to see Rampage fight either Jardine or Evans in his next bout, and with current UFC matchups, there seems to be alot of lower ranked fighters fighting top contenders, Babalu #2 in lt heavyweight and he’s fighting someone KO’d by a lower ranked opponent…WTF…It must be nice for Koscheck to dodge Parisyan. I love watching the UFC but the mismatches are getting rather discusting…How could somebody like Hughes even want to fight somebody who’s not even in contention. I see Rich is fighting someone in the Top 5, Hughes is just wasting peoples money watching him fight someone who’s not even in title contention, let me guess his next fight will be a rematch with GSP. Thats fair for Diego…

i agree with jordan. up and comers should have to fight “gatekeepers” guys that havent won their big fights but are clearly at the top. evans fighting babalu, koscheck fighting parisyan, sanchez vs hughes, etc. no more champs vs chumps. i understand you gotta protect your “hype” guys, but we wanna see good fights.

Man Tim gets no love.

HEAVYWEIGHTS: Tim Silvia gets no love but he could just be the type of guy to keep winning and proving everyone wrong.I’m hoping for Randy but hes gonna get KO’d.Silvia vs. Crocop?? Crocop will be champ till Fedor Emilienenko comes to the UFC and beats his ass along with everyone elses.

LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHTS:How much longer can Chuck rule for? He’s 37. After watching Rampage Jackson vs Liddel where Rampage beat him up(youtube),I think that Chuck will go down soon,maybe not to Jackson but possibly Rashad Evans or Keith Jardine. Tito will never be champ again.

MIDDLEWEIGHTS: Anderson is the man and I hope ehe keeps winning but he looked human when Lutter mounted him and almost got the TKO.Lutter looked like a cancer patient that night.Mike Swick could pose a problem for Anderon Silva. Swick went toe to toe with David Loiseau who is similar to Anderson.

WELTERWEIGHTS: Georges St Pierre is very dangerous but I don’t think he will dominate forever.I wouldn’t be surprised if Hughes beat him next time.His only title defense might be against Serra.Diego Sanchez seems to be like a reicarnated samurai or something and I think he shows the potential to be the champ for a very long time.

LIGHTWEIGHT: Sean Sherk won’t last long as champ. How can B.J Penn not be the next champ? He will dominate until he gets bored at Lightweight. Melvin Guillard is a bad muthafucka though.

UFCMania,

Randy should not be ahead of Vera because Randy hasn’t won a heavyweight fight since the year 2000. Vera has won 8 out of 8 fights decisively in that division.

Randy lost to the last 2 guys he fought in that division, Ricco Rodriguez and Josh Barnett in 2002. And, as the sport has grown in the last 7 years, new improved fighters have come onto the scene.

Randy should NOT be on the heavyweight list at all since he’s not been in that division for 5 years! Tim has got to be tickled to fight the tiny Randy, it’s one for fight he can keep his belt before Miko pulls it from the Lame-iac’s death drip.

hey johnthursday–

great to hear somebody else giving guillard some props. youre crazy though about swick even coming close to silva. the crow got beat up by franklin franklin got killed by silva. loisieau was swick’s toughest competitor and swick couldnt finish him off. i still think swick is a bid overrated. i love the guy and hope he proves me wrong, but there is NO WAY he could stand with silva. GSP wont lose to sanchez either

I dont see how you figure Tito is better than Rashad. Tito made his name on wrestling and conditioning, thats all hes got.

Rashad is a significantly better wrestler who is more than likely in better shape given his age and coaching (he trains with the Michigan State Spartans as well as Jackson’s camp).

As far as stand-up goes: while Rashad is new and i wont go as far as to say he’s better than Tito (though the kick was awesome), the fact is Tito has never shown KO power. Even if tito has the advantage striking its not a big enough gap to make the difference.

Please someone tell me how Tito beats Rashad, because I dont see it, unless he secretly has an amazing guard.

One thing about UFC is a b = C doesn’t work out… The argument by gasman “youre crazy though about swick even coming close to silva. the crow got beat up by franklin franklin got killed by silva.” just doesn’t apply. Swick is a crisp stiker with long limbs, and could just as eaily pop Silva as he has popped a bunch of guys. He has KO power, and slick submission’s… Mike Swick is very similiar to Anderson Silva.

Also you tend to see some mma fighter’s improve really quickly, and get better every fight, and I personally think Mike Swick is approaching his peak in the sport.Isn’t it great how the 185 div went from one of the weakest to one of the strongest in about a year… Another fighter who is also peaking right now is Jason Macdonald. Look at his recond… he is on a 6 fight win streak against progressivly tougher guys, no body gave him a chance against Leban, but he is following Anderson’s track’s… When he defeats Franklin lookout for the next Middleweight Champ.

On to lightweight… Sherk is going to dominate. I am calling you BJ fan’s out right now! He is going to beat up Penn, but before the UFC gives Penn another title shot he his going to cut through Hermes Franca.

We all know BJ has the talent, but the work ethic? I am anxious to see the TUF5. If Bj can learn some discipline durring the 6 weeks training these guys then I will be wrong… If he turns out to be a Ken Shamrock like coach…

I think alot of people are failing to realize that of Couture’s 17 fights, 2/3 or 12 of those have been Championship bouts. So he is fighting higher caliber opponents than Eilers, Scherner, Mir and the other wins on Vera’s record.

TRavis… if its boxing i agree with you about swick vs silva, though i still give silva a bit of an advantage. But in the clinch? Nitey nite Quick.

Tito should change weight classes, drop to 185, where a dominant wrestler could really shake things up, considering that he trains against 205ers.

170-GSP for the next two years, he’s more well rounded than anybody in that division, he only needs to tweak one aspect of his game in order to capitalize on one blatent weakness and it’s over…I hope he moves up weight classes…

185-Swicks ground game is under rated, if he ever fights Silva, expect most of the match on the ground…

HEAVYWEIGHTS…i’d blow my load to watch the Pit Bull against Cro Cop, more than watch Cro Cop cut Silvia down to size, I’m really interested to see the Couture fight…Randy’s very intelligent, and he wants Silvia bad…

Lt Weights That division’ll hold a different title holder every PPW….

i’am tired of everyone saying that Anderon Silva is not good on the ground he looked preety damn good to me on the ground when he was mounted he stayed calm and knew exactly what to do toy get out.Silva would destroy Swick who by the way is very overrated by the comminters on this sight. Silva is the real deal and I really dont know who will be able to beat him. Maybe GSP if he ever moves up in wieght classes, but until then Silva is a futer hall of famer.

Silva was almost TKO’d in the mount, if Lutter just relaxed and sat where he was instead of trying to take the arm the fight was over Silva wasn’t defending himself, he didn’t buck or anything BJ was stopped even though he could’ve sat there the whole round taking those week shots from Hughes but he wasn’t defending himself..same shit different pile…Lutter gave up the mount trying for the arm…cost him the fight…Silva was getting taken down by his ankle, knee injury or not that’s weak

I think everyone that wants to ge good at 185 should have to fight evan tanner. Remember when terrell was good? no way swick or macdonald beat tanner.

UFCmania,

I have to agree with Savior’s comments on Randy over Vera. I think once we see what Randy can do in 68, then we will know where he should rank. Which of course is either at the top or off the list completely.

I also have a problem with Babalu at number 2. Tito gave Chuck a harder time than Babalu. And I really think Rampage should have to go up against Rashad or Kieth before Chuck. I know the UFC doesn’t want to do anything to screw up the renioun of Rampage and The Iceman, but I still agree that he is the top contender.

Other than that I think the rankings are pretty solid.

Silva is beatable – a shadow of Lutter showed that. If it was Silva’s gameplan to go to the ground, he should get a new coach…he nearly lost on the ground in the first. Future opponents now know how to fight him (i.e., not in the clinch) and I think he will lose the belt within the next few fights.

As much as I love the UFC, I think many of the fights are not pitting the best two fighters. Instead, I think they are making matchups based on what will sell (I guess I can’t blame them). Take for instance the Liddell-Ortiz fight. After almost losing to Griffin, and beating Shamrock twice (yippee!) how does Ortiz emerge as the number one contender? The answer in my opinion: it made the UFC tons of money because people wanted to see the fight. I think Coutour is great but his fight on Feb 3 is another example of that type of matchmaking. I think Vera is clearly more deserving of the title shot.

The Ufc is getting bigger and I like the access I have to seeing Ufc shows and events, but it’s beginning to get watered down. Dana boasted a statement that their plan was to have nothing but the best fighters fight, yet everytime you turn around, one of the so called up and comers gets a padded match. Why in the Hell is Bisping fighting Sinosic? what does that fight prove? Let Rampage fight chuck next, let’s get it over with. Rampage needs warm up fights? He’s no rookie!!!! And the fact that people want warm up fights proves my point. Who’s he gonna warm up with sup par talent? If he wants a warm up he can fight Jardine or Evans or even Tito. Forget Vera he’s a lost cause. As soon as the division got a real fighter he headed for the hills. I like the Ufc but unfortunately they don’t have all the best fighters even though some of them think they are. Evans VS. Salmon? Why did Salmon get a main event? Who is he? Exactly!!!!

haha whoever said tito should drop to 185 is an idiot…have you seen the dude, hes probably the biggest 205 pounder on the planet…anyways these rankings are awesome..the people saying Rashad should be in front of Babalu and Tito, look at the “strength of schedules”, you dont know what youre talking about…also I agree totally with the middleweight rankings exactly how they are, thats how they stack up, and i do think swick has a very good chance at beating Silva, swick is an animal and has more heart and determination than most mma fighters….sherk is an animal as well, and as of right now he is the best 155 in the world…BJ, Gomi, not better until they prove otherwise..Bj is more well rounded than any 155, but sherk has the grit which is hard to come by..as far as Vera goes, hes good but hasnt fought anyone yet…cotoure definately deserves his spot

i know its probally a lil late but on what i read about putting the champion in the poll and not ranking them # 1 with all due respect is the stupidest thing ive ever heard! the champ should be number 1 untill proven otherwise. i myself arent a big silvia fan but give him a lil props hes got the belt.o and the poll is pretty good.thouhg i though u jumped the gun a lil on qj and crocop dont get me wrong i am a big fan of both but #1 contender(who ever will challeng the champ) should be rank #2!

you have to put Febricio Werdum at the 3 or 4 spot for heavyweight.
also i think he has a 65-35% chance against andrei

[the worst ufc champ ever]
tim “love handles” sylvia
1. “CRO COP”
2. “The PITBULL”
3. Febricio Werdum
4. “The TRUTH”
5. “The NATURAL”

[champion]
“The ICEMAN”
1. “RAMPAGE”
2. “BABALU”
3. “HB BAD BOY”
4. Ryoto “LYOTO”
5. Rashad Evans

gasmanshad is telling the truth. sanchez deserve the fight against hughes not lytle. and have to make better math ups. like swick vs franklin, arlovski vs vera/ cro cop

Nbcsports ranking are so much better. They have a p4p list, they give respect to Rashad and Melvin, while kenny florian is nowhere to be seen.

P4P
1. Chuck Liddell
2. Georges St. Pierre
3. Mirko Cro Cop
4. Anderson Silva
5. Matt Hughes

HVY
1. Tim Sylvia
2. Mirko Cro Cop
3. Brandon Vera
4. Andrei Arlovski
5. Randy Couture

205
1. Chuck Liddell
2. Rashad Evans
3. Tito Ortiz
4. “Rampage” Jackson
5. “Babalu” Sobral

185
1. Anderson Silva
2. Rich Franklin
3. Nate Marquardt
3. Mike Swick
5. Jason MacDonald

170
1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Matt Hughes
3. Diego Sanchez
4. Karo Parisyan
5. Josh Koscheck

155
1. Sean Sherk
2. Hermes Franca
3. B.J. Penn
4. Melvin Guillard
5. Spencer Fisher

Taltos-

Less than a month ago that same site had Sam Stout as the number one contender in the division … so I don’t share your utter enthusiasm for their rankings.

Having said that, look for some changes to the way in which we calculate the latest UFC rankings. It will be pretty cool.

Thanks for stopping by, even if it was just to bash our rankings and pimp another site.

-UFCmania

yeah that list sucks…probably becuase they give respect to rashad and melvin and kenny florian is nowhere to be seen

the natural vs cro cop. how you think that would end? can Randy do anything not to get ktfo?

no matter how much i liked randy he will get KO by cro cop

I agree with each weight classes rankings except for the lightweight division. I feel Kenny Florian should not be ranked and needs to be replaced with The Young Assassin, Melvin Guillard

C’mon. Emelianenko doesn’t even rate?? He spanked Cro Cop pretty good. Tim had a bad night. He’ll be back.

Time to update the rankings! babalu and macdonald lose their spots and Randy becomes HW champ.

whats up with the new rankings???

New Unoffical ranking (or are they…..yes.)

Alright….you know what….say world rankings, not just ufc…(really bored)

Heavyweight
1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Cro Cop
3. A.R. Nogueira
4. Arlovski
5. Couture

Light-Heavy
1. Mauricio Rua
2. Chuck Liddell (yeah I know I know, just a big Shogun fan, you don’t need to mention you think I’m an idiot for having Chuck at 2)
3. Henderson
4. Ortiz
5. Arona

Middleweight
1. Anderson Silva
2. Rich Franklim
3. Matt Lindland (I guess….)
4. Nate Marquardt
5. Dennis Kang

Welterweight
1. Georges St.Pierre
2. Diego Sanchez
3. Matt Hughes
4. Josh Koscheck
5. Karo Parisyan
(Man this division is stacked in the UFC alone….Fitch is a great fighter too.)

Lightweight
1. B.J. Penn
2. Hayoto Sakurai
3. Sean Sherk
4. Nick Diaz
5. Takanori Gomi (the hell was wrong with him last fight? he looked like he drank a 24 an hour before the fight)

Well that was a nice timekiller…..

new rankings?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

amos…i like that you tried…but im afraid im gonna have to comment on a couple….Josh barnett needs some props in the heavy, although we will never know becuase everyone thinks the Pride heavies are the best, but we are never gonna see the fights to know for sure…in light heavy i dont get Silva going from #1 in most polls, to out of the top five, then for some reason shogun jumps up to #1, but i do think Chuck Vs Shogun woul be an amzing fight….who knows where to put Hendo since he is champ at two weight classes…giving diego and kos too much respect…lightweight is all screwed up…diaz wont be fighting for awhile, and i doubt he can even make 155, true lightweight, Mach being ahead of Gomi is ridiculous, him being ahead of sherk is also ridiculous…not dogging, just giving my point of view

Sorry guys-

Our new format is holding thing up. However, I think it’ll be worth the wait. I expect to have them up early tomorrow. Apologies.