Fightmania MMA Rankings- Heavyweights

As a new feature here at Fightmania.com, there will be Top 10 rankings for seven divisions in mixed martial arts: heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight and bantamweight.  This will be the first part of the July rankings, with the selections for the top ten fighters in the heavyweight division.

First, some info on the rankings themselves.  They are all decided solely by yours truly, so direct any and all hate mail in my direction, please.  Also, we will be using North American weight classes, and any fighters from around the world that do not fit into them will be put in the weight classes that they are closest to.  The rankings will reflect not only the results of a fighter’s bouts, but also the quality of competition faced, the way in which they won/lost their fights, and my own assessment of their abilities.  Recent fights will be heavily favored, so please don’t bother to argue that a big win seven years ago means that a fighter should be ranked higher than I have them.

With that said, let’s get to it, starting with the heavyweight rankings.

1. Fedor Emelianenko (30-1, 1 NC)

Well, this is the easy part.  Even if you are one of the increasingly vocal few that believes that somehow Fedor has not fought good enough competition to be “handed” the number one spot, who else would you put here?  Brock Lesnar has only five career fights, Josh Barnett hasn’t looked that sharp in his recent fights where he was actually licensed to compete, Frank Mir and Randy Couture are coming off losses to Lesnar, and Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera is coming off of a loss to Mir.  Until Emelianenko gets beaten or someone else puts together a run worthy of the number one spot, there’s no question of who is the top heavyweight in the world.

2. Josh Barnett (24-5)

I must admit that I was tempted to put Barnett a little lower, possibly because of the fact that his failed drug test essentially killed an entire promotion and ruined our chances of seeing a much-anticipated #1 vs. #2 matchup.  However, that wouldn’t be in keeping with the criteria for the rankings now, would it?  Barnett has simply fought and beaten more top fighters than Lesnar has, though he has looked sluggish lately and hasn’t beaten a top ten fighter in three years.  See, now I’m talking myself out of having Barnett at number 2.  Let’s move along, shall we?

3. Brock Lesnar (4-1)

Whine all you want.  Where else can you rank Lesnar?  He has already beaten two of the guys on this list, and another that would likely find himself among the top twenty (Heath Herring).  Not only has he beaten Mir and Couture, but he destroyed Mir and made Couture look completely ineffective.  Couture was able to survive for awhile, but he was doing just that- surviving.  Lesnar has earned this spot, and will likely move up if he continues to improve as he has so far in his career.  Another quality win puts him over Barnett, in my book.  If the UFC is able to sign Fedor after all, Lesnar will face a ridiculously tough test very early in his MMA career.

4. Frank Mir (12-4)

Mir is better than he looked against Lesnar at UFC 100, but he isn’t better than Lesnar.  While Mir delivered a beautiful combination that admittedly had Lesnar “seeing Tweety Bird” in the second round, and is obviously deadly with his submissions, Lesnar’s wrestling and control will continue to give Mir very few chances to capitalize on those advantages if they meet again.  Mir has looked good recently, particularly in his win over Nogueira, but Nogueira has also looked so-so in his UFC tenure.  Mir’s next fight, reportedly against Cheick Kongo, won’t prove a whole lot, but a win will put him in there with another top heavyweight and give us a better idea of whether Mir has finally started to fulfill his potential or not.

5. Randy Couture (16-9)

This is where things get a little dicey.  I have Couture at number five because although his recent resume at heavyweight only contains a few fights (and a loss against Lesnar), I think Couture’s all-around skill set and experience would likely earn him wins against any one of these heavyweights on any given day.  Lesnar’s size and similar wrestling ability made for a bad matchup for Couture, but Couture showed that he could still have a competitive fight with him, even if he wasn’t exactly threatening Lesnar early on.  Couture almost always fights to his full potential, trains hard and is always in great shape, which also puts him above most of the heavyweight division by default.

6. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-5-1, 1 NC)

I wish that I could put Nogueira higher on this list, but I just can’t after his performance against Mir.  Without taking too much away from Mir, Nogueira’s lack of head movement and all-around explosiveness in the fight was troubling.  I’ll bet we would have heard about some sort of injury or setback, if Nogueira wasn’t such a classy guy and was prone to making excuses.  We will see if Nogueira can bounce back to his old form at UFC 102 against Randy Couture.  If he isn’t at the top of his game, Couture will definitely take this one.

7. Alistair Overeem (29-11)

Overeem is kind of tough to rank highly, because he has the potential to make one look very stupid if you do so.  This is because he tends to not fight as well as he could, and his erratic performances have kept him from ascending as high as he should have in the past.  However, since his last loss two years ago to Sergei Kharitonov, Overeem seems to have turned a corner.  Submission wins over the tough Paul Buentello and former top ten fighter Mark Hunt, as well as a no contest against Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic where Overeem looked very good have earned him this position.  It is unfortunate that his planned fight against Fabricio Werdum will not be going down in a couple of weeks, but with Werdum and Brett Rogers waiting to challenge him in Strikeforce, we will see what Overeem really has to offer before long.

8. Fabricio Werdum (11-4-1)

Werdum’s surprising loss against relative unknown Junior dos Santos has hurt his position, but Werdum does have several quality wins in the heavyweight division.  He has beaten Gabriel Gonzaga twice (both by TKO), Brandon Vera, Aleksander Emelianenko and Overeem, to name a few.  Even top fighters such as Andrei Arlovski, Nogueira and Sergei Kharitonov have only managed to beat Werdum by decision.  Werdum is not exactly a dynamic fighter, but his standup is improving and his ground game is very good.  If his fight with Overeem takes place in the future, it will tell us a lot about whether Werdum has continued to improve as a fighter.

9. Shane Carwin (11-0)

I don’t necessarily expect Carwin to retain this spot, but he has definitely earned the right to be in the top ten thus far.  Of course, with a bout against the up-and-coming Cain Velasquez arriving soon, and a possible showdown with Lesnar also on the horizon, Carwin will have many chances to show us that he deserves to be considered among the best in the division.  For now, Carwin’s size, wrestling and ability to control opponents warrants a place here.

10. Brett Rogers (10-0)

Even though Rogers knocked out Arlovski extremely quickly recently, I really have doubts about putting him in this spot instead of Arlovski.  Why?  Because I don’t think that the outcome would go that way again.  However, Rogers definitely has power that few of his contemporaries in the heavyweight division can boast, and he is a hard-working fighter who continues to improve with each fight.  Also, it can’t be overlooked that the most talented fighters don’t always win, because there is more than talent required to be a great fighter.  Rogers uses his abilities in a way that makes sense, much the opposite of what Arlovski has done in his last two fights.

Also in Consideration: Arlovski, Ben Rothwell, Jeff Monson, Cain Velasquez, Cheick Kongo.

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Alistair Overeem, Andrei Arlovski, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Brandon Vera, Brett Rogers, Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez, Fabricio Werdum, Fedor Emelianenko, Frank Mir, Gabriel Gonzaga, Josh Barnett, Junior Dos Santos, Randy Couture, Shane Carwin, Strikeforce, UFC