Fightmania MMA Rankings- Welterweights

UFC 100 had a lot of implications for the top of the welterweight division.  However, things ended up staying pretty much the same, with Georges St. Pierre staying steady at the top and Jon Fitch getting yet another UFC win.  For the full rundown of the July welterweight rankings, read on.

Before we get started, 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, I 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.

1. Georges St. Pierre

GSP has evolved from just being a spectacular athlete to also being a superior tactician, as his last few fights have shown.  How are the other welterweights supposed to cope when the best athlete in the division also becomes the smartest?  When you look at the other names on this list, the only other top fighter that St. Pierre hasn’t beaten yet is Jake Shields.  The winner of Swick and Kampmann will get the next shot at GSP, and Condit as well as Thiago are coming off of losses.  This is as close to “cleaning out a division” as we have seen in awhile.

2. Jon Fitch

There is still only one loss on Fitch’s UFC record- that being the gutsy decision loss to GSP at UFC 87.  Fitch may not set the world on fire when he fights, but he is just really damn hard to beat, and there is something to be said for that.  The main problem Fitch will have is that the champion of his division fights quite a bit like him…only better.  With that being said, Fitch looks on pace to get a title shot at some point in 2010, assuming that GSP doesn’t step up to middleweight for a super-fight with Anderson Silva.

3. Thiago Alves

I’m actually more impressed with Alves after his five-round decision loss to GSP.  Sure, GSP was never in real trouble throughout the fight, but Alves looked just as strong in the later rounds as he did in the early rounds, and was unafraid to throw some big shots standing, even with the threat of the takedown looming.  That’s the kind of moxie that it will take to beat GSP, and the young and improving Alves is sure to get another shot at some point.

4. Jake Shields

Shields has been living the life of a travelling warrior the past few years, and it has been kind to him.  In the last four and a half years, Shields has run off 12 straight wins in seven different promotions, including Strikeforce, where he now seems to be in kind of a limbo.  He’s ranked at welterweight this month, but lately he has been calling out Cung Le for not defending his middleweight title.  Meanwhile, his friend and training partner, Nick Diaz is fighting for the newly-created Strikeforce Welterweight Title in two weeks, so it may be the case that Shields is going to stay at middleweight for the forseeable future.  However, until that becomes more clear, he’ll remain as one of the top welterweights in these rankings.

5. Josh Koscheck

Koscheck is really one of the most talented and athletically gifted fighters in MMA, period.  That is the main reason why you see him so high on this list.  Despite the fact that he was knocked out in surprising fashion against Paulo Thiago (in a fight that he was winning beforehand), I wouldn’t pick Koscheck to lose against anyone ranked below him on this list.  Aside from the Thiago loss, Koscheck has only lost to St. Pierre and Alves in his past eleven fights, and he has some quality wins (Jonathan Goulet, Diego Sanchez, Dustin Hazelett, Chris Lytle) during that time.  Kos has improved as much as anyone in the division over the last couple of years and I still believe he is a future world champion.  In his next fight, he will welcome Frank Trigg back to the UFC as well as the welterweight division at UFC 103.

6. Matt Hughes

I’m amazed by how many welterweight top ten lists have left out Matt Hughes of late.  Does losing to the number 1 and number 3 fighter in the world at 170 pounds really warrant being tossed out of the rankings altogether?  If you want to find a loss of Hughes’ to a fighter that is not currently in the top two or three in his weight class, you have to go all the way back to 2001.  Meanwhile, this list (and many others) is littered with names like Swick, Kampmann, and Condit, who have not done a fraction of what Hughes has done in the division.  It’s not as if Hughes has no quality wins in recent history, either.  He showed against Lytle and Serra (two top 20 fighters) that while he may be methodical, he is as hard to beat as ever.

7. Mike Swick

With only a loss against one of the world’s top middleweights to blemish his UFC record, Mike Swick is just now finally being taken seriously as a title contender.  He is 4-0 in the welterweight division, and even though he looks damn near unhealthy at 170 pounds, he will be facing Martin Kampmann (also a reformed middleweight) for a title shot soon.  Swick has always been a dynamic athlete, and he will have to be to go far in this division.

8. Martin Kampmann

Kampmann is now one shot away from a title fight, after just recently dropping down to welterweight, probably due to being outmuscled in his loss to Nate Marquardt at UFC 88.  He looks good at welterweight, and his ground game is underrated, if not something that opponents really have to worry about, per se.  If Kampmann can beat Swick, he can move up in the rankings and get a shot at GSP, though it’s not necessarily something that will turn out well for him.  Neither of the two seems to have the skills to keep GSP from doing to them what he just did to Thiago Alves.

9. Carlos Condit

Condit has been in or around the top ten since his tournament win at Rumble on the Rock a few years back, but he has been unable to reach the top levels of his weight class.  He put together a very nice string of wins in the WEC, but not against anyone that will be on the main card of a UFC anytime soon.  Then, in his UFC debut, he lost a narrow split decision to Martin Kampmann, who is being rewarded with a number one contender bout.  That can’t sit well with Condit, but I expect him to do much better his next time out, with the UFC jitters out of the way.

10. Nick Diaz

I really have to restrain myself from ranking Diaz higher than tenth, but he simply hasn’t done enough in the division in recent years to warrant it.  His recent wins have been impressive, but it’s hard to gauge the talent of some of his opponents.  Frank Shamrock is more mouth than motor at this point, and his biggest win (against Takanori Gomi) was against a smaller opponent and was subsequently overturned (though it’s still a win in my eyes).  Diaz has quite a few good wins in his career, but many of them occurred when he was getting decision-ed left and right by better wrestlers, so it’s hard to take them into account without taking the losses, as well.  No matter.  Diaz will continue to climb as he focuses on his natural division in the upcoming months.  His first test?  A title fight against the very tough Jay Hieron.

Also in Consideration: Paulo Thiago, Dan Hardy, Marcus Davis, Jay Hieron, Matt Serra

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Anderson Silva, Carlos Condit, Chris Lytle, Dan Hardy, Diego Sanchez, Frank Shamrock, Georges St. Pierre, Jake Shields, Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, Martin Kampmann, Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, Mike Swick, Nick Diaz, Paulo Thiago, Strikeforce, Thiago Alves, UFC, WEC