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Sherdog.com’s Pound-for-Pound
Top 10
http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Sherdogcoms-Pound-for-Pound-Top-10-21720
 It
was a fairly wild year for the pound-for-pound landscape in
mixed martial arts.
Of course, MMA’s pound-for-pound top
trio -- Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre and Fedor Emelianenko
-- stayed intact, each one picking up two wins in 2009. Some
were less enthusing, like Silva’s win over Thales Leites, and
some were not quite so competitive, like St. Pierre’s routs of
B.J. Penn and Thiago Alves. But they all, in one way or another,
whether perfunctory or dramatic, reinforced the status of the
sport’s Big Three.
However, entrants Lyoto Machida, Jose
Aldo and Brian Bowles all picked up titles under the Zuffa LLC
banner and moved into these pound-for-pound rankings with their
sensational knockouts over the likes of Rashad Evans, Mike
Thomas Brown and Miguel Torres. Meanwhile, Penn, after beginning
the year with a humbling defeat to rival St. Pierre, rebounded
soundly with a pair of brilliant blowouts of Kenny Florian and
Diego Sanchez.
Here’s hoping 2010 can offer the same
excitement among the pound-for-pound elite.
1. Anderson Silva (25-4)
The year
began miserably for Silva, as he underwhelmed against mid-level
title challenger Thales Leites to the point of public outrage.
However, he turned in arguably the finest performance of his
career in August, when he humiliated and demolished former UFC
light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin in the first round.
Now, an enigmatic elbow injury has disrupted the beginning of
Silva’s 2010, postponing a slated showdown with fellow Brazilian
Vitor Belfort. However, Silva expects to be healthy enough for
his next Brazilian-versus-Brazilian title defense -- hopefully,
more entertaining than his last -- come April.
2. Georges St. Pierre (19-2)
St. Pierre got into
the cage just twice in 2009, but he came away with two dominant
victories over B.J. Penn and Thiago Alves. However, his most
significant successes may have come outside the Octagon, as he
picked up sponsorships with Gatorade and Under Armour and more
deeply entrenched himself as one of Canada’s most beloved
athletes. The 2010 campaign for St. Pierre will start at UFC 111
on March 27 in Newark, N.J., when he takes on surging British
challenger Dan Hardy.
3. Fedor Emelianenko
(31-1, 1 NC)
In Strikeforce’s first foray onto live
network television, Emelianenko showed the skills and a flair
for the dramatic that have made him one of the best and most
beloved MMA fighters in the world, as he thrillingly halted
Brett Rogers in the second round. None-too-surprisingly, “The
Last Emperor” has been tabbed to headline the second Strikeforce
show on CBS come April, when he will see opposition from another
standout heavyweight in Fabricio Werdum. A victory over the
grappling star would leave Emelianenko with just one more
obvious foil in Strikeforce’s heavyweight division -- the
elusive Alistair Overeem.
4. Lyoto Machida
(16-0)
It may not go down as the worst decision of
2009, but it was certainly the least popular. Machida’s
unanimous points verdict over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in October
so inflamed the MMA world that all parties involved agreed to an
immediate rematch. Hand surgery on “The Dragon” pushed the date
of the fight back until May 1 in Montreal, but it will still be
one of 2010’s biggest bouts when it does happen. The whole
Machida-Rua scenario should serve as a vivid reminder that the
anointing oil is often called for prematurely in MMA.
5. B.J. Penn (15-5-1)
Fans and critics
alike always wanted an incarnation of Penn that was keen to
dominate the lightweight division. Though Penn’s obvious talent
flickered occasionally during his run across multiple weight
classes, “The Prodigy” has looked every bit his nickname since
his return to lightweight. Two elite fighters in Kenny Florian
and Diego Sanchez could not mount a morsel of offense against
Penn, who dominated them en route to late-round finishes. Of
course, conversation has quickly turned to whether or not Penn
has already rid the division of all its serious challengers.
6. Jose Aldo (16-1)
Perhaps it is
fitting that 2009 will come to a close with Aldo on top of the
145-pound division, punctuating a year in which the
featherweight class has played a prominent role on all corners
of the globe. Since his World Extreme Cagefighting debut in June
2008, Aldo is 6-0 with six stoppages, including four in 2009
alone. In his WEC title capture over Mike Thomas Brown, Aldo was
positively dominant in crushing a pound-for-pound entrant. The
featherweight division continues to expand and improve and may
have some flux still in store, but Aldo’s youth, skill set and
killer instinct have positioned him as a potentially long-term
dominant figure.
7. Jon Fitch (21-3, 1 NC)
It’s not easy being Fitch. There was a time not long ago
when MMA fans flooded UFC matchmaker Joe Silva’s inbox with
demands that the former Purdue University wrestling team captain
be put on the UFC 68 main card. Now, Fitch’s potent-but-prosaic
grappling has made him a persona non grata among fans, who seem
to have little patience for his style. With a
tougher-than-expected victory over Mike Pierce at UFC 107, Fitch
moved his record to 11-1 in the UFC, in perhaps MMA’s deepest
weight class. However, with six straight fights seeing the final
bell, some conclusive endings are the only antidote to Fitch’s
unpopular position.
8. Mike Thomas Brown (22-5)
Brown remains the number two fighter in a deep and rapidly
intensifying weight class. Yet, he seems a forgotten man in
light of his one-sided loss to Jose Aldo in November, despite
the strength of his wins over Urijah Faber (twice), Leonard
Garcia and Jeff Curran. The world may not be clamoring for a
rematch between Brown and Aldo, but the
American Top
Team standout has a wealth of interesting talent to face at
145 pounds. Brown's rebuilding process will begin at WEC 46 on
Jan. 10, when he takes on tough Philadelphian Anthony Morrison (TEAM
COMBAT Richmond, VA).
9. Brian Bowles (8-0)
Though Miguel Torres was supposed to be the
bantamweight division’s first serious star, that opportunity now
resides with Bowles. However, despite how impressive Bowles was
in capturing the WEC 135-pound title from Torres in August, that
opportunity will be a difficult one to cash in on. The
bantamweight division continues to spawn more and more young
challengers, rapidly improving their games from fight-to-fight.
Bowles will meet one of those contenders in his first title
defense on March 6, when he battles once-beaten Dominick Cruz in
the WEC 47 main event.
10. Thiago Alves (16-6)
It was an inauspicious 2009 for Alves. After waiting months
to challenge welterweight kingpin Georges St. Pierre for the UFC
title, he was handed a one-sided loss in his five-rounder
against “Rush.” It was a far cry from the 2008 campaign that saw
him run over three top 10 welterweights. However, with a crop of
new and interesting challenges in the UFC ranks, 2010 may be a
rebound year for the Fortaleza, Brazil, native. Alves’ year will
begin at UFC 111 on March 27, when he will meet a
yet-to-be-named opponent.
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