The heavyweight division has long been the whipping boy of MMA fans, with truly talented big men being very few and far between. This lack of depth is compounded by the fact that this is perhaps the least concentrated division in MMA, with top talent quarantined away in separate organizations. Lastly, this is a time of upheavel in the division, with many of the top fighters having lost recently or won fights against irrelevant opponents.
Let’s take a look at recent changes in the heavyweight rankings.
Fedor Emelianenko maintains his #1 spot after his second round TKO over Brett Rogers at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Rogers. Despite the loss The Grim moves from #10 to #8.
Frank Mir moves from #5 to #4 following his 72 second submission of Cheick Kongo at UFC 107.
Fabricio Werdum maintains his position at #6 after unanimous decision victory over Antonio Silva at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Rogers.
Junior Dos Santos enters the rankings at #7 following wins over Mirko Filipovic at UFC 103, Stefan Struve at UFC 105 and Fabricio Werdum at UFC 90.
Cain Velasquez slips down to #10 despite his TKO stoppage of Ben Rothwell at UFC 104.
Shane Carwin falls off the top 10 from #8.
Heavyweight Rankings:
#1 Fedor Emelianenko .
#2 Brock Lesnar .
#3 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
#4 Frank Mir
#5 Josh Barnett *
#6 Fabricio Werdum
#7 Junior Dos Santos
#8 Brett Rogers
#9 Andrei Arlovski
#9 Cain Velasquez
