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In this edition of the Rankings Rumble, the discussion includes the rankings fallout of UFC 111, UFC Fight Night 21, a Shooto event with a very long name, and Dream 13. Overall though, most fights didn’t show much other than what was expected, but in MMA it’s a bit of a revolution to reaffirm preconceived notions.
Our rankings contribute to the Independent World MMA Rankings as well as the USA TODAY / SB Nation Consensus MMA Rankings and generally conform to the standards set out by the IWMMAR guidelines, with the exception of athletic commission suspensions not disqualifying fighters from eligibility, due to the fact that venue strongly affects this, independent of a fighter’s actions (e.g. Japanese promotions don’t test for PEDs).
Heavyweight Humbled
Being dunked by Shane Carwin at UFC 111 dropped Mir from #3 to #7. At this point, MMA fans should know, just as was clear with the Lesnar rematch, that however Frank Mir improves his striking, however much mass he packs onto his already enormous frame, he will always be an up or down fighter. Like Gabriel Gonzaga, he doesn’t necessarily have a poor chin, but he simply leaves the arena once he starts getting hit solidly. He has A+ offensive skills like few other heavies, so he will always be able to string together some quality wins, but in a division where 80% of his opponents have big KO power, long runs of success are just not going to happen for him.
By smashing Frank Mir and renewing his eligibility for rankings after more than 12 months off, Carwin re-enters the rankings at #5, pushing Alistair Overeem off the bottom of the list. Few questions were answered by Carwin. We already knew he could wrestle, and we already knew he had big power. We did get to see that he can throw heat inside, which is a boon to his game and could really help against Lesnar, and more importantly, we did get to see that he can follow a gameplan in an intelligent way.
With his victory over faded superstar Takanori Gomi, Kenny Florian moves from #4 to #3, pushing Tatsuya Kawajiri down a notch. Florian picked up another consummate win through hard work, diligent study, and intelligent gameplanning, against an opponent that lacks all those things. Florian will again hit his head on a talent ceiling if he gets a rematch with BJ Penn, but there are few guys that can beat his current skill-set. He’s also firmly established Gomi as a gatekeeper, B+ level fighter.
What’s interesting is how handicapped Kawajiri and Aoki have been by the slow collapse of Japanese MMA. These guys are simply not getting worthwhile fights in Dream, meaning you have to be someone like Aoki and really push for fights outside of Japan to get relevant fights. If they keep treading water like this, these two elite fighters will slide back down the top ten list.
In the main event of UFC 111, both Georges and Hardy performed about as expected, and their rankings remain unchanged. GSP did his best to submit Hardy, although he seemed to be unable to get into a position where he felt comfortable delivering a lot of punishment to wear down Hardy. Hardy got mashed up on the scorecards, but he probably earned more fans for the performance and his classy response after the fight, as well as showing some good submission defense, even if his guard and takedown defense seemed very weak. He still has a lot of room for improvement and now that he’s brushed up the best in the sport, he should know how much he needs to work.
Jon Fitch moves to #2 from #3 with a solid win over an overrated Ben Saunders. This fight was classic Fitch, so it really showed more about Saunders than Fitch. Ben was pushed too far too fast by the fluke of Alves pulling out, and it became clear that he doesn’t have much off his back and can only really threaten high level fighters in the clinch, where someone like Fitch will completely take control and hurt him. Saunders has a ton of potential, but he has a lot of work to do as well. Fitch is Fitch. He’s the best runner-up out there, but until he demonstrates some kind of crazy quantum improvement in his skills, he can’t really threaten the champ. A rematch with Alves is still one of the most interesting fights in the division.
Resuming activity and thus eligibility, Joachim Hansen enters the featherweight rankings at #8 after dropping a close and controversial split decision to Bibiano Fernandes. Hansen really adds a lot of spark to one of MMA’s most dynamic divisions, so fans should hope that he has his management/contract issues sorted out and can really get active in a division where he can make a big impact.
Masakatsu Ueda had been holding a lofty spot in this division, due to his long-standing championship in the most well-developed bantamweight division in the world, but with an upset loss and the growth of the bantamweights in the WEC, he dropped from #4 to #8, and it’s going to be very hard for him to climb higher.
