It has been a couple of weeks since I last wrote a blog.
There’s nothing wrong with a little break.
But during that time it got me thinking. There are a fair amount of things to see on the MMA section at Sportsnet.ca. News stories, features, blogs from The Athlete himself, video, live fight updates, lists of champions, and now twice-weekly columns from Showdown Joe.
But one thing we haven't had is fighter rankings.
There are a few sites where you can find these. Full Contact Fighter’s rankings for six divisions from featherweight to heavyweight has decent recognition in the industry. Fight! Magazine is trying to make some noise with what it calls its completely objective and unbiased ranking system. It also features a readers choice pound for pound ranking that you can vote on.
The thing about fighter rankings is that they’re difficult to maintain. Once you release an initial list, it won’t change very much on a set periodic basis. So you don’t want to post them too often, because they’ll become repetitive and uninteresting.
However, any time there’s a significant card, one particular ranking can change, sometimes dramatically. So you don’t want to post them too far apart or they’ll become outdated.
Starting today and for the next two months, I will unveil a new Top 10 ranking snapshot. Here’s the schedule:
Sept. 22 – Pound-for-pound
Sept. 29 – Heavyweight (Mirko Cro Cop and Alistair Overeem fight at Dream 6 on Sept. 23)
Oct. 6 – Welterweight (Jake Shields fights at EliteXC on CBS II on Oct. 4)
Oct. 13 – Canadian pound-for-pound (No significant events, but in light of Canadian Thanksgiving)
Oct. 20 – Light heavyweight (Keith Jardine and Rameau Sokoudjou fight at UFC 89 on Oct. 18)
Oct. 27 – Middleweight (Anderson Silva vs. Patrick Cote at UFC 90 on Oct. 25)
Nov. 3 – Lightweight (Sean Sherk and Rich Clementi fight at UFC 90 on Oct. 25)
Nov. 10 – Featherweight (Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver fight at WEC 36 on Nov. 5)
Following this schedule Sportsnet.ca will release new Top Ten ranking snapshot for a division any time there is a significant event occurs.
For example, on Nov. 15, Randy Couture takes on Brock Lesnar in the main event of UFC 91 and that result will likely have an impact on the heavyweight and pound-for-pound rankings.
Also rumoured to be on that card are Quinton Jackson and Kenny Florian, whose performances could shift them up or down in the light heavyweight and lightweight rankings respectively.
So without further ado, the first Sportsnet.ca ranking snapshot:
Top 10 Pound-for-Pound
1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Anderson Silva
3. Georges St. Pierre
4. B.J. Penn
5. Urijah Faber
6. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
7. Forrest Griffin
8. Randy Couture
9. Miguel Torres
10. Quinton Jackson
Who's left out?
Kid Yamamoto. He is 17-1 with his only loss over six years ago and he has failed to finish a fight just twice since. His omission has nothing to do with the fact that he fights in Japan. It has to do with the fact he hasn't fought since New Year's Eve and he hasn't had a really big win in almost three years (Genki Sudo on New Year's Eve 2005).
Why is Fedor No. 1, especially since he doesn't fight that often and lately hasn't fought the calibre of guys that Silva, GSP and Penn have?
It's hard to produce a better resume than Fedor’s. You try to name one and Fedor’s beaten him (except Couture of course): Sylvia, Lindland, Cro Cop, Kohsaka and Herring. He's beaten Nogueira twice. Coleman too. And his only loss was because he got cut. So he's really never been finished. Until that changes, he's No. 1.
Why is Couture so low?
As good as he is and has been, his resume is almost the opposite of Emelianenko's. He's lost to Liddell twice (beat him once). He also lost to Ricco Rodriguez and Josh Barnett. Overall he's lost one fight to every two he's won. Sure, he's had some huge wins, just not as many as you would think considering what a legend he is. Let's see how he handles Brock Lesnar - that could move him up, or down more.
And so we wait for the next snapshot.
