Sportsnet.ca's mixed martial arts rankings

by (Big Game) James Brydon

as of Nov. 23, 2009

With a whole bunch of events within a two-week period (Nov. 7 - 21) since the last rankings, I thought I'd wait until after the last one, UFC 106, to produce a new list. Well, that certainly made for a lot of changes! I've decided to break them down by weight class, with explanation after each list. Away we go...

Pound-for-pound

1. Anderson Silva

2. Georges St. Pierre

3. Fedor Emelianenko

4. B.J. Penn

5. Lyoto Machida

6. Mauricio Rua

7. Brock Lesnar

8. Gegard Mousasi

9. Jake Shields

10. Jose Aldo

Three new fighters appear in the pound-for-pound list, taking the bottom three spots: Gegard Mousasi, Jake Shields and Jose Aldo, who bumped Mike Brown right off the list (that was a tough call, but he just got owned so badly.) Both Mousasi and Shields could challenge some of the best at more than one weight class, which, like Anderson Silva, gives them added value in the pound-for-pound ranking.

Canadian pound-for-pound

1. Georges St. Pierre (St. Isidore, Que.)

2. Patrick Cote (Quebec City)

3. Sam Stout (London, Ont.)

4. Mark Bocek (Toronto)

5. Denis Kang (Vancouver)

6. Krzysztof Soszynski (Winnipeg)

7. Mark Hominick (Thamesford, Ont.)

8. Jonathan Goulet (Victoriaville, Que.)

9. Jason MacDonald (Red Deer, Alta.)

10. John Alessio (Duncan, B.C.)

Denis Kang drops one spot behind Mark Bocek after his second loss in three fights in the Octagon. He is more talented physically than he’s showing, but I’m concerned about his mental game. (I know, there was a time when people wondered about GSP’s mental game!)

Roger Hollett won again in Edmonton and he, along with Ryan Jimmo and former MFC fighters Ryan Ford and Victor Valimaki, could find their way onto the list in the future.

Heavyweight

1. Fedor Emelianenko

2. Brock Lesnar

3. Frank Mir

4. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

5. Alistair Overeem

6. Shane Carwin

7. Junior Dos Santos

8. Fabricio Werdum

9. Cain Velasquez

10. Josh Barnett

There were only two noteworthy fights in the heavyweight division since the last rankings, with Fedor Emelianenko and Fabricio Werdum winning at the Nov. 7 Strikeforce event (over Brett Rogers and Antonio Silva, respectively). But neither moves up on this list -- Fedor’s already No. 1 (obviously) and Werdum can’t leapfrog Junior Dos Santos, who beat him last year.

Josh Barnett, who will be eligible to fight again in the new year, supplants Rogers in the No. 10 spot. I considered Silva, who only narrowly lost to Werdum (unanimous 29-28 decision), but he’ll need to get back on the winning track.

Light heavyweight

1. Lyoto Machida

2. Mauricio Rua

3. Gegard Mousasi

4. Rashad Evans

5. Quinton Jackson

6. Thiago Silva

7. Forrest Griffin

8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

9. Rich Franklin

10. Randy Couture

Mousasi jumps up to No. 3 here, but he is the only one who moves up in the ranking. Forrest Griffin and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira both had really nice wins, but I still rank them below Rashad, Rampage and Thiago. Randy Couture just barely keeps the bottom rung, though considering the controversy that came with his decision victory over Brandon Vera (I personally had Randy winning), I could have easily given No. 10 a tie for both of them.

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva

2. Nate Marquardt

3. Dan Henderson

4. Patrick Cote

5. Demian Maia

6. Paulo Filho

7. Vitor Belfort

8. Robbie Lawler

9. Chael Sonnen

10. Michael Bisping

Michael Bisping impressed me enough in his win over Kang to put him on the list. Grove rebounded nicely Saturday from a decision loss to Ricardo Almeida, but he has a ways to go to get ranked.

Jake Shields is now the Strikeforce middleweight champion, but I prefer to only rank fighters in one weight class, and he says he prefers to fight at welterweight. I considered Yoshihiro Akiyama and Nick Diaz but they need more wins against top guys.

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Jon Fitch

3. Thiago Alves

4. Jake Shields

5. Dan Hardy

6. Josh Koscheck

7. Paulo Thiago

8. Mike Swick

9. Carlos Condit

10. Dustin Hazelett

Big changes here, mostly due to Dan Hardy’s huge win over Mike Swick. It even impressed Dana White enough for him to get a title shot vs. GSP. Didn’t impress Josh Koscheck though. He thinks he should get the next shot. I disagree. Hardy moves up to No. 5 and I have Koscheck and Paulo Thiago, who beat a previously unbeaten but relatively unknown Jacob Volkmann Saturday, right behind him, just above Swick, who drops a few.

Lightweight

1. B.J. Penn

2. Shinya Aoki

3. Eddie Alvarez

4. Kenny Florian

5. Diego Sanchez

6. Sean Sherk

7. Joachim Hansen

8. Gray Maynard

9. Gilbert Melendez

10. Tatsuya Kawajiri

No changes. None of the contenders fought.

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo

2. Mike Brown

3. Urijah Faber

4. Hatsu Hioki

5. Wagnney Fabiano

6. Raphael Assuncao

7. Bibiano Fernandes

8. Josh Grispi

9. Manny Gamburyan

10. Michihiro Omigawa

WEC 44 last Wednesday’s brought some big changes to the featherweight rankings. Most notably and obviously, Aldo moves right to the top after his clinical destruction of Mike Brown. Also, Manny Gamburyan defeated Leonard Garcia in a fight closer than the scorecards indicated, and he may get the first shot at Aldo. That puts Gamburyan on the list and drops Garcia off in a tough move.

Meanwhile, Hatsu Hioki lost a split decision to Michihiro Omigawa at Sengoku Eleventh Battle on Nov. 7, but even Omigawa said Hioki should have won. Hioki stays put, and since Omigawa did fight one the best featherweights in the world to a winning decision, he gets the last spot.

Bantamweight

1. Brian Bowles

2. Miguel Torres

3. Takeya Mizugaki

4. Masakatsu Ueda

5. Dominick Cruz

6. Rani Yahya

7. Joseph Benavidez

8, Damacio Page

9. Scott Jorgensen

10. Will Ribeiro

No changes. Only a couple of fights at this weight class since last ranking.

Previous rankings here.