SPORTSNET.CA’s MMA rankings
by (Big Game) James Brydon
as of April 26, 2010
Two fighters made big jumps in their respective divisions after quick and dirty WEC wins Saturday night. But the man making the most noise in the rankings is one who is already No. 1 on his list.
Pound-for-pound
1. Georges St-Pierre
2. Fedor Emelianenko
3. Anderson Silva
4. Jose Aldo
5. B.J. Penn
6. Lyoto Machida
7. Mauricio Rua
8. Brock Lesnar
9. Jon Fitch
10. Jake Shields
Already the world’s top 145-pounder, Jose Aldo showed definitively after seven fights in the WEC featherweight division, nobody can touch him, a fact punctuated by his five-round extreme domination of former top dog Urijah Faber. The question now is will he stay at 145 or try his hand at bantamweight — or even move up to lightweight, something he has hinted at doing? No matter what he decides there’s no question now he’s one of the very best in the world pound-for-pound. I’ve got him at No. 4.
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. Mark Hominick (Thamesford, Ont.)
6. Krzysztof Soszynski (Winnipeg)
7. Jason MacDonald (Red Deer, Alta.)
8. Denis Kang (Vancouver)
9. T.J. Grant (Cole Harbour, N.S.)
10. Rory MacDonald (Kelowna, B.C.)
No changes. (Jason MacDonald won his third straight since being cut by the UFC, defeating tough veteran Matt Horwich in the main event of Let’s Get It On! MMA’s debut show. I think he sits nicely at No. 7.)
Heavyweight
1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Brock Lesnar
3. Shane Carwin
4. Frank Mir
5. Cain Velasquez
6. Junior Dos Santos
7. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
8. Alistair Overeem
9. Fabricio Werdum
10. Josh Barnett
No changes.
Light heavyweight
1. Lyoto Machida
2. Mauricio Rua
3. Rashad Evans
4. Quinton Jackson
5. Thiago Silva
6. Forrest Griffin
7. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
8. Jon Jones
9. Muhammed Lawal
10. Gegard Mousasi
I reconsidered my omission of Muhammed Lawal and my dropping of Mousasi from the rankings last week and have put them there in place of Randy Couture and Rich Franklin. That will be the last time I do that. (And also, the last time I include a tie in the rankings. I had a good reason at that time, way back when, but it just felt like a cop-out as the weeks went by, especially once the potential fight between them was scrapped in favour of Liddell vs. Franklin.)
Middleweight
1. Anderson Silva
2. Jake Shields
3. Chael Sonnen
4. Nate Marquardt
5. Dan Henderson
6. Demian Maia
7. Vitor Belfort
8. Patrick Cote
9. Yushin Okami
10. Robbie Lawler
No changes.
Welterweight
1. Georges St-Pierre
2. Jon Fitch
3. Thiago Alves
4. Dan Hardy
5. Paulo Thiago
6. Josh Koscheck
7. Mike Swick
8. Paul Daley
9. Nick Diaz
10. Martin Kampmann
No changes.
Lightweight
1. B.J. Penn
2. Frankie Edgar
3. Kenny Florian
4. Eddie Alvarez
5. Gilbert Melendez
6. Ben Henderson
7. Shinya Aoki
8. Diego Sanchez
9. Gray Maynard
10. Tatsuya Kawajiri
Ben Henderson jumps up four spots to No. 6 in the ranking after a surprisingly easy victory over Donald Cerrone. He is showing that has some serious skills. In a short two minutes, he displayed good standup striking, nice takedown ability and a guillotine choke that was “tight” (in many senses of the word). His nickname “Smooth” is oh so appropriate because he moves and executes everything so smoothly.
Featherweight
1. Jose Aldo
2. Hatsu Hioki
3. Bibiano Fernandes
4. Manny Gamburyan
5. Mike Brown
6. Urijah Faber
7. Raphael Assuncao
8. Michihiro Omigawa
9. Josh Grispi
10. Marlon Sandro
Manny Gamburyan made the biggest move in this week’s edition of the rankings, going from No. 10 all the way to No. 4 after his destruction of Mike Brown. Speaking of perfect nicknames, it sure looked like he dropped an “anvil” on Brown, who is apparently struggling mentally right now.
Meanwhile, Brown and Urijah Faber, who have each dropped two of three, lose their positions in the top 3 in favour of overseas studs Hatsu Hioki and Bibiano Fernandes.
And we’ve also got a little housekeeping here. Wagnney Fabiano will be staying at bantamweight, likely fighting Frank Gomez at June’s WEC in Edmonton. Thus, he’s dropped from the ranking, and Marlon Sandro moves into the No. 10 spot. Leonard Garcia had one of the best fights you’ll ever see against Chan Sung Jung, but it wasn’t outstanding technically and too close a decision to get him back on the list.
Bantamweight
1. Dominick Cruz
2. Brian Bowles
3. Joseph Benavidez
4. Miguel Torres
5. Scott Jorgensen
6. Takeya Mizugaki
7. Damacio Page
8. Will Ribeiro
9. Antonio Banuelos
10. Rani Yahya
Scott Jorgensen and Takeya Mizugaki won decisions over Antonio Banuelos and Rani Yahya, respectively. Mizugaki and Jorgensen remain below Miguel Torres while Banuelos and Yahya occupy the bottom two spots. Wagnney Fabiano will have a chance to get on this list in his next fight.
Previous rankings can be found by clicking here.
