The new Yahoo Top 10 pound-for-pound MMA poll was released today, and since I'm now one of the voters, I figured I'd let you know how I voted. Here's the ballot I submitted on Sunday:
1. Anderson Silva
2. Fedor Emelianenko
3. Miguel Torres
4. Georges St.-Pierre
5. B.J. Penn
6. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
7. Lyoto Machida
8. Rashad Evans
9. Eddie Alvarez
10. Mike Brown
A few notes below.
I've already got one revision; if I had it to do over again I'd replace Eddie Alvarez with Shinya Aoki, seeing as Aoki beat Alvarez today at the Dynamite show.
The choice at No. 1 between Silva and Fedor is close; if Fedor looks as impressive against Andrei Arlovski as he did against Tim Sylvia, I'd probably switch Fedor to first and Silva to second.
I know most people would put St.-Pierre and Penn ahead of Torres, but I think Torres, who has finished 11 straight opponents, is more dominant in his weight class.
Jackson, Machida and Evans are basically tied in my opinion; I hope we'll see Jackson fight Evans and Machida fight the winner so we can sort that out.
Most of my fellow panelists rank Urijah Faber ahead of Brown, but I just think that after Brown's first-round TKO win over Faber, he's more deserving.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-31-2008 @ 6:12PM
Frederick said...
to me your top 5 in any order is the right call
has for the rest I dont see rampage back that high with 1 win over silva
Nice list
Reply
12-31-2008 @ 7:35PM
Arash Farahani said...
Fedor "The Last Emperor" Emelianenko #1
Reply
12-31-2008 @ 9:13PM
jake said...
Although the term "best pound for pound fighter" was made up so that we can say if anderson was as big as fedor he would win against him, I think that we need to considered it the opposite way as well. There is not a doubt in my mind that if fedor weighed 185 he would neutrilize everything anderson could throw at him and impose his will. People are trying more and more everyday to say that fedor hasnt fought any qualified competition in 2 years, so he might not be as good; while anderson had'nt fought any qualified competition until this past 2 years and thats arguable as well. Rich Franklin only set the trend of exposing the lack of depth in the middleweight division as the champ, so anderson beating him wasnt a big deal. Dan henderson was the only real test for anderson. fedor fought a top 10 heavyweight and ruined him so bad that tim sylvia isnt even considered a good fighter anymore. yes anderson deserves to be in the conversation but Fedor is the man that should be atop that list of boys.
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12-31-2008 @ 8:44PM
tpinbc said...
MDS, was the criteria to judge the fighter over their perfomance during an entire career (All Time Rankings) or is this another monthly rankings. With your comments about Faber/Brown and Silva/Emelianenko, it seems your making judgements one fight at a time. Not that it's a bad thing.
Thanks for a good year of MMA reporting. Keep up the posts and don't take too much time off. :)
p.s. BJ Penn is going to be moving up after Jan 31st.
Reply
1-01-2009 @ 6:31AM
Michael David Smith said...
These ratings will be done monthly. With fights like Fedor-Arlovski and Penn-GSP coming up, there could be big changes at the top.