MMA Top 10 Lightweights: Eddie Alvarez, Diego Sanchez Impress
It was a big weekend for the lightweights in MMA, with Eddie Alvarez winning the Bellator lightweight tournament on Friday night (above) and Diego Sanchez beating Clay Guida by split decision in a fight of the year candidate Saturday at the Ultimate Fighter Finale.
So what's next for Alvarez and Sanchez? Bellator will have to work hard to attract some top-notch lightweights to challenge Alvarez in their second season (I'm hoping they sign Joachim Hansen), while Sanchez thinks he's earned a shot at the UFC lightweight belt (but I think he should fight Gray Maynard first). My list of the Top 10 lightweights in MMA is below.
1. B.J. Penn
2. Kenny Florian
3. Shinya Aoki
4. Eddie Alvarez
5. Joachim Hansen
6. Gray Maynard
7. Frank Edgar
8. Diego Sanchez
9. Sean Sherk
10. Josh Thomson
The big lightweight fights coming up this summer include Shinya Aoki vs. Vitor Ribeiro at Dream 10 on July 20, B.J. Penn vs. Kenny Florian at UFC 101 on August 8, and Josh Thomson vs. Gilbert Melendez at Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg on August 15.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-21-2009 @ 2:18PM
richardbikle said...
it would be hard for me to place Sanchez in the top ten as i didn't have him winning the fight with guida.
do you place aoki behind florian because of the standup game?
Reply
6-21-2009 @ 9:10PM
Alistair Azimuth PSN: johnnynumber5 said...
You thought Guida won that fight? Wow. At worst I thought it was a draw for Sanchez and I actually thought he won pretty convincingly. That first round was the definition of a 10-8 in my book and I gave Guida round 2 only because he held him down even though Sanchez did more damage with those elbows. It was pretty obvious to me that Diego dominated round 3 with Guida getting a take down late in the round but not doing much damage. I was shocked it was a split decision but thats how subjective the sport is.
How Florian is #2 on the list is seriously confusing the heck out of me. At best I would have him around that 3-5 position but MDS seems to move guys up pretty high after a win or two in a row. Joe Stevenson really impressed me last night with his total domination of Nate Diaz. Thats the Stevenson we should be seeing out of him. Hopefully with Greg Jackson's camp he can build on this because he is still so young for having that many fights.
This would be my top 10 lightweights -
1. B.J. Penn
2. Shinya Aoki
3. Eddie Alvarez
4. Josh Thomson
5. Kenny Florian
6. Diego Sanchez
7. Gilbert Melendez
8. Joachim Hansen
9. Tatsuya Kawajiri
10. Gesias Calvancante
Close to the top 10 - (not in any order) Tyson Griffin, Clay Guida, Sean Sherk, , Roger Huerta, Gray Maynard, Satoru Kitaoka and Frank Edgar
I'm tempted to completely remove Sherk from my list and I'm also tempted to have Maynard in the top 10 but I'm not going there just yet. I still think at this point Penn and Aoki are the class of this division.
6-21-2009 @ 9:12PM
Alistair Azimuth PSN: johnnynumber5 said...
Another win like last night and Stevenson jumps back into the mix for my list. Not saying top 10 but he bumps Sherk out of that next tier list.
6-22-2009 @ 10:04PM
richardbikle said...
i had guida winnig rd.s 2 & 3. I felt guida dominated sanchez and should have at worst got a tie.
if nothing else the judges scoring shows how out of wack they are. i was actually thinking after that fight they should put electronic impact receptor/transmitters in the gloves to count and rate the impact of punches.