Recently, Sherdog updated their rankings again and I was quite surprised to see Mike Russow at #10 in the Heavyweight rankings. I thought I was dreaming last month when I saw him in their Top 10, but now I know that it’s for real. A dream it was not.
It’s quite common to see human polled subjective rankings seemingly “grab” a fighter at random to slide into an open final spot. After all, Russow didn’t get into the Top 10 via some big win, nor did he accomplish a ranking boost due to a loss (see: Michael Bisping). For Russow, it was Carwin’s inactivity-fueled ejection from the list that let Russow mysteriously slide into the #10 position.
What’s perhaps more interesting, is that Sherdog lists five “honorable mentions” (Browne, Kongo, Konrad, Hunt, Rothwell), all of whom we rank higher than Russow (FM #21).
However, this time, most of the Internet strongly disagrees with Sherdog. June’s USA Today Consensus Rankings have Russow at #19. A little higher than us, but not much higher. Though, I get the feeling that this may be skewed by the fact that most rankings only serve a Top 10. If you take us out of the picture, the average ranking for sites that actually ranked Russow was #17.
Like Bisping, let’s take a look at Russow’s opponents within the last 3.5 years and their current rankings. Again, the fact that Russow is at #21, is due in part to the opposition rankings at the time of the fights. It is always an interesting exercise to take a look at how the opponents have progressed since.
2012.06.23: L[SUB] vs. [#5HW] Fabricio Werdum
2012.01.28: W[UD] vs. [#365HW] John Olav Einemo
2011.03.26: W[TKO] vs. [*] Jon Madsen – Inactive
2010.05.29: W[KO] vs. [#42HW] Todd Duffee
2009.08.29: W[UD] vs. [#88HW] Justin McCully
A naysayer in a recent debate I had on another site, stated that it’s more than just the past 3 or 4 years that matter for a current ranking. Well, for Russow, we could go back to his pro debut, but that wouldn’t help his case at all.
From a positive perspective, only Duffee jumps out. There’s not really much else to say here. Russow probably should have finished Einemo, a fighter coming off of his second retirement from professional MMA.
So what do you think about this debate?
[poll id=”11″]
[poll id=”12″]