In this part of the series, we will examine the all-time rankings of middleweight and above men’s divisions. As I mentioned in the first part, while the top spots on the Absolute All-Time lists are somewhat likely to change in the near future, the individual divisional rankings are far less volatile. We probably won’t see a new #1 in most of men’s divisions any time soon: As the sport has evolved and every top competitor became more well rounded, long title runs such as Fedor Emelianenko’s, Jon Jones’, and Anderson Silva’s are becoming a thing of the past. Are we past the golden age of the sport, where the best champions held on to the top of the division for a decade? Or are we just entering a new, more competitive, and therefore more enterntaining era?
The numbers in parentheses represent the all-time rating points.
[#1]: Fedor Emelianenko (21848)
Next active fighter: [#2] Stipe Miocic (11520)
Point differential: 1.89x
Other contenders: [#5] Fabricio Werdum, [#6] Junior dos Santos, [#8] Francis Ngannou
Fedor Emelianenko is almost universally considered the heavyweight GOAT of MMA. [#2] Stipe Miocic is considered the greatest heavyweight to ever step into the UFC Octagon, holding four title defenses – a record for the UFC’s HW division. Unfortunately for Miocic, Fedor has nearly twice the amount of rating points, and Stipe’s career is winding down. Originally the scheduled for some-time-this-year match-up between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic was supposed to be the retirement bout for both fighters. However, more recently both Jones and Miocic have expressed willingness to unify the titles with the Interim HW champion Tom Aspinall. Beating both Jones and Aspinall will be a tall task for the 41-year old firefighter from Cleveland. And even if he should succeed, it frankly won’t be enough to overtake Fedor.
Beyond Miocic, we have a couple of retired fighters, followed by another couple of old guys. The only reason I am mentioning Werdum and Junior Dos Santos as ‘contenders’ is that they are fairly high ranked and both still technically active fighters, even if they’re living out the remainders of their careers in the graveyard of bareknuckle MMA. Don’t expect much, if any, ascent on the all-time list for these two.
As for Francis Ngannou, he may have had potential had he stayed in the UFC and remained active. Instead Francis fought out his UFC contract and left the promotion to join the Professional Fight League (PFL) and to try his hand at boxing. On top of that, Ngannou started his MMA career fairly late, and the competition he will face in PFL won’t be very highly ranked. With all these factors combined, Francis’ potential for growth is limited, though I hope he does end up in the Top 5 when all is said and done.
