Recently I took a look at the top fighters in the UFC’s middleweight division.  Let’s now examine the top middleweights competing in other MMA promotions throughout the world. This is one of the most scattered weight classes in MMA, even though the UFC maintains a lead with the most top fighters at 185 lbs, which will only strengthen if Zuffa merges the WEC & UFC middleweight divisions as has been rumored.  Nevertheless, there are plenty of top-level fighters competing in various organizations, with Japan’s Dream coming the closes to giving UFC a run for its money.  Here are the top 15 middleweights outside of the UFC, according to the latest Fightmatrix.com ranking:

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Notable Info

• Rankings updated with effects from recent shows, most notably, UFC 87.

In 2002, the reigning UFC middleweight champion Murillo Bustamante left the organization in the midst of a contract dispute, throwing the 185-lbs weight class into disarray. UFC did not crown a new champion until 2005, when Evan Tanner defeated David Terrell at UFC 51 for the vacant belt. Tanner then lost the belt to Rich Franklin in his very first defense; Franklin held on to the title for over a year before succumbing to the current 185-lbs and P4P king, Anderson Silva.

The three-year long title hiatus really hurt the UFC’s middleweight division: in contrast to 170-lbs and 205-lbs where they are the home for the overwhelming majority of the top fighters, at 185 UFC only holds 3 of the Top 5, 4 of the Top 10, and and 10 of the Top 20 fighters in the world, according to the latest Fightmatrix.com ranking. Here is an in-depth look at the top middleweights in the UFC:

The Champion: [#1] Anderson Silva

MMA Record: 22-4 (7-0 UFC)

Last bout: Defeated James Irvin by KO at UFC ‘Silva vs. Irvin’ (205-lbs bout)

Next bout: A title defense against Patrick Cote at UFC 90

After a disappointing run in Pride FC, with submission losses to Ryo Chonan and Daiju Takase, Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva went on to win the Cage Rage middleweight title, then arrived in UFC, making his debut against Chris Leben in the main event of an Ultimate Fight Night.  Silva made short work of Leben, and received and immediate title shot, knocking out the champion Rich Franklin in under three minutes.  He has since reigned over the middleweight division with an iron fist, winning five more bouts – and stopping every opponent within two rounds.  After a brief foray into the lightheavyweight division, Silva will return to defend his middleweight crown against Patrick Cote at UFC 90 – a matchup that Silva is heavily favored to win, just like he would be against any other middleweight in today’s fight scene.

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UFC Welterweight Championship
[#1] Georges St. Pierre vs. [#3] Jon Fitch

Lightweight
[#7] Kenny Florian vs. [#10] Roger Huerta

Heavyweight
[#10] Heath Herring vs. [#160] Brock Lesnar

Lightweight
[#72] Rob Emerson vs. [#121] Manny Gamburyan

Middleweight
[#21] Damien Maia vs. [#22] Jason MacDonald

Heavyweight
[#11] Cheick Kongo vs. [#102] Dan Evensen

Welterweight
[#19] Chris Wilson vs. [NR] Steve Bruno

Welterweight
[#181] Ben Saunders vs. [#199] Ryan Thomas

Welterweight
[#77] Tamdan McCrory vs. [#95] Luke Cummo

Light Heavyweight
[#29] Andre Gusmao vs. [#175] Jon Jones

Ranking Note: Gray font represents an approximate ranking. An asterisk represents a fighter who is ranked, but too low for an approximation. These two scenarios will clear up slightly as we move forward. “NR” means the fighter is not ranked, due to inactivity, or due to a rating that is at or below the default starter rating.

Notable Info

• Rankings updated with effects from recent shows from DEEP, IconSport, Shooto, WEC, Rage in the Cage.
• Played catch-up and added some minor shows from July including those from GCM, RealFC, Max Fights, Sparstar, Total Fight Alliance, M-1, ,Warriors Collide, VictoryFC, etc.
• Expanded Featherweight to Top 100.

Notable Info

• Rankings updated with recent shows from EliteXC and MaximumFC.

Sherdog is still experiencing major issues with their database and with doing updates, so we are likely missing the results of some minor shows that occurred last week.

Notable Info

• The addition of recent shows: Shooto, Affliction, UFC, DREAM, PalaceFC.

The numerous fluctuations are due to the Sherdog problems mentioned within the 7/20 blog entry.  Hopefully they will sort this out sooner rather than later.

The MMA Rankings will be updated on Monday 7/21, due to the DREAM 5 card.  This will be a huge update considering the cards that took place in the previous week.

However, there is also something else important to note.  Sherdog, our main data provider, is doing some type of database-related maintenance.  For the time being, they are experiencing glitches.  One of which is causing some amateur and semi-pro bouts to be displayed on the event and fighter pages.  This was a potential issue before w/ some bouts being incorrectly classified, but this latest glitch added thousands of amateur bouts.

Unknowingly, we synchronized our database with theirs, and unfortunately, they have no designator for us to properly classify the pro/amateur status of a bout.  On a positive note, they should be rectifying this in the near future, but this rectification will also cause more fluctuations once we remove the amateur bouts.  Either way, the effects on top ranked fighters are minimal, as they are far removed from their amateur days.

Last week, we tracked the progress of the heavyweight class of The Ultimate Fighter Season 2 contestants.  Now let’s take a look at the other half of the equation: Season 2 welterweights.

While none of the welterweights have reached the truly elite level yet, Season 2 featured a diverse cast of memorable and entertaining fighters – from the eventual winner Joe ‘Daddy’ Stevenson and the unlikely runner-up Luke Cummo, to the alternate Jason Von Flue who, despite a spotty record, will be remembered for popularizing the arm triangle variant now know as the ‘Von Flue’ choke, to Marcus Davis who made one of the most amazing career turnarounds ever seen in the sport.

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Notable Info

• Rankings updated with recent shows.

Stay tuned for a MASSIVE update in the upcoming weekend!

Obviously, opposition strength is an extremely important characteristic in determining who becomes a top-ranked fighter and who holds onto their high ranking in times of bad performances.

Here is the Top 10 list for fighters with the best opposition strength since 1/1/2007.  The ratings were normalized by division and a minimum of 3 fights is required for listing.

1> Dan Henderson (161.8)

2> Forrest Griffin (126.6)

3> Yasuhiro Urushitani (122.7)

4> Jens Pulver (120.8)

5> Quinton Jackson (120.7)

6> Mamoru Yamaguchi (112.1)

7> Wanderlei Silva (108.9)

8> Matt Hughes (105.9)

9> Georges St. Pierre (104.1)

10> Gabriel Gonzaga (102.8)

After the inaugural season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ reality series became an instant television hit, Spike TV and the Ultimate Fighting Championship quickly rounded up another load of up-and-coming MMA fighters and filmed another season.  The second season of ‘TUF’ featured heavyweights and welterweights, and notably did not feature the usual feud between coaches.  Instead, the coaches were friends, one-time training partners, and both UFC title holders at the time: Rich Franklin and Matt Hughes.  Let’s look at how the careers of the participants turned out since then.  I will examine the heavyweight class first, and the welterweights next week.

All in all, the heavyweight edition of TUF has been a failed experiment.  Of the ten fighters who participated, only two are still fighting in the UFC and both dropped down to 205 lbs, as did Mike Whitehead who has had an impressive win streak outside of the Octagon.   None of the true heavyweights of the group enjoyed great success in MMA since the Season 2 finale.

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Notable Info

• Ratings updated with effects from recent shows.  The most notable one being UFC 86.

We have a new king at Light Heavyweight and a new Top 10 entrant at Lightweight!

Notable Info

•  Ranks show the effects from the addition of recent shows and some old ones.

Here are the odds we dug up for the Griffin/Aurelio match-up:

Tyson Griffin -350 vs. Marcus Aurelio +250

Translated to an implied chance of winning, these odds suggest Griffin has a 78% chance of prevailing in the bout.

As for the FightMatrix points system, the difference between these two fighters is practically nothing.

Rank	Fighter	Record	Points
14	Marcus Aurelio Last Fight: 4/2/2008 [UFC]	16-5-0	102
15	Tyson Griffin Last Fight: 2/2/2008 [UFC]	11-1-0	100

We’re not necessarily declaring Aurelio as the winner, but we know a good bet when we see one.