A short time ago, Sherdog put an article out debating the Top Lightweights of All-Time and today, put another article out debating the same for Welterweights.

Granted, this is an interesting debate now that we’re getting close to two decades where weight classes actually started being acknowledged, but in plenty of divisions, the top fighter is obvious.  Furthermore, in many and perhaps more cases, the top 2 is obvious even if the 1-2 order is arguable.  In my opinion, the #3 position is completely up for grabs in every division.  In a sport where rankings mean so much, it seems unusual for this rift so close to the top.  Certainly, arguments like this have to start somewhere, but #3 is where the questions start to arise.

Heavyweight

#1 – Fedor Emelianenko (34-4, 5*, 29)

#2 – Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (34-9-1, 3*, 8)

Here at #3, we’ve got several possibilities.  Certainly, Cain Velasquez (13-1, 4*, 8) is a great choice, but his constant inactivity may yield to another current top fighter, Junior dos Santos (17-3, 2*, 7).  Though Velasquez has the 2-1 lead in their series, dos Santos remains a little more active and somehow, Velasquez has fought only two different fighters in his past five fights.  This kind of repetition isn’t great for a career retrospective.

If you want to go back in time, you’ve got Josh Barnett (33-7, 1*, 0) and Randy Couture (13-7, 7*, 0) who are also reasonable choices.

Fight Matrix #3 – Cain Velasquez

[poll id=”20″]

(X-Y, A*, B)

X-Y = Division Record
A = Major Title/Tourney Wins in Division
B = Quarterly #1 Rankings in Division

With a major Bantamweight fight happening on Saturday, I thought it’d be an opportune time to post a graphical representation of the Bantamweight All-Time rankings and their progression since late 2011.

All fighters listed were at one point or another, in the Top 10 since late 2011.  The rank next to their name represents their current All-Time ranking in the Bantamweight division.

As you can see, Barao has had a meteoric rise toward #1 Torres, but Dillashaw’s victory over him temporarily deterred him from gaining the top position.

In case you didn’t know, we feature career-long All-Time MMA Rankings.  Using monthly snapshots as fuel (that we refresh every month), we derive Top 25s for each division, Women and Absolute.  We also have a Peak Divisional Dominance list, but this is quite different as it looks at absolute peak, relative to the state of the division at that sliver of time.

We stop each list at Top 25, partially because every list has to stop somewhere, but mostly because we really don’t want to get into arguments as to why #74 is ranked higher than #76 — the list can get quite noisy once you get beyond the Top 25…. where things become really tight.

Two weeks ago, we took a look at the highest ranking fighters of all-time who never fought in the UFC, WEC, or any organization eventually acquired by ZUFFA.  In this list, we take a look at fighters who never fought in a pro, non-exhibition match in Japan or the USA.  We had to dig awfully low for this.

Fighters are listed with their career records and all-time rankings:

5. Maxim Tarasov (18-4 | Light Heavy: #51 | Absolute: #505)

Behind Jimmo by a hair, at both Absolute and Light Heavyweight, Tarasov can be considered sort of a pioneer at 205.  We have three more wins for him than Sherdog does, but who knows if they actually happened and under what ruleset.

Keep Reading

In case you didn’t know, we feature career-long All-Time MMA Rankings.  Using monthly snapshots as fuel (that we refresh every month), we derive Top 25s for each division, Women and Absolute.  We also have a Peak Divisional Dominance list, but this is quite different as it looks at absolute peak, relative to the state of the division at that sliver of time.

We stop each list at Top 25, partially because every list has to stop somewhere, but mostly because we really don’t want to get into arguments as to why #74 is ranked higher than #76 — the list can get quite noisy once you get beyond the Top 25…. where things become really tight.

In any case, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the 5 highest-ranking Absolute fighters that never fought in the UFC or any organization that ZUFFA has acquired… and here we go.

Fighters are listed with their career records and all-time rankings:

5. Bibiano Fernandes (16-3 | Bantam: #8 | Feather: #23 | Absolute: #82)

Quite possibly the best fighter in recent history steering clear of the states along with Shinya Aoki, Fernandes has actually made the Top 25 in two divisions within our All-Time MMA Rankings.  As these have traditionally been weaker divisions, he is far from the Top 25 within the Absolute list.

Keep Reading