What a card!!

UFC Lightweight Championship
[#3] BJ Penn vs. [#4] Sean Sherk

Light Heavyweight
[#2] Lyoto Machida vs. [#9] Tito Ortiz

Light Heavyweight
[#4] Keith Jardine vs. [#12] Wanderlei Silva

Light Heavyweight
[#13] Thiago Silva vs. [#40] Antonio Mendes

Light Heavyweight
[#18] Wilson Gouveia vs. [#200] Goran Reljic

Light Heavyweight
[#7] Sokoudjou vs. [#17] Kazuhiro Nakamura

Welterweight
[#16] Yoshiyuki Yoshida vs. [#209] Jon Koppenhaver

Lightweight
[#26] Rich Clementi vs. [#130] Terry Etim

Middleweight
[#42] Rosimar Palhares vs. [#64] Ivan Salaverry

Welterweight
[#59] Dong Hyun Kim vs. [#105] Jason Tan

Heavyweight
[#54] Christian Wellisch vs. [#57] Shane Carwin

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

• A plethora of recent shows from organizations such as WVR, Shooto, GFS, NAAFS, IFL, and KOTC have been added and changes can be observed in nearly all of the divisions.

Just for fun, I put together a list of the ten fighters with the highest overall point totals in our ranking system. As expected, most of the fighters on the list are heavyweights or light-heavyweights; the only fighters below 205 to make the Top 10 are Anderson Silva & Georges St. Pierre.

Rank	Fighter	Record	Points
1	Fedor Emelianenko Last Fight: 12/31/2007 [Yarennoka]	27-1-0	667
2	Quinton Jackson Last Fight: 9/8/2007 [UFC]	28-6-0	526
3	Anderson Silva Last Fight: 3/1/2008 [UFC]	21-4-0	504
4	Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Last Fight: 2/2/2008 [UFC]	31-4-1	495
5	Randy Couture Last Fight: 8/25/2007 [UFC]	16-8-0	491
6	Georges St. Pierre Last Fight: 4/19/2008 [UFC]	16-2-0	430
7	Lyoto Machida Last Fight: 12/29/2007 [UFC]	12-0-0	317
8/	Fabricio Werdum Last Fight: 1/19/2008 [UFC]	10-3-1	311
8/	Chuck Liddell Last Fight: 12/29/2007 [UFC]	21-5-0	311
10	Keith Jardine Last Fight: 9/22/2007 [UFC]	13-4-1	302

What did you think of this list?  Let us know in our forum!

Notable Info

• Effects from recent and newly added shows.  Notable changes stem from DREAM, PalaceFC, Cage Rage, and other shows.

Shinya Aoki officially takes the #1 Lightweight spot from Takanori Gomi.

Last week, I examined the progress made by fighters who competed in the light heavyweight division on the Season 1 of The Ultimate Fighter reality series. Let’s now look at the other half of the picture: the middleweight contestants from Season 1.

The middleweights turned out to be a talented group of fighters: five out of eight are still competing in the UFC, and hold a .700 or better record in the Octagon. Most of them were also a bit undersized for their weight division: only Chris Leben and Nate Quarry still compete at 185 lbs; the rest dropped one or more weight classes. Also, while the fighter with most prior experience went on to win the contest, the two fighters with the highest current rankings both only had 2 wins in professional MMA bouts prior to the show.

Keep Reading

Notable Info

• The usual.  Added some recent and old shows.
• Two very minor bug fixes.  Will cause some fluctuations low in the divisions where points are more scarce.

There is no question that the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ reality series – better known as ‘TUF’ – has been the most influential vehicle for promoting the success of UFC, and to a lesser extent MMA in general, in North America. The careers of most contestants have been boosted like they could have never imagined. Even the ones who never came close to winning were still given a chance to prove their worth in the UFC, and many of the fighters released from the UFC were instantly picked up by smaller organizations simply because of the newly acquired name recognition.

With the show now in it’s seventh season, let’s take a look back at where it all started. The first season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ took place in 2005, and featured 8 middleweights and 8 lightheavyweights competing for two ‘six figure’ contracts with the UFC. Most of the contestants were virtually unknown in the MMA world at the time, yet all are now very familiar names for most fans. I will start with the light heavyweight division, and examine the middleweights next week.

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Notable Info

• Effects from recent and newly added shows.  Notable changes stem from Shooto 5/3

There is a virtual deadlock at the #1 Lightweight spot between Takanori Gomi and Shinya Aoki.  The recent Shooto show, and some recently added shows caused moderate shakeups in the lower weight divisions.