MMA Rankings.... opinions?

[Joe Reilly]

Hey Everyone,

I'm making a MMA Rankings section for each weight class for wrestling101.com. Here's my top ten list in each category. Feedback would be much appreciated.

HW Rankings (205 lbs +)
1. Fedor Emelyanenko (PRIDE HW Champ)
2. Antonio Rodrigo 'Minotauro' Nogueira
3. Frank Mir UFC HW Champ
4. 'The Pitbull' Andrei Arlovski UFC Interim HW Champ
5. Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic
6. Sergei Kharitonov
7. 'The Baby Face Assassin' Josh Barnett King Of Pancrase
8. 'The Maine-iac' Tim Sylvia IFC Super HW Champ
9. Paul 'The Head Hunter' Buentello KOTC HW Champ
10. Aleksander Emelyanenko

LHW Rankings (185 lbs - 205 lbs)
1. Wanderlei 'The Axe Murderer' Silva PRIDE MW Champ
2. 'The Iceman' Chuck Liddell UFC LHW Champ
3. Randy 'The Natural' Couture
4. Renato 'Babulu' Sobral
5. Antonio Rogerio 'Minotoro' Nogueira
6. Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua
7. 'The Huntington Beach Bad Boy' Tito Ortiz
8. Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson
9. Ricardo Arona
10. Dan Henderson

MW Rankings (170 lbs - 185 lbs)
1. Evan Tanner UFC MW Champ
2. Matt 'The Law' Lindland
3. Jeremy 'Gumby' Horn IFC MW Champ
4. Ryo 'Piranha' Chonan
5. Ivan Salaverry
6. Anderson Silva Cage Rage MW Champ
7. Akihiro Gono
8. Rich 'Ace' Franklin
9. 'The Soul Assassin' David Terrell
10. Joe 'Diesel' Riggs

WW Rankings (155 lbs - 170 lbs)
1. BJ 'The Prodigy' Penn
2. Matt Hughes UFC WW Champ
3. Sean 'Muscle Shark' Sherk
4. Georges 'Rush' St. Pierre TKO WW Champ
5. Karo 'The Heat' Parisyan
6. Frank 'Twinkle Toes' Trigg
7. Nick Diaz
8. Renato 'Charuto' Verissimo
9. Chris 'Lights Out' Lytle
10. Akira Kikuchi

LW Rankings (145 lbs - 160 lbs)
1. Tatsuya Kawajiri Shooto WW Champ
2. 'The People's Champion' Yves Edwards Euphoria LW Champ
3. Vitor 'Shaolin' Ribeiro
4. Joachim Hansen
5. Takanori Gomi
6. Josh 'The Punk' Thomson
7. 'The Neo Samurai' Genki Sudo
8. Aaron Riley
9. 'Lil Evil' Jens Pulver
10. Luiz Azeredo

[Russ]

Looks pretty much complete, no real complaints with the list. Maybe if I was picky I'd argue that Rich Franklin should be higher, and possibly swap Tito with Babalu (although I can see why you put them in that order).

I'm a bit out of touch with PRIDE, so I'll need to take your word for it on a couple of guy's places. But aside from that, good good stuff again from everyone's favourite MMA fanatic called Joe R. Yes, even over the Fear Factor guy. :)

[Joe Reilly]

Thanks for the feedback, Russ.

Just for the record, the reason Franklin isn't higher in my book is that he is only 2 - 0 at Middleweight, while the fighters listed above had more fights and wins at this weight. I think Franklin is definitley championship material though and potentially could be top five if he gets more wins at 185 lbs.

[Inno]

I'd like to see Quinton Jackson higher up, possibly, maybe at Tito "NWA' Ortiz' expense.