WKR November Rankings

by Zak Woods on Nov 2, 2009 9:00 AM EST in Rankings Comment 22 comments

Turkey_medium

Here at Watch Kalib Run we thought it would be a great idea to expand our MMA coverage by offering monthly rankings. Don't confuse these with USA Today/SB Nation's Consensus Rankings, which reflect the views from the entire MMA community. Plus those are attached to USA Today and newspapers don't like us.

These rankings are an attempt to inform our readers what the WKR writers are thinking when it comes to each division so when we make outrageous claims you will now know what we are "thinking".

All of WKR writers submitted their top-ten list as well as potential "Breakout Fighters" who could be breaking in to the top-ten in the next year.

Note: Each fighter's ranking from last month can be seen in parentheses.

Heavyweights

Fedor Emilianenko (1)
Brock Lesnar (2)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (3)
Frank Mir (4)
Shane Carwin (5)
Cain Velasquez (7)
Brett Rogers (8)
Randy Couture (6)
Josh Barnett (9)
Junior dos Santos (10)

Receiving Votes: Alistair Overeem, Andrei Arlovksi, Fabricio Werdum.

Breakout Fighter: Todd Duffee, Stefan Struve

WKR Analysis: There was some variation in the voting from last month but the rankings remained the same as October. The only action in the division was Cain Velasquez's dominant TKO victory over Ben Rothwell but it wasn't enough for Velasquez to jump into the top five.

Light Heavyweight

Lyoto Machida (1)
Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (4)
Rashad Evans (3)
Anderson Silva (5)
Gegard Mousasi (6)
Thiago Silva (7)
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (8)
Forrest Griffin (10)
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (3)
Luiz Cane (9)

Receiving Votes: Jon Jones

Breakthrough Fighter: Jon Jones

WKR Analysis: There were two noticeable moves in the light heavyweight division. First was Mauricio "Shogun" Rua's jump to the #2 position after his controversial loss to Lyoto Machida. Machida was able to narrowly hang on to the position of #1 ranked light heavyweight. Controversy is something people will think of when they see what happened to "Rampage" Jackson's ranking. One writer completely left him off their ballot due to his "retirement" and as a result Jackson plummeted in the rankings opening up the division for every fighter to move up.

Middleweight

Anderson Silva (1)
Nate Marquardt (2)
Dan Henderson (3)
Vitor Belfot (4)
Demian Maia (6)
Jorge Santiago (7)
Chael Sonnen (N/A)
Yoshihiro Akiyama (8)
Robbie Lawler (9)
Paulo Filho (10)

Receiving Votes: Yushin Okami

Breakout Fighter - Hector Lombard, Nick Diaz, Jake Shields

WKR Analysis: The big mover in the middleweight division was Chael Sonnen who defeated Yushin Okami via unanimous decision at UFC 104. Sonnen jumped from being unranked to the #7 position while Okami fell out of the top-ten. Dan Henderson's ongoing free agency hasn't affected his rank in the manner that Rampage's movie flirtation affected his position.

Welterweight

Georges St. Pierre (1)
Jon Fitch (2)
Thiago Alves (3)
Jake Shields (4)
Josh Koscheck (5)
Mike Swick (6)
Carlos Condit (7)
Martin Kampmann (8)
Paul Daley (9)
Paulo Thiago (N/A)

Receiving Votes - Matt Hughes, Marius Zaromskis, Dan Hardy

Breakout Fighter - Dong Hyun Kim, Dustin Hazelett, Marius Zaromskis

WKR Analysis: There was little action in the top of the welterweight division this month but the voters appeared to rethink their views on Paulo Thiago and his position within the division.

Lightweight

B.J. Penn (1)
Shinya Aoki (2)
Eddie Alvarez (3)
Kenny Florian (4)
Diego Sanchez (5)
Tatsuya Kawajiri (7)
Gray Maynard (6)
Frankie Edgar (8)
Joachim Hansen (9)
Josh Thomson (10)

Receiving Votes - Gilbert Melendez, Sean Sherk, Gesias Cavalcante

Breakout Fighter - Donald Cerrone, Jamie Varner, Gesias Cavalcante, Jorge Masvidal

WKR Analysis - Once again there was little action in the lightweight division this past month but Gray Maynard and Tatsuya Kawajiri switched positions due to Kawajiri's victory over Melchor Manibusa.

1 recs | Comment 22 comments | Share

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Rampage Jackson

that was me, just prevent any heat on the other writers. When an athlete has retired he is no longer ranked, even if we all think he is coming back. We all knew Favre was coming back, but before he signed with the Vikings (or Jets last year) I did not consider him when discussing best QBs in the NFL.

"That's an Awfully Big Mustache"-Frank Drebin

watchkalibrun.com

by Zach Krantz on Nov 2, 2009 9:48 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Just Because I Like Debates...

Randy Couture is done at HW, yet he’s still ranked by the team… I left him off my HW list. We know he isn’t going to fight there anymore, so why rank him?

Barnett is a different animal as well, since no one seems to want to license him and he hasn’t made his way to Japan yet, meaning he hasn’t fought since January.

Same with “The Punk,” who was last seen in the ring over a year ago beating Ashe Bowman.

We all know Rampage is going to come back at some point, and if we can rank the three guys mentioned above, can’t we give ’Page a little love too?

The Jon Jones of Mixed Martial Arts Journalism

by E. Spencer Kyte on Nov 2, 2009 10:19 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

to me it is an entirely different situation. Randy is the closest of the three, but Rampage claims he is retired. The other three (Randy, i’ll give you) are still fighting and active. Barnett is appealing the decision (last forever) and Thomson is an injury issue. For me it is a case where three fighters are active and one is retired.

"That's an Awfully Big Mustache"-Frank Drebin

watchkalibrun.com

by Zach Krantz on Nov 2, 2009 10:30 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The whole thing is a matter of opinion and therefore very subjective, which makes it more fun…

Ranking guys who are suspended (or pseudo-suspended) like Barnett or haven’t fought in a year like Thomson when not ranking a guy we all know is going to return within the next eight months just doesn’t work for me. Not that it has to or anything, just saying…

Randy is the one I can accept the most; he fought at HW in August and has been a fixture there for a couple years. Despite our knowing he’s moving to 205 permanently, he still makes sense in the HW rankings…

Additionally, I’m really bored because my furniture hasn’t arrived from our move and I have very little to do… so debating MMA is the only thing I can think to do, you know, other than going out to look for a job!

The Jon Jones of Mixed Martial Arts Journalism

by E. Spencer Kyte on Nov 2, 2009 11:52 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I have a counter argument my friend. If your argument is time elapsed between fights then Rampage should not be on the list. He has not fought since March which is not that long, but he is still filming and it has a June release. Even if he comes back before the movie is released he would still need a training camp and clearly would go over a year without a fight.

Hopefully the furniture comes soon.

"That's an Awfully Big Mustache"-Frank Drebin

watchkalibrun.com

by Zach Krantz on Nov 2, 2009 1:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I am willing to bet that Rampage is back in the cage after filming is done and before the movie hits theatres. I wouldn’t even be surprised if he is at the TUF 10 Finale and his next fight is announced then…

I too hope my furniture arrives soon.

The Jon Jones of Mixed Martial Arts Journalism

by E. Spencer Kyte on Nov 2, 2009 2:29 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

FURNITURE TO ARRIVE THIS EVENING!!!

And it only took 9 days…

The Jon Jones of Mixed Martial Arts Journalism

by E. Spencer Kyte on Nov 2, 2009 5:04 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

there is a lot of issues with fighter’s bouncing around the weight classes. Like Jake Shields for instance. So I got no problem having the ranking being a little behind permanent moves of fighters

watchkalibrun.com

by Zak Woods on Nov 2, 2009 10:39 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

When I went over your rankings I hit myself in the head….jk

watchkalibrun.com

by Zak Woods on Nov 2, 2009 10:40 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Joe Daddy should be on the lightweight list. He’s 2 – 0 and beaten some good names in the division. Guy looks way better with the new camp.

by Keven on Nov 2, 2009 10:41 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I mean Spencer Fisher and Nick Diaz are good wins but I wasnt ready to put him back in the top-ten

watchkalibrun.com

by Zak Woods on Nov 2, 2009 10:48 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

not yet. I agree he looks better since heading to New Mexico, but he had proven he cannot beat the top level fighters. When he works his way back up and beats a sanchez, florian, or even penn after the switch then i will give him recognition.

right now he looks better, but he was always able to beat the mid level fighters.

"That's an Awfully Big Mustache"-Frank Drebin

watchkalibrun.com

by Zach Krantz on Nov 2, 2009 10:57 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Ditto

The Jon Jones of Mixed Martial Arts Journalism

by E. Spencer Kyte on Nov 2, 2009 11:46 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

hmm

why does maia jump over santiago? that doesn’t make any sense.

i think mayhem should be in the top 10 at middleweight as well.

@mikefareri on twitter.

by sonofapsycho on Nov 2, 2009 12:34 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Maia was ranked over Santiago last month. Both moved up due to Okami’s loss.

watchkalibrun.com

by Zak Woods on Nov 2, 2009 12:36 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

ah gotcha. my bad.

just realized how absolutely nothing is happening right now with the top 4 middleweights in the world

@mikefareri on twitter.

by sonofapsycho on Nov 2, 2009 1:00 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

yeah its been slow with a lot of divisions. Injuries and lack of events

watchkalibrun.com

by Zak Woods on Nov 2, 2009 1:26 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I’m a huge Mayhem fan, but he hasn’t done anything of note to warrant a Top 10 ranking.

NC against Jacare and a win over Kala Hose in 2009 doesn’t get him there in my books, but an upset over Shields (which I think is very, very possible) could certainly help his case.

The Jon Jones of Mixed Martial Arts Journalism

by E. Spencer Kyte on Nov 2, 2009 2:31 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

he submitted lawler rather easily. couple years ago but still.

robbies not a top 10 guy. especially shouldn’t be rated above mayhem or even jacare.

@mikefareri on twitter.

by sonofapsycho on Nov 2, 2009 3:59 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

“Ruthless” has had more success over the last few years than Mayhem, despite the head-to-head loss.

That’s the beauty of these things like Zak said off the top – it’s all subjective and personal, which makes it fun to debate and discuss…

The Jon Jones of Mixed Martial Arts Journalism

by E. Spencer Kyte on Nov 2, 2009 5:04 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

SUBJECTIVE!!!!

"Ruthless" has had more success over the last few years than Mayhem, despite the head-to-head loss.

watchkalibrun.com

by Zak Woods on Nov 2, 2009 5:46 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

for shiz.

i really like robbie, hes in a doucebag camp but i like him, always have, but knocking out ninja fatty rua and and scott smith isn’t really impressive to me at all. not to mention getting caught in an embarrassing guillotine by a much smaller man in jake shields.

@mikefareri on twitter.

by sonofapsycho on Nov 2, 2009 8:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs