Brett "The Grim" Rogers

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During my usual rounds of the MMA websites this morning, I came across an exclusive piece at 5 Ounces of Pain entitled "Top 5 in the World ... That's Mr Rogers' Neighborhood."

While you can certainly count me as part of the collective that was thoroughly impressed with "The Grim" this past weekend when he destroyed Andrei Arlovski, elevating him to Top 5 status is a bit premature ... for now.

Let me first say that the piece was penned by Mike Reilly, who just so happens to be the owner and head instructor at Team Bison in Minnesota where Rogers trains. That wouldn't have anything to do with his decision to put Rogers in the company of Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett atop the heavyweigh division, would it?

In fact, the title of the piece is actually a little misleading because Reilly ranks Rogers third, behind the aforementioned Affliction opponents and ahead of Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar in his Top 5.

One big win and he's #3 in the world? C'mon ...

Don't get me wrong; I think Rogers is an impressive fighter who has streamrolled everyone that has ever been put in front of him, including the former UFC champion, but outside of Arlovski, the level of competition just hasn't been there, no matter how Mike Reilly wants to spin it.

Josh Melichar may have fallen in nine seconds, but he hasn't been back inside the ring since Rogers ran through him. Maybe he realized that fighting wasn't the career path for him, but if one ass-whipping can put you on the sidelines for good, how serious of a threat could you have possibly been?

If Kimbo Slice gets zero credit for his time inside the cage against James "The Colossus" Thompson, neither does Rogers. Yes, he stopped him before the halfway point of the first round, but so too did Butterbean and in half the time. Citing his wins over Dan Severen and Don Frye may bring up some venerated names from the past, but it's not like Thompson beat either in their prime. Frye was 41 when Thompson stopped him and Severen was in his mid-40s.

After a solid win over Abongo Humphries, we get to Arlovski.

This is a great win for "The Grim" and one that certainly serves notice to the rest of the Mixed Martial Arts world that Rogers is a legitimate contender. But Top 5 in the world, yet alone Top 3, is too much of a leap for me.

First, the two guys each holding a UFC heavyweight belt would certainly have something to say about it. Brock Lesnar demolished Heath Herring and then took even less time to defeat arguably the greatest fighter in UFC history, Randy Couture, to claim his share of the heavyweight title in just his fourth career fight.

And Frank Mir is the one guy who beat Lesner, not to mention becoming the first man to knockout Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to earn the interim title he'll look to unify in a month's time.

I'd also hesitate to say that his win over Arlovski puts "The Grim" ahead of both Couture and Nogueira as well, as they've earned their places on Top 10 lists with years of wins against top tier opponents, rather than just one fight.

One more name that I would currently submit ahead of Rogers is his next opponent, Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem. While I'm not a fan of the fact that "The Demolition Man" hasn't defended his belt in nearly two years, he's been in the cage against far superior competition and has proven himself over a longer stretch of time than Rogers.

None of this is to say that Rogers doesn't have the potential to one day be a Top 5 heavyweight. In fact, a win over Overeem in August would vault him into my Top 5. The win over Arlovski was thoroughly impressive, but the truth of the matter is that we've seen lots of guys get one big name knockout and follow it up with far less. Yes, he's undefeated and has crushed everyone he's faced, but personally, I need another big name win before I'm putting Brett Rogers anywhere near the Top 5 heavyweights in the world. Beat Overeem and we can talk.

I mean, c'mon Mike Reilly - I'm all for you supporting your charge, but my mother would tell anyone who would listen that I'm the best writer since Hemmingway if she thought it would help my career.

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E. Spencer Kyte is a freelance writer. He operates a daily blog entitled I Blog Because I Can and the Mixed Martial Arts blog Keyboard Kimura. Additionally, he writes for MMA Ratings  and is currently working on his first book, The Rules of Engagement: A Guys Guide to Getting Married and believes that grease or no grease, Georges St-Pierre whipped the hell out of BJ Penn at UFC 94.