MMA World Rankings

Exactly. He gave Hellboy a beating and got screwed by crappy judges. He was beating Aoki the first time they fought as well. JZ's problem is staying fit and fighting healthy. Too often in the past he's gone into fights with injuries and not been able to perform to his best. He's one of the best wrestlers at 155. Only Maynard and Crusher have better wrestling IMO(and Sherk if he'd use it). JZ's wrestling is on par with Sanchez. But his striking is far better than either of those including Crusher(and anyone at 155 not named Penn or Alvarez). And he's got great BJJ coming out of ATT. He's got a great chin as well. Seriously. the guy has everything.

Fair enough about Melendez, he probably should have been top 10 a long time ago.

As I said about Alvarez he is alot better right now, Alvarez will be the best LW in the world at some point in his career. Aoki didn't make him look bad, he just shuffled on his ass till he caught Alvarez. It was an impressive grappling performance but he hardly made Alvarez look like crap.

Guys you kind of put me on the JZ bandwagon now Not sure what that decision was about, worse than Hammil vs Bisping. The judging in the UFC gets critisized and rightfully so but sometimes Japanese judging is just BS.

I haven't seen him fight that often, I saw the victory over Riberio, The NC to Aoki and the losses to Crusher and Aoki.

Is his wrestling really the third/ 4th best in the division? Better than Veach, Edgar, Griffin, Ben Henderson, Varner and Escudero?


Still there is no way that JZ is top 4, such a statement is based purely on potentiol not record. If he is 4th on potentiol the that completely negates the argument of Aoki being the number one LW in the world because BJ is far better.

I did say that at his best he'd be top 4. He's not now but he could be.

I really do think he's an excellent wrestler. Brazil has produced some good wrestlers. Babalu for example is an excellent and hugely under-rated wrestler but he's such a small LHW that he can't really use it. If he'd cut to MW i think he'd be very effective because his striking is good, his ground game is good. With the added takedowns you're talking top 6 or 7 for Babalu IMO.

Of Fair point. You really seem to rate him but is his wrestling really that good? You said his wrestling is on par with Sanchez, but IMO there are a lot of LWs that are better wrestlers than Sanchez. Sanchez got outwrestled by Guida for two rounds, losing one and marginally winning the other due to the work of his back.

Ye I agree about Babalu, he is an underated wrestler. I remember in his second match against Sonnen, who is an excellent wrestler, he outwrestled him for the most part and then locked in a sweet Triangle Choke. He is a fairly small LHW, he was absoutley tiny standing next to Ortiz. I think if he cut I do think he could make top 6/7. His striking is ok but he has been Koed by the better strikers on his record. Still I think he would be too much for someone like Jake Shields, who is ranked 5th now.

I'm a bit unsure on how your Melendez's and Thomson would fair against the top UFC LW's.
When Guida was fighting them in Strikeforce,Guida was classed as the better fighter(yes I know Melendez beat him in a SD)Guida steps up to fight higher competition and goes 5-5 in the UFC.
Melendez stays fighting weaker competition,has a good win over Kawajiri and goes 1-1 with Ishida and Thomson.

I think both would do OK in the UFC but I don't really think their is much in it between Guida,Thomson and Melendez.

Guida's wins in the UFC

Justin James
Aurelio (Split)
Schiavo
Mac Danzig
Nate Diaz (Split)

Losses

Din Thomas
Tyson Griffin (Split)
Roger Huerta
Diego Sanchez (Split)
Kenflo

Guida has a win over Thompson and a loss to Melendez (Split) . I think Thompson would do the best out of all three, I know he lost to Melendez but he dominated him in the first fight and he was just really rusty this time. He is a better striker than both and probably a better wrestler. He lost to Guida as well but he is a much improved fighter right now.

I think Melendez and Thompson would get dominated by BJ Penn and beaten by Sanchez. I think Maynard as well would be too much. Other than that I give them good chances with most other LWs, Kenflo would be favourite but I could see either beating him. Gomi vs either would be really good fights as would Griffin, Edgar and Miller.

Payne no there isnt much in it, I think we had Guida in 10th not long ago and he hasnt really moved from the Just missed out list but look at the Quality of fighters at Lw, in the Just missed out list there is Guida, Thompson, Stevenson, Sherk, Gomi, JZ etc..

Lw is the best devision in MMA no questions, at Hw in the top 10...Carwin and Rogers! at Lhw in the top 10 Griffin and Couture, at Mw Robbie Lawler! etc.. a Fighter as good as most of the "just missed out list" whould be top 10 in other weight classes.

Most of the Just missed out list are a fight away from 10th spot at any time.

Chelsea JZ has a really good Shot, his takedowns are top class, the fights you saw him he looked sluggish and not himself. I think he had some real personal deamons, It was like when you saw Sonnen beat Filho... same sort of thing he just turned up lookin a shaddow of himself and took 2 losses. Crusher really made him look terrible.

Have a look at his Hl's if you couldnt be arsed watching all his fights,

Thanks Ben, nice video. Il definitley check some of his matches out now. His takedowns do look very impressive, almost GSP-esque. Not sure if he is a better wrestler than Veach but still a very good wrestler. I hope he gets back on track and we see him in SF/Dream/UFC.

He isnt the best Wrestler around but his BJJ is very good, and he has fought K-1 (and won!) so I think he is a very well rounded figher and very powerfull for 155. I dont know were he is now or where he will end up but If Thompson is looking for a good opponent in Strikeforce and JZ is under Dream contract its a fight we could see hopefully.

Just a thought. Shouldn't we have at least one of the top 3 LWs from WEC, Varner, Henderson, Cerrone in our top 10. I'd rank all 3 above Edgar. Don't think Edgar is top 10.

Lw is too stacked for any of them to go in at top 10 but Id say for sure that a few of them should be on the just missed out list if not all 3...

Was thinking Anfield, What do you think about doing a ranking for the 145 and 135lbs devisions? I was going to do it next time round but could use a hand with it as it would be starting it from scratch

i think the winner or Varner-Henderson should go in to be honest.

We tried doing FW and BW before but i think it's too hard because there's not enough big time orgs promoting those weight classes.

The winner of Lil Hendo vs Varner could go in top 10, probably over Edgar. Id love to see Cerrone go in but not right now, he should be on the just missed out list.

Id definitley have a ranking for FW and id have no problems with the BW one either but thats a little tougher.

FW
1.Jose Aldo
2.Mike Brown
3.Bibiano Fernandes
4.Urijah Faber
5.Masanori Kanehara
6.Takeshi Inoue
7.Masakazu Imanari
8.Manny Gambaryan
9.Raphael Assonsuco
10.Joe Soto

That was pretty hard, maybe im missing some. Im open to suggestions, Chesty can help with the Japanese fighters

well Hatsu Hioki should definatley be in there and Marlon Sandro aswell.

Sandro is 15-1 and the only loss was to omigawa in a crazy decision where 2 of the judges scored it a draw, and 1 to Sandro (majority draw) then they made the first 2 judges decide and they both gave it to Omigawa!

Forgot about Hioki and Sandro. Is it me or does Omigawa get a lot of decisions his way in fights he clearly lost? Hioki is the opposite, 4 losses and 3 SD losses.

Those two should be in, but who is out?

Soto, he hasnt beaten anyone decent.

Kanehara is overrated, and should have lost to KID so maybe him?

I would move down Imanari and Gamburyan on the list aswell though.

What do you mean should have, like you think he lost the decision? Looking at it 5 is way to high but he probably could still stay top 10. Soto is out for now because his level of competition.

How far should those two drop? Imanari has a wins over Gurgel, Maeda and MTB. Manny is a good fighter and has a win over Garcia who was top 10 not too long ago.

1.Jose Aldo
2.Mike Brown
3.Bibiano Fernandes
4.Urijah Faber
5.Takeshi Inoue
6.Sandro
7.Hioki
8.Masakazu Imanari
9.Manny Gambaryan
10.Raphael Assonsuco/Kanehara

?? Better but not sure how accurate it is.

I think Faber is number 3 at FW.

It's funny, we used to talk about who was number one Faber or Kid. Now Faber has two straight losses, albeit both a great fighter, and Kid isn't even in the top 10!

Faber doesn't have two straight losses, he lost to Brown, defeated Pulver and lost to Brown again.

I'll put him 3rd with a win over Assuncao, but Fernandes has been on a roll recently, winning 6 straight fights. His only losses have been against... Yes Kid and Faber.

Kid is kind of like the FW's version of Liddell.

Oh yeah, i forgot Faber squashed Jens a second time!

Fw is hard to do thats why I avoided it! I like Faber in at 3, Because he got injured when he lost to Brown and put on a good preformance despite fighting with a broken hand.