SteelSkins UFC Power Rankings

With two of the three April events already under our belts, it’s time to update those Power Rankings! A lot has already changed— especially in the two lightest divisions (whoever put money down on Serra to upset GSP is about 10-1 odds richer). And with the announcement that several world-renowned MMA fighters have signed on to the UFC (most notably Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira—aka “Big Nog”—Fabricio Werdum and Thiago Silva), all of whom have yet to fight in the Octagon, it makes developing the Power Rankings that much more difficult. Plus, Lightweight Top 10 fighter Mark Hominick just forfeited the remaining fights on his UFC contract to go fight in the WEC (thanks to UFCJunkie for that tidbit), so we’re all over the place this month.

Regardless, we have to start somewhere, so here we go! New viewers to the SteelSkins UFC Power Rankings ought to note that we refuse to overvalue UFC newbies. We here at SteelSkins promote brand loyalty over fighters who may have beaten you three years ago in a kickboxing ring in Japan. So in your world, you might place Big Nog at #2 for the Heavyweights, but he’s still a UFC newbie, meaning the best he’s going to do here at SteelSkins is Top 5. Not even Cro Cop got better than #5 when he was first introduced to our Power Rankings (that is, until we watched him hunt down Eddie Sanchez and beat that kid like he owed him money). You might argue this strategy is wrong. But then we’d just point to Heath Herring and everyone who thought we were crazy for introducing him at #15 among Heavyweights.

Without further ado, we give you the SteelSkins UFC Power Rankings!

Heavyweights


Since Randy Couture defeated Tim Sylvia and Mirko Cro Cop annihilating the then-undefeated Eddie Sanchez, we’ve had some definite movement in the HWs. Plus, Big Nog and Fabricio Werdum are now part of the mix. Upcoming fights include Arlovski/Werdum, CroCop/Gonzaga and Kongo/Silva.

Light Heavyweights

With Jason Lambert stopping Babalu Sobral and the introduction of Thiago Silva and Lyoto Machida, the LHWs are starting to make some noise—and it’s only going to get better in the next two months, with Liddell/Rampage, Evans/Ortiz, Machida/Heath and (possibly) Jardine/Silva. Plus, Stephan Bonnar’s suspension for steroid use is about to expire. Here are your Top 15:

Middleweights

Rich Franklin is right back in the mix of things with his win over Jason MacDonald, making the bottom half of the Top 10 very difficult to judge. Plus, Okami’s decisive victory over Swick, which should have been stopped earlier, catapults him into title contention. Personally, we here at SteelSkins would like to see Chris Leben fight again, although his match with Kalib Starnes (who we rank around 23^rd leaves much to be desired). Upcoming fights include Silva/Marquardt and Franklin/Kampmann. Your Top 15 are:

Welterweights

Wow, SteelSkins wishes it would have placed a Benjamin down on Serra! Before the fight, we had Serra ranked #6—and that was being generous. The Top 6 fighters in this division are just sick, which is pretty much why Kos’ lackluster victory over the then-undefeated Sanchez didn’t really shake things up as much as you might expect. Here we see #1 has beaten #2, while #3 has beaten #4, who has in turn beaten #5, who has in turn beaten #8 (not to mention the Champion Matt Serra!). But I digress…Upcoming fights include Serra/Hughes and Parisyan/Burkman. Here are your Top 15:

Lightweights

Personally, we think it’s ludicrous the UFC hasn’t bumped Sherk’s fight against Franca up any further. We know he had a shoulder injury following his title win over Florian, but that was back in October. He should be fighting in June at the latest (or else forfeit his title), but that’s just our opinion. Stevenson’s 27-second victory over Guillard secures his spot in the Top 5, and Huerta’s impressive slugfest with Garcia launches the former into the Top 10 while cementing the latter’s place in the Top 15. Upcoming fights include Sherk/Franca. Here are the Top 15: